I'd like to voice a few comments if I may:
1) First I think as mentioned before many people are now flocking to using places like nyaatorrents and other download sites for their torrent files and downloads. I can't really judge because I don't have the site stats in front of me, however if there's been a steady decrease in hits, downloads and page views, it could mean since other places get their stuff up quicker, people tend to drift away from here.
2) I have noticed being a visitor over the past few years people do tend to stick to a specific fansub team if they can. Occasionally, I have seen direct downloads here shift between groups with torrent links following. I would venture to say many loyal group fans tend to post directly on the fansub site's blog and/or forums as opposed to a 3rd party who helps centralize releases.
3) I think, as mentioned before, forums have more or less fallen to the wayside in favor of the blog type site. After visiting several blogs of various groups, I've noticed a release done followed by up to or even more than 100 replies to the release. I'm supposing those are mostly un-modded based on some of the posts, never the less it does seem blogs seem to be more popular than forums in the way of posting and communicating.
How to remedy this? I dunno
I think it's a matter of whether or not you can entice the leechers to actually comment the series that are hosted here. One of the things which lure people away from here is the fact so many titles get licensed which causes people to look for other means to obtain them. Now, I do see that many of use are following certain "licensed" series which haven't been released stateside, however the number pales in comparison to the amount of downloads the series gets via bit torrent.
I think one way to solve this might be to do some kind of preview on the main page along with the trailer (instead of doing the featured anime with a screen shot). For example, HOTD who has both manga and an anime release. If the FTV can somehow tie in both to make an original preview it might attract attention for comments when the series begins airing. A preview write up plus an encouraging "voice your thoughts" reminder might be attractive enough for people to bite.
I must say I do enjoy the idea of the anime "book club" idea mentioned earlier in this thread. That same thought is why I started my blog here so I can voice a review and opinion on the series. I think another of the biggest drawbacks with anime which doesn't get a national spotlight in other countries is no one either hears about it or people are leery of downloading it. That goes for both past and present anime. Being able to spotlight and showcase an anime with a preview just might attract some discussion about it. Again, it might just be a basis on the anime's website, PV and manga, however if the write up can appeal to the casual visitor, they might start commenting.
So, perhaps a sub-forum for the "book club" idea might work better instead of just latching onto a thread that's X months old since you can start an original discussion from scratch.
Personally, I think the addition of a chat box might destroy instead of entice activity here. Personally, I've seen those as a headache when I had it on my site because people expect them to be manned and modded 24/7.
OK, wrote more then I intended
time for me to work on my next blog entry.