I personally feel that potential isnt the issue here. I was here when SRC, or even its predecessor was first set up. Then, there were only a small number of people into this hobby, but yet tons of information was being shared and conveyed through the forum. But it has since morphed into something else quite ugly.
Initially, the weekly LFS report pages ran into the 10s and 20s, with pple keen and enthusiastic to share their information, but lately, the report pages have been getting skimpier and skimpier. Pple have become reluctant to share their knowledge of incoming shipments or even lifestock already in the shops just so that there would be fewer pple chionging the shipments.
Such behaviour can possibly be attributed to the introduction of the member's tanks sections. The droolsome specimens brought out the ugliest in some of us - Jealousy, selfishness, greed etc.. This is not to say that the section should be abolished. Rather we should be more self-conscious when viewing the threads. Some of us here are simply more well off than others, unfortunately, I'm not one of them.
In my opinion, there's nothing more that can be done at this point of time to salvage the situation. The damage done is permanant, us scarred. All we can do is to attempt to cut down on idle chatter, but thats only superficial.
Sincerely hope that the cordial yet semi-formal, knowledge based forum will be reinstated.