The only thing that I can think of is that there is a significant amount of members that were burnt by the GOX debacle and are now despondent. As a result, there is an avoidance of anything Bitcoin related for awhile.
Probably another result is the change in forum policy with signatures from Moderator Theymos. He applied it globally so only Full Members and up have color, larger font, etc in their signature lines.
Less new members spamming posts all over the place because they won't get paid the same way with small advertising sigs.
What facts did I not construe correctly?
I said new members IE Newbies, Jr members, and Members. Those seem to be the most to gain, since for the most part they're generally new to Bitcoin and have more incentive to gain from signature advertising.
I agree with the cleaning up of posts, deterring offtopic threads, and general better discussion across the board.
Not sure what your problem is.
Half the truth is not straight facts.
Huh? Only new members are getting the price decrease to .0001. Seniors, Heroes, etc still get their .0003 if I'm not mistaken due to their big sigs.
Also, I re-read your post explaining what you meant as 'new' accounts. I would myself not include members into 'new' accounts, newbies mainly and perhaps jr members. But if that's what you meant you're basically right, my bad.
I know there are other services providing advertising. PD probably had the best or one of the best pre-forum cleansing.
I still consider myself new, even though I'm a "Member". No worries bro, we're all on the same team.