I appreciate everyone's point of view on this. I'm passionate about this forum. We just hit 12 years online this month, and I'm really proud of the community we've built here. I want this to be the best place on the planet to discuss Weber products.
For me, it's always been a balancing act. Balancing between content and socializing. I believe it's easy to socialize. Anyone can create a website where people hang out and have fun talking about stuff. It's hard to provide great content. So I tend to favor the content side of the equation. I always figured that if the content was good, people would come. I do sometimes worry that the content gets lost in all of the chatter.
However, as George noted, I have slacked off a bit in the last 18 months or so, allowing more of the social aspect of things to flourish. Not everyone likes that. A few long-time members have drifted away as conversation focused more on Photo Gallery, Trading Post--two very social-oriented forums. But we've also seen steady growth in members and overall discusion forum usage, so I'm OK with the way things are evolving over time.
I would ask members like Troy and AJ and Brian and George and others to think about this balancing act of good content vs. socializing/chat and help us find the right balance as a community. I don't want to drive anyone away, as Troy fears, but I also don't want to go so far the other direction that we lose sight of the mission of this forum...to discuss Weber products and barbecuing and grilling in general, to share good information with one another, to answer questions, to spark ideas, to help newbies in a friendly, supportive environment.
Thanks for taking time to think about this,
Chris