The only real problem with the inactive groups is that people may join without realizing that they are not active. For those who have been around for a while, that means you are out a bit of pocket change and little more. (Vort's story is probably an extreme example.) But for newbies, joining a group represents a sizable investment and discovering that they have joined an inactive group can lead to disappointment, maybe with the entire site. Something as simple as a warning when joining ("This group is currently inactive. Are you sure you want to join?") might be enough.

Of course, that would mean we have to define what an inactive group is. I'd say something like no posts within a certain amount of time and/or a minimum number of posts within a longer period. That way a group could reactivate itself.

I understand the frustration with the number of festivals. Until I became a scribe, I never paid any attention to them at all. I now understand the appeal somewhat better. I don't think they are contributing to the current decline of the groups (which is far from universal, some groups are doing quite well), but they do tend to overwhelm the DI (the very active RP groups also add quite a bit to the DI, but not to the tune of doubling or tripling the daily average). the best solution here is most likely dividing up the DI by type, as has been discussed. (And what about that journal index?)

Hoods are the thing right now, but they will eventually slow down. They're still new and exciting. Not all are living up to their potential. It would be nice to see more achieve what the Aventine has done. And better navigation.

I like the encyclopedia idea. At the end of 2005 I posted sseveral places about the Wiki Classical Dictionary at Ancient Library. That never took off, partly because the fellow behind is also the creator of LibraryThing, which did take off, and because it never hit critical mass. One thing we have here is critical mass. It could be huge.