Totally agree with what some others have said - it is comfortable around here and the current members are great!
It does seem like even before the summer and the OM-D launch, though, SC was quite a bit slower than mu-43. I actually prefer a cozy community most of the time, but I would think that with a a small group of active members, you could have a major impact to the forum, if just 1-2 active members left or stopped posting for whatever reason. Also, with a smaller group, discussions can be fairly predictable, especially, on the gear-specific threads (which seems to be a lot of our activity).
I think it would be great to bring some new members into the community, to keep the discussion fresh and to have enough traffic to maintain threads and challenges. My own personal opinion is that a new person checking out SC would possibly have a hard time figuring out what makes us different from other forums. Most of our discussion as of late seems to be centered around gear, especially the OM-D, X-Pro1 and Nex-7? Nothing wrong with having discussions on those camera systems, but I think the challenge to bringing in new people, and encouraging activity from existing members, is that there are other forums that already serve those systems with very active discussion (e.g. mu-43 on the OM-D, Dyxum on the NEX).
I think the RX100 is a good example. It would seem like SC should be the epicenter for that discussion?
I do think "compacts" can be broad in scope. I have in my own mind that seriouscompacts is about doing more with less (I personally am in the doing "less with more" category). I think the "less" can be pretty broad, smaller and lighter, older digital cameras, smartphones, adapted lens picked up from the thrift store, film cameras, innovative new compact systems, etc. The "more" could be about the photographer: creativity, style, technique, post processing/developing, etc.
I am not talking about excluding shots or discussions on the less-compact systems (e.g. my posts have all been OM-D or K-01 related), just that we maybe need additional discussion on more-compact cameras and related photographic technique, in order to offer something different and interesting as far as camera forums go?
Sorry for the random, crazy-person note in the suggestion box, Amin! You and the moderators do a great job around here and I appreciate having the forum.