I never believed this forum would become a peak community overnight - AH.com certainly did not. For this to grow it needs to stay the course over literally years, not a week. But I'm not sure you're grasping what I'm saying. I'm not saying randomers are saying they just don't fancy it at the moment. I'm saying people who should be this site's natural supporters - Politbrits, alternate history people without a home etc - are saying they don't see the point of joining up because they see it as too niche, they see it as the SLP author/writers only forum. If we can't attract those people over now, then making this forum a going concern over the long-term looks pretty Sisyphean.
I think the USPs for this place are pretty excellent, and it gives me a positive feel for the place which I've never felt before for any other-than-AH.com board, I've already felt myself mentally detaching from AH.com - but I think it's worth us saying and stressing that we welcome as many people as possible with as many diverse reasons for joining up as possible, and want this forum to have a mass membership, and it's not just a secondary or tertiary add-on to the USPs.
I don't want this to become a Between Two Waves-style forum, basically a forum for a certain AH.com clique which only has relevance to them, which I'm worried it can become if we over-emphasise the aspect of this being a writer's forum. I want this to be welcoming to people who have a general interest in alternate history, or history generally. That will benefit SLP and it will benefit the writers.