I think this changed when the forum became nothing more than reps pimping product
I dont think this is true. It may seem that way because the ratio or sponsor to member has changed drastically.
It was when they changed the software they used and migrated the whole site. It made all of the stuff unsearchable on google and other search engines. And the new software sucks. First thing you see when you log in
"sorry something went wrong"
And you have to try to navigate around it. This alone will lose members.
But people not being able to see it is a real issue.
Our traffic to the BLR site from AM dropped 95% in the first 6 months after the switch.
Its dropped an additional 50% since then meaning we are at 2.5% of original traffic.
Doesnt even register on our analytics anymore and it used to be at least 50% of our traffic.