This forum is antiquated.

I was involved with the current design. The developer was not that experienced and, as best as I could tell, was a one man team. Issues like including imagines, easy quoting of previous posts and being able to name external links  were discussed but he was not interested in implementing them. I got the impression he had limited time to do the new site and, as I said, did not have a lot of experience with the site.

After this version of the site was released, there were some who left in a huff and usage fell off for a while. But, it picked up again and is pretty healthy these days. Why is it healthy? As many have said, it is because of the people on the forum and the knowledge they bring. Yes the mechanics could be improved, but it is the people that count.

The current format was implemented in 2015. Here is a link to a post on the likes and dislikes.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/new-format-dislike

And one that is a little more direct

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/new-forum-format-sucks

It is important to remember that this is free forum and that it is an adjunct to a commercial marketplace for selling used equipment. The money is in the marketplace. The free forums are a nice addition but they are really just a nice service provided as an aside to the main purpose here - which is a marketplace for selling used equipment. Of course, the forums may attract people who eventually use the marketplace, but the issue is always how much to invest in the forums as a marketing source for the marketplace.  The owners need to balance that and, I suspect, the whole website is not a huge money maker, although I could be wrong. In any case, it is important to put the forums in the correct context.