the first rule of KOICLUB is YOU DONT TALK ABOUT KOICHI!!
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There goes Koichiā¦
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Whoās Koichi?
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I just got this message when I like your postā¦ I swear I can feel Koichi breathing down my neck like in a horror movie nowā¦
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ćććć”å
ćć is watching 
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Exactly 
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Weāre all addicted to reading now
But seriously, I was around in the heyday of the poll thread, so although I know what you meanā¦ This still seems like an incredibly active forum to me compared to many. At least, calling it āabandonedā seems like rather a stretch!
I suspect that, slightly counter-intuitively, itās partly because there are far more users. Kumirei, who has been around much longer than I have, said somewhere recently that the forums are less cosy than they used to be. I think it was a bit easier for a smaller number of people to feel more āclose-knitā, and thus silly threads were more lively and active.
The poll thread was actually probably instrumental in the decline of the campfire section especially; it sucked the life out of the rest of the forum because people were too busy posting in the poll thread to engage in any other forum activities. It also drew in a lot of new users, so kicked off something of a boom in new forum participants - I donāt mean at all to sound resentful of new users!, but the more people there are the fewer of them any individual will get to know.
With more users, itās also harder for new individuals to stand out - so while some of the big personalities gradually move on, we perhaps donāt really see new people take their place; itās not that I donāt get to know new people, but few become known āforum-wideā.
Finally, I think WaniKani is just a much bigger enterprise than it used to be, and thus the WaniKani team donāt have nearly as much time for messing around in the forums themselves, which means fewer bizarre things get kicked off.
But yeahā¦ I still find it a fun and engaging place to be ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ but also less exhausting I have zero regrets about banning myself from the poll thread
oh look I accidentally wrote an essay
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This is exactly how I felt.
I think that the former plays a big role in why we donāt see as much of the staff anymore. There are just too many users for them to casually hang out and actually get something out of it
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Also it used to be much easier to rickroll people. Now everybodyās suspicious of clicking strange links.
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If I rub this lamp will Koichi come out?
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I canāt be the only one who feels like they see multiple Introduction posts a week, only for the creators of those posts to never show up in any other parts of the community. 
Itās rather frustrating, because I think the forum would actually benefit from new faces that we get to see outside of a few select spots in the community. Although itās nice being able to recognize 90% of the people who like or reply to my posts, maybe some new users who stick around could bring life back into the other parts of the forumsā¦
And now Iām just curiousā¦ Would I be considered to be known āforum-wideā? I am a Regular, but I wonder if people see my name here and there and go āhey, itās @TrinityBringerā, the same way I do with other Regularsā¦
I donāt know if I have a distinct personality on hereā¦ Maybe I should be more openā¦ Ah, but I donāt think any of you want to see me continuously nag about video games! 
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Who are you?
The proud lord said
That I must bow so low
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I know you, you like every one of my silly posts! That makes me happy 
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I know you! 
I usually recognise everybody by their avatar first and their name second, although there are a select few who have been around the forums for so long that theyāve essentially become fused into the WK framework itself: those usersā names have been burned into my brain like first-grader kanji on a durtleās shell 
Also, people who have a habit of posting in a very distinctive and consistent manner are generally more memorable, but establishing a unique online presence in this day and age can be kind of difficult, so the louder extroverted personalities tend to stand out more often.
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@Borx was right! Our hubris!
I usually go āoh hey, itās that āread-native-material-guide personā
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I originally came here to make a comment like āthe sheep must of gotten himā because (I am relatively new here but assume he writes a lot of the mnemonics) man does Wanikani depict sheep in a specific light. I wouldnāt think they would be such a strongly competing species with crabs or alligators.
This turned into a really neat discussion about the history of a forum that I am new to. I was actually struck when I first started paying attention to things here with the book club that this is one of the most pleasant and supportive language learning forums Iāve seen on the web. Itās very surprising to hear people say that it is out of what they remember as its heyday. I really hope I can contribute to the liveliness of this forum.
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Wasnāt he burned to a crisp a couple years back?
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But he durtled back to life afterward.
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I definitely started noticing and remembering you at least a few months ago!
W-would you sayā¦ Iām a well-known user? 
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Iāve lurked around these forums for 7 years now.
In the past, when they tracked post counts, I was at one time in the top 10 for number of posts made (my avatar was Vampire Hunter D originally).
In that 7 years Iāve reset my account 3 times.
I believe the 3rd sentence in this post is directly correlated to the second.
I found each time Iāve restarted my account I post an increasing amount on the forums until at some point I drop off all together. So Iāve seen what I would call two separate āgolden agesā of WaniKani activity as well as a mini revival, if you will. This time Iāve decided not to get caught up in the hoopla and actually focus on Japanese. So I mostly stick to a couple threads I made and only occasionally pop into others. I think my Japanese study is much healthier this time for itā¦
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