the site needs a redesign imo. its been too long without any significant growth, so its not like people are going to just start jumping in now.
make the site easier to read by allowing it to extend all the way horizontally. that internet news stuff on the side is just awful.
and without regular product updates and news about whats going on in the tech world, youre relying on members to provide the content for the forums and it just wont work that way. look at the way hardocp does it, i mean there are countless reasons to hate that website but at least they know how to draw members in. they do hardware bench tests, product news is updated everyday in the forums and they have a definite theme (they claim to be the most hardcore tech site blah blah).
from what i see now with hardwarecentral is exactly the same as i saw a decade ago, and it simply never evolved with the times. if internet.com really wants to keep this forum alive, they need to hire one or two people to really push new threads containing useful content every single day. only then will the members start to join, as discussion about the new topics and research will be irresistible.
just my opinion!