The reasons are pretty simple.

Got rid of the people who insist on the annoying flashy huge sigs.
Got rid of the annoying fools who spam and flame.

in general, the tolerance level has dropped, and it's become quite a bit more... professional.

Generally,I would sit in the IRC channel and insult people who came in every 5 min asking when the next Naruto ep is out (*ugh*). I probally scared em all off.

Less idiots = less traffic, sure. But it leads to a bit more... intelligen conversation? I remember many threads from the old forums that were nothing but spam and flamefests. Postcount contests pissed me off the most.

I hate people.