But as far as current, shall we say relevant, RPG discussion goes, RPGwatch isn't doing so great. I think that is mostly because of the older user base. Most days the new posts are all in the sticky threads that aren't about RPGs. The music, films, things you don't need to know, what I just bought, etc.
The real existential threat is that old people die. RPGwatch is old and without new users eventually we'll all be gone. Maybe its silly to think so far ahead?
Since I used to post news, I was interested in numbers to see what people liked - even if I did a poor job at finding interesting news due to my peculiar tastes . And from what I saw, I'm pretty sure that there is more sustained interest in RPG-related topics.
But some off-topic discussions are concentrated into a very few sticky threads, and since we see them pop-up more often than others, they stand out. It's just that most RPG topics are only temporary and replaced by others; they come and go with the news and the game of the moment.
I like that we have those sticky threads, and I second what @bjon045; says about a community of like-minded individuals sharing other RL thoughts. It could even be shared by any individuals but in this case, it reinforces the "community" sense we have, or at least that's how I see it.
I also have the impression the average age is greater than the typical forums, but I think that's in part what makes it like-minded, so I for one am not looking to lure another category of people here just for the sake of numbers. There will be enough other people settling into the same mindset of experienced RPG gamers to join us in due time when others leave… for all we know it's been like that for years already.
Note that we only see the people who post here, they're only a fraction of people reading the forums and it doesn't look deserted. I'm sure we do well, but Myrthos must know better about that.