[Mr 5 0]

I believe that internet message boards have a distinct 'personality'. One like the Blue Oval Lounge is basically an 'open' (non-specific) forum and will only attract so many posters, especially when there are no hot issues at hand generating numerous posts. To remain viable, a forum also needs numerous posters with strong views who have the time and interest to articulate and defend them, even when it becomes tedious. Some of us used to enjoy doing that but have lost interest over time. It isn't the forum or the fact that the 5.0 Mustang has become effectively obsolete, it's us.

Time inevitably changes people and situations and at some point one has to weigh the best use of one's time. Having long, drawn out 'arguments' with total strangers (on internet message boards) that usually have no resolution or end up with posters engaging in schoolyard name-calling is hardly a wise use of anyone's time, so some of us just decided to stop getting into these 'discussions'. If enough people do this, traffic on the board will noticeably diminish, as it has here.

In addition, many folks 'move on' from tuning, restoring or otherwise 'working on' Mustangs. Some graduate from high school and now, college takes all their time and attention. Some graduate from college and are busy establishing a career and an out-of-school social life, and so, lose interest in their car and posting internet messages about it. Some get married and a wife now monopolizes their time. Some are very involved in their career and cannot spare the time to post in any significant way, as they might have once done. Some simply get bored with either their car and/or writing about it. They eventually sell the Mustang or, even if they keep it, just lose interest in racing and the never-ending quest for a lower et. It happens.

Some Mustangers may experience some life crisis that effectively re-sets their priorities and leads them away from 'car' websites and 'car' forums. Sure, they still like cars and Mustangs, particularly, but spending their free time posting messages on forums just doesn't have the same attraction it may once have held. That happens, too.

I drop in here on a daily basis and look forward to seeing what Dan has wrought with the upcoming 'new' website design. Knowing his creative instincts and his expertise, it should be interesting. Whether it will actually stir folks to post in the forums more often is unknown, but it should help. We'll soon find out.