I don't think you can place the blame on Fandom like that. GameFaqs itself under the old regime couldn't retain it's users. This place was the 81st most trafficked website on the entire internet in 2011-- modernization or not, the reason we lost so much engagement on the forums was due to the vibe and culture of GameFaqs not aging into adulthood as it did with it's users.
It took so long for us to get swearing for crying out loud. Around 2011 the medium age was 24 years old -- we were all just basically getting out of college, shedding our awkward young adult skins, and becoming normal, mundane, average joes. So the folks who moved on with their lives, and started racking up their various adult milestones posted less and less, meanwhile the folks that didn't do these things, and more or less just retained their "awkward young adult skins" posted more and more.
It upset the vibe of the platform, where the minority of active users had a very large voice...the vocal minority set the tone of what GameFaqs were to become, and it ostracized your normal everyday average joe, which unfortunately made up the vast majority of the active userbase.
A poll of the day in 2010 got 120k votes -- most of those votes were from users under the age of 25. At this point everyone is just an akward kid. We aren't adults yet. We have no credit, we drive crappy cars, and most of us live at home with our parents still. Flash forward to 2016 and where down to 25k users, most over the age of 25. What happened to the rest of them?
Sure some will always just "move on" but for the most part the vibe and culture of GameFaqs continued to appeal to awakward teenagers, and less to normal adults with salaried wages, home ownership, teslas, and wives.
It wouldn't be so bad if the site was also attracting younger users to replace the ones that were aging out, but the newer generation was growing up with smart phones, social media, and influencers -- GameFaqs had none of those things integrated into its platform.
The place didn't evolve with its own userbase, or with the world around it. It just remained frozen in time, and unfortunately the user that attracts is very niche, and not that conducive to growth or monetization.
Fandom recognizes this I'm sure, and I look forward to watching their progress. Will they succeed? Probably not, but I'm eager to watch them try!
Holy shit dude, are they fucking paying you?
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Furthermore, The GOP is a Fascist Organization and must be destroyed