A bit late to respond here but I think everyone else has covered it well.

As Miss De'Ville mentioned above there was a period from the late 90s through to around the mid/late 00s where the message board reigned supreme online as a mechanism for people to communicate and form communities. From the late 00s however this facility has by and large been supplanted with social media (Facebook, Twitter etc) plus the changing way communication is now shared these days with blogs, Youtube etc means communication now exists mostly in comment sections or people's news feeds.

I think the board here has done extremely well, even in it's present quieter state. I was a prolific user of messageboards 15-20 years ago of all various stripes (Star Wars, gaming, roleplaying etc); I've lost count of how many I was registered at and active on. But today I can comfortably say over 95%+ are gone - a handful may be still around in a dormant state but most have simply vanished. The fact that SW-Fans is still here after all this time with a small but active community is a true testament to the community here who have kept it going.