General attacks and unfriendliness.

Of course not. Anyone and everyone deserves to be able to register and post, but a big difference is made in the appearance of a website. If Joe Somebody stumbles upon the site and sees a General Discussion and an Off-Topic forum right off the bat, they'll assume that this is just another generalized gaming board. But if they jump into a site with a few different forums talking about devkits and rare obscure hardware and arcade equipment, they might decide it's over their head and bail out.

You have been really good about listening to member feedback and changing things accordingly, but when it comes down to it, this is YOUR board, and it's the community you essentially started. If you have an idea that you're shooting for, then by all means work toward it. Similar minds will appreciate the focus, and maybe those who don't like it weren't really all that interested anyways. It's like how not everyone who's a fan of the NES goes out and learns 6502 assembly language - it's a level of specialization that doesn't seek to exclude anyone, but will only hold interest to a handful of people dedicated to that sort of thing. A forum for general discussion might not be a bad idea, as there's plenty in the world of gaming to talk about that's not rare and obscure, but when users visit the website, it's one of the first forums they see. Why not kick it below the Marketplace in the layout or something? It would still be there, but taking a back seat to the intended focus of the board.

Just my 2 cents on the subject. Obviously, I'll just roll with whatever direction this board takes, but those are my suggestions.

 

Thanks for looking out for the little people Assembler.