Yes, those who were one as heavily vested in posting as you are, are no longer, with only Salem even close. My interests are not as diverse as those posting a lot, but I do appreciate their interests, even if I do not share them, and I also appreciate how Salem digs up these posts, not used for 20 years, but still relevant today. I just ran across one last posted in 2005 while searching for a name, but can't recall what it was now, only that it was relevant and deserved to be revived.
If I remember right, that other BEA was started by a regular poster here than for some reason ran afoul of the rules. In the early years, with a number of mods, posts were screened quite well, warnings were issued and like points on a drivers license, if you didn't heed the warnings, your membership was suspended. It is too easy to accidently run afoul of the rules, which IMHO, are quite antiquated by today's standards, but we have no choice but to try to abide, maybe even remind others when you see a problem, but doing so without coming off like you are a moderator yourself.
When this site was first created, server space was at a premium, and I have a feeling money is the reason for the switch of serves a few years ago, from GMT to CST. Though I imagine participation will continue to decline, addressing some of the certainly would slow the progression. Imagine a site where I can write fuck, but not innocent words like **82** and forced. Often the need to use 10 words best described by a single banned word is frustrating, yet no one has ever thought it would be a good idea to revisit this list of banned words.