I would in fact rather oddly perhaps agree with both of you. I write because I like to write, but also in the hope that people are reading what I'm writing. It's quite true what tore says: if you were to write and not know people were reading then you may as well be writing offline. It's one of the reasons I stopped maintaining a sort of mirrored journal on another site. I got one single comment, and all it said was "very good". If you don't feel people are appreciative of what you write then it's hard to keep putting in the effort. It's one of the reasons why I never started up my own blog outside of this site, because the chances anyone would a) find it and b) comment on it were and are pretty minimal.
However, I would not stop writing here just because people are not commenting. I learned long ago that you can judge the popularity or otherwise of your journal on views. Of course, that's not a perfect system, as out of say 1000 views 800 could be by one person or a few people, but it still shows that somone is reading. Comments are better of course because then you get to hear what people think of your writing, good or bad. This is why I am always happy to see a new comment in my journals, which is not that often.
But as tore says this isn't all just about journals, and I must admit the rating system that other site has is good. For each post you get points and your standing goes up, like I started as something like squire and ended (before I abandoned the thing) as God-like. It's pretty cool. Plus you get a running total on how far you have to go to get to the next level, like Experience Points in an RPG. You can also win awards for say Most Posted or Most Popular and those icons display against your username. It shouldn't of course be the reason why you write, or post, but it's a clever and enjoyable incentive.
It's a pity something like that couldn't be implemented here. But I'm still in general against a new site being setup. I think I've personally settled really well into this one and to me it would be like moving house, starting all over again even if some of my friends went with me. I also think it would be a huge amount of work, and what if it doesn't take off? I don't really have any problems with this forum so I'd have to say I'd be likely to stay here. I kind of owe this place, or the people in it, quite a lot.
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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
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