I can only speak for myself in saying
1) I love this site. (and most of the assholes that populate it). While I have met very few of you in person (why spoil the mystery) over the years, I truly enjoy the discussion/commentary etc from this place.
2) Original written content (a la the stuff Scipio did back in day or old school Jesus Shuttlesworth stuff) isn't as appealing for me vs the aggregation (to be fair I am not running site/managing site expenses etc). I like fact that this place is in a lot of ways a single source for Longhorn shit across the internet. I actually value the independence that Surly has vs trying to be a sunshine pumper or being beholden to Belmont for access etc (exception being Thujone needs to get off his ass as MS Paint threads are always gold)
3) Shaggy cloak room skewed right, Surly cloak room skews left, Mods do a good job by and large keeping politics off other boards. I am sure that the cloak room threads have pushed some folks away but at the end of the day I cannot imagine it is a different number than in years past. Key to CR is to keep it in CR (see TexAgs as an example of when you don't)
4) This place is at its best when threads start organically vs being forced (1st Sexual Encounter thread in MS Paint as an example). Maybe there could be a better way to pin or highlight fast moving threads for exposure. This could serve to encourage views. Maybe have a hot thread folder where top threads for week appear etc.
All in all this is a good site and a good community of assholes. If a fan from another program gets their feelings hurt because they made some stupid "herp a derp" take, good. Fuck 'em. There have been tons of fans from other schools over the years that have made this place a home and added value/contributed.
This is hard part of providing a B2C service, 100s of different opinions/likes/dislikes etc. It is why I have always done B2B Sales.