Most on-topic discussions (not related to TLG) have been done to death, and I think that's a huge part of it. Everyone's tired of arguing about whether or not Kopa is canon, etc. There's been a recent boom in activity (by MLK standards) in the TLG board, and several members joining because of TLG, but that hasn't brought up much new discussion for pre-TLG topics, and likely won't.
Plus, most of the members still here are older now and have new interests, and busier lives. I don't know how many TLK projects I've tried to start that went nowhere so I never bothered posting them. I also think it could be useful to have the chatbox on the front page again, but I also forget why it was taken down. I'll bring it up to the rest of the staff and find out.
I wasn't here in 2010, and the forum will never be the way it was in the past because things will always change and such is life. I will say it's much better than it was when I first became active back in summer 2012. It was a mess back then, and I didn't help.

[quote="Kops"]I'm hoping it's just exam/generally busy period for a lot of members recently, because it's certainly felt very quiet recently.

[/quote]
It does tend to be more active in the summertime, in my experience, so that is probably part of it.