I'm somewhat fascinated by the reluctance of some board members to receive a single email from the forum administrators. As others have mentioned, almost all online communities / products / etc will send update emails about their service. I think a yearly email is nothing close to SPAM, and it's somewhat funny to even compare the two.
A "Happy holidays, we've updated our privacy policy, added a new board, and here are a few of our best posts" is not even a drop in the bucket.
I think there may be a decent list of users who previously signed up for the forums and forgot to come back. I'd love to see those people return, if only for a short time. I don't think their value is negated just because they're a temporary visitor. How many "hello, my name is" posts were made, and the user never returned to see our replies? It would be great to see those threads revived.
So what if a trouble maker or two shows up? They went away before, and they'll go away again. I'd like to see this community become more active, and if trouble makers come with that, oh well.
A "Happy holidays, we've updated our privacy policy, added a new board, and here are a few of our best posts" is not even a drop in the bucket.
I think there may be a decent list of users who previously signed up for the forums and forgot to come back. I'd love to see those people return, if only for a short time. I don't think their value is negated just because they're a temporary visitor. How many "hello, my name is" posts were made, and the user never returned to see our replies? It would be great to see those threads revived.
So what if a trouble maker or two shows up? They went away before, and they'll go away again. I'd like to see this community become more active, and if trouble makers come with that, oh well.