Typically I don't have much to comment on what is happening in places online that I frequent, but more recently (over the last 3 months) it started to beg for me to take a better look at where I spend my time online. Typically I hang around in the more active places that deal with what I'm most interested in at the time, and while the places for the most part exactly what I am looking for content and support wise, they just don't cut it any more.
The problem is mostly that communities that aren't careful about how they allow others to perceive them alienate themselves from potential growth. This isn't something that only I think is wrong, but it is also causing many communities to slowly die out.
Perception of a community can control whether it rises and becomes great, or just slowly dies. The fact is no matter how much you polish a ball of sand (in an attempt to not be vulgar) it will still just be a ball of sand, if someone throws it at you and it hits you in the eye it will always hurt. A community shouldn't be offering up their polished sand balls if they cannot keep the gritty insides and throwing friendly and relevant.
Simply put, in future I will focus my efforts in communities that actually value participation, and that still have the potential to grow and become greater (not that they aren't great now), rather than hanging around the same places that don't sort out their problems.
Disclaimer: I am at risk of getting into trouble for pointing this out (despite not naming names), but it shouldn't be an issue in the end as the people I interact with online daily are mostly in agreement with this.