"So Starpost is dying?  I say, let it end.  And let the new beginnings bring forth a brighter tomorrow." Corny, quaint... but not bad. While I certainly agree with your conclusion that Starpost's death is a good thing, I disagree with a few of your points on how it got to this point.

Starpost's failing can't truly be summed up with just a major rise in Anti-Sonic rhetoric. The post-SA series has a statistical trend leaning towards lower scores and a certain level of mediocrity, but I'll let Metacritic speak for that sort of thing. Not to say it wasn't a factor, because it certainly was, but I'd say it was more of a contributing one, rather than the end-all.

Now, what we can certainly agree upon is that the community itself stagnated. There weren't venues to encourage intelligent discussion, and most community members seemed to want to do everything in their power to avoid contributing to most, if not any meaningful discussion whenever possible. Arguing/debating was even viewed as a bad thing, so people tried best not to ever show disagreement, or frown on those who started to voice it.

A great example would be the Serious Discussion forum, as you mentioned. It would appear then disappear, then reappear again and vanish all the same. A topic would always follow the same kind of trend.

[Controversial Topic]
Poster 1: I am against [controversial topic] because [well stated reasoning].
Poster 2: I disagree with you and am in favor of  [controversial topic] because [well stated reasoning].
Poster 1: I see where you're coming from, but [questions regarding counter-viewpoint]?
Rest: Uh oh things are looking kinda tense
Moderator: I'm not liking where this is going. LOCKED.

Eventually people learn that questioning other views is bad, and doing so is unacceptable, and eventually such discussions just vanished entirely.

The next factor is a matter of evolutionary advancement. In a world of Web 2.0, Podcasts, Twitter and RSS Feeds; Starpost was still stuck in 2002. The site offered nothing that couldn't be done better and faster with a greater audience elsewhere. Fanfiction? Fanfiction.net hosted your story within minutes and you had hundreds of people just glancing at your story per day. Fanart? Deviantart not only hosted your gallery, but you could expand to other venues aside from just Sonic.  A problem that went back to even in the last months of Netraptor.org. The inability to keep up with the times made the site less appealing to the next generation of fans, some who grew up with an internet where there was always a Youtube and high speed connections.

The most successful online communities are the ones that continue to stay in touch with the new trends, and regrettably, Starpost just didn't keep up the pace which undoubtedly contributed towards alienating newer users. Since there wasn't anything to entice regular visitors, the forum had less members join, which in turn led to topics stagnating faster and faster as there became less and less 'new' things to talk about.

And of course, there's another simple point. The regulars, who were the mainstay of the community that kept it going for so long, have gotten older. Many joined in their early teens and are now in their their mid-20s. Ignoring the obvious excuses of work and school obligations, the simpler matter is a change in direction. Do you still love all the things you loved when you were 12 with the same passion? Probably not all of them. People grow up, people change, and with that change some things just aren't as interesting to us as they were when we were younger. There might be a nostalgic enjoyment still, but that doesn't necessarily reflect into a fervent interest.

Sonic, for all intents and purposes, is primarily a children's video game. That's not to say it isn't a game anyone can pick up, but the audience intended for the game is younger than the majority of Starpost's regulars. One could suggest that Sonic hasn't necessarily gotten worse, but that while we've gotten older Sonic has stayed about the same; an icon for children.

Which all ties into my final point. I've been involved with the community for about 7 or 8 years now. I've watched it shift, and grow and rise and fall in such a short period of time. One thing I honestly noticed however, is this: while Netraptor's intention was for a community of younger Sonic fans who would maintain an environment safe for other children to enter to share their enjoyment, that's not what her community became.

Over the years, her community gained many people, and NR.org's forums changed from being a forum about Sonic to being a forum about a nicely sized group of people who all at one point shared an interest in Sonic the Hedgehog. That community in turn, had people come and go, then reunite down the road only to leave again. The general purpose of the forum shifted from being about Sonic to being more about the daily goings on of this tightly knit group, and as people joined up and others parted ways, the community kept going because of this group.

As a result of this, the group kind of became like an internet family of sorts. Dysfunctional to an extent, but the regulars kept coming to hear about the goings on and opinions of the other regulars, moreso than what was going on with Sonic. And eventually, these regulars who pushed the community gradually drifted apart for newer horizons yet undiscovered. It is the natural progression of birds to one day leave their nest and start off on their own, and such was the eventual fate of a community like Starpost. The young people who were there from the beginning have now grown up and are now out on their own. As such, it's time to stop making the big trip to visit home everyday. Now's the time to start making calls on Sundays to see how everyone's doing.

Starpost's end was inevitable, and it's admirable that the community managed to stick together for so long. However, the time has come for everyone to take that first step on their own path, moving forward instead of looking back.

Bless.