Meh. This whole “Canadians are polite” meme is is a myth. There are just as many assholes per capita here as anywhere.
(Chrome doesn’t recognize “capita” as a word? Fucking cocksuckers.)
Colibri, if you were a trial judge, and the accused standing before you pleads “not guilty”, would it be fair for you to say “yeah, well, I’ve been a judge for 16 years and every no-good dirty lying scoundrel I’ve ever convicted has told me the same thing”? 
judge no… but I’ve heard assistant da’s voice that sentiment along with the police …
I’m not touching the why part, but the fact that this board is declining is not silly, it’s a fact. I’ve lurked here on and off since 2002, and the amount of traffic here is nowhere near what it once was.
Alexa and similarweb show a decline of roughly 8% during 2016. If someone put a gun to my head and made me guess how the current board compared to it’s glory days, I’d guesstimate around 20-30% of the traffic this site had in 2000.
To get this post back on topic, Leaffan is 100% right that Canadian’s are not all polite, and JC’s modding has been shit lately.
It’s not surprising that traffic has dropped off after the novelty factor here wears off. Also, Facebook has certainly taken up a lot more on-line time for most people since 2000.
I find the site’s pretty much what it’s always been for me, well since 2005 anyway.
I would agree on both points.
In particular, Jonathan Chance gave me a formal mod warning for personal insults a month ago or so. My crime?
I said the following to someone outside the pit:
“Good god. Can you bend over any more backwards to excuse the guy?”
I know. Pretty mean of me.
Also the ad problem probably has contributed a significant amount to the drop-off.
I agree that ads are a bigger contributor to scaring off new members. Social media in general also plays a role.
What I do like about the mods here: things are relatively civil, which makes engaging in discussion much easier; and we do have recourse to debate mod calls. They even reverse themselves from time to time. If anything I think the mods help keep members.
The OP was over the line. JC made the right call. A note might make sense if Clothy was new around these parts, but he isn’t. He knows the rules and he trampled right through them.
I think Reddit maybe more than FB even, though both draw people away to easier less-restrictive ways to interact and discuss niche subjects - Reddit especially.
Like an elephant.
Agreed. I spend far more time on reddit these days than here. I’m not a huge fan of the direction the moderation has taken over the last few years. Still, there must be something about this place, because I keep coming back.
This seems slightly odd, considering that you joined the board 10 days ago.
When I left last time, I did the flounce thing and changed my email address to a non-existent one on my way out. I have already informed the mods, and this account will be merged with my old one. I like this name better, so I’m keeping it. Both for the record and in the interests of being transparent, my previous handle was Mithrander, and I joined in 2006.
Moderator Note
We’re aware of the name change and the circumstances around it. There was no intentional socking going on. We’ll get the accounts sorted out shortly.
Thanks for your assistance with that ECG, it’s now sorted out, and it looks like my previous posts now have my new shiny name. Thanks again.
I just felt a great disturbance in the force, as if many dopers hit their report post button in terror and were suddenly silenced.
You’re not out of the woods -We have yet to grade your previous “flounce”. 
I want to go to bat for you, but not enough to slog through the search function. There surely had to be more to it than that, though. Right?
Here’s the thread, although it was closer to four months ago.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=802671
And here’s the post in question that got the warning.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19585058&postcount=61
You forgot to put the word “undeserved” in front of the word “warning”.