Indeed, the activity has died down since the old days, which is why I encourage you guys to come up with good ideas on how to pick up the spirit around here (aside from having an off topic board). I'll be introducing something in the near future, but it's really up to the current members to keep things going. Once Steve has more time for us and releases new features in Anim8or, we'll have more opportunities to do new things.
In the meantime, doing what you're doing now is already helping out. Keep posting your work, improving, and helping others learn and improve. Have a go at the Anim8or Challenges and other competitions we have. Make some tutorials, scripts, or supplemental programs. Start and finish projects while keeping us updated. Etcetera.
As for the current topic at hand, TheRetroZombie, I'll tell you a few things...most new users won't filter their search results on their first try. Generally we want every board to hold the answers to a user's questions by keeping matters pertaining to Anim8or.
As for asking for programs that have nothing to do with Anim8or, you've got the internet at your disposal. You don't have to ask people, just ask Google. That's what it's there for, along with the hundreds and hundreds of web pages that list and categorize useful free or commercial software for different people's needs.
You sound as if you know for sure an off topic board won't attract spambots. While I certainly don't know the criteria a spammer would use to determine whether they should launch a spambot on a forum or not, here's something to think about: an off-topic board is a nest of spam by regular users and spammers alike.
Anything off topic can be considered as spam simply because it's determined as excess that isn't being controlled. If we had an off topic board, a spambot can more easily start its work without us catching it. The software spammers use is becoming more and more sophisticated; it might seem like a regular person posted something relevant to a post, but it's actually just a bot that picked key words out of the previous posts and spliced together something coherent on topic, if not about the matter at hand. An off-topic board just makes it easier for them to do their work. We actually have about a 1:1 ratio of spammers to users registering every day now, and who knows how many spambots that failed. I pointed this out to Steve so he's working on some anti-spam measures, but it doesn't mean we can just sit back and let the ones that slip through have an easier time.
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