THE ACTUAL REASON WHY MANY AUTHORS HAVE ABANDONED FORUMS
Forums are missing consistency with the actual marketplace that author is interested in, now it’s all spammy from audiojungle and all populated with “newbish” posts from new authors. Also, its hard to find things I am interested in. In old forums authors didn’t need to search for interesting stuff it always was on top, now we actually need to go through all these I don’t even know how to call… rooftops hangouts blah blahs. Don’t do that anymore. Bye bye forums.
I do actually come in just to check the announcements and challenges, that’s it. No more actual communication with authors as they are too far away from my interest zone - Non-Videohive.
In old forums, it was pure marketplace-dedicated forum so you know everything other people are posting is important because they are VH authors, now it’s unclear. In example, if some author is saying “OMG I HATE THAT NEW SEARCH!” I am not sure what search is he talking about… VH search? ThemeForest search? All search systems are different … so then I need to check which market this author is working in… so… it’s bothersome. I hate new forums 
You made people click more before they see something of interest to them… The more clicking is required the less ppl will be bothered to participate in topics and discussions…