A bulletin board is so simple. And contributing to it is so simple. What makes these sites “valuable” in the venture sense of the word is the passion of the community and the desirable traffic they send elsewhere. And when either company has tried to unlock that value, the community has reared up. More than other user-generated content sites, these companies are the community, and these communities just don’t want to be bought and sold, expanded or sanitized.
We are going to try an experiment very soon, possibly as soon as tomorrow. I doubt it will work in its current form, but we need to start experimenting now or charge an entrance fee if we want a different life cycle.