Breaks aren't going to help. We need a major format overhaul(A different kind of duelling) to make people care or an outright focus change. I'll admit, this is just my opinion, but breaks never helped
me any...
Not that we have to actually shut down the site in any true way-just stop arena comments. As of last check, no one has complained about nom night work in a while(Twil taking it over and putting it into a managable format is awesome), and I don't suppose if worst came to worst that the DL would mind doing group work for nom pools once every month and a half(and indeed I believe we've done this).
Ranking topics are generally interesting and the amount of work involved in them doesn't have to be as high if no one is worrying quite so much about *precisely* how many writers we have(as no one will be writing.). Although if that ends up too much work there's no reason not to kill rankings as an idea(as this is still superior to shutting down the site).
In short, shutting down is basically not needed, so much as shutting down writeups. The board tournament comparison is unfair, the site's handling system is clearly both *less* work than a board tournament(now that it's in place anyways, it wasn't to make) and generally more polished thanks to the ridiculous 1000~ pictures we've already got inserted. It is kinda sad compared to what was there before, sure, but the DL in general is. It has been gradually getting less and less interest and less and less interesting over the years. Not it's fault, it just happens.
I personally think it would be a very good idea to do that.
I'd really like to see a focus shift of some kind, optimally, as well. It would be interesting to try to expand stat topics to focus, not just on duelling performance, but instead to give you an idea of what characters are like throughout a game. Almost no FAQs do this worth a damn; They slam down a bunch of stats on you at *best*, without really explaining them in a coherently-written manner, and at worst give vague and often ridiculous opinions
as to why Ace is the best character evar! about characters.
Expanding current stat topics isn't really too bad of a job in many cases, as often stat topics list even lesser importance skills(which matter more in-game). It's already over halfway there, in other words. Mechanics we're also good at, and obscure as hell RPGs we actually probably can construct better guides for than GFAQs in general. It'd be neat.
Edit:
Don't especially mind what people want to put in it's place, as long as it's PG(13)ish for content.
Awwwwwwwwww but we are the CLEARLY PERFECT PEOPLE to do an all yuri all the time fanfiction site.
Tai can head the project.
Edit 2:
Also, to be clear, I'm saying remove arena writeups as a better than closing idea. Nothing else. Replace the site construction fully and make the original tourney a forum thing? Better. Overhaul the tourney? Better. Just closing the site without anything in it's place? Worse.
But I still think that the main site is going to get more votes than forum tourneys. We still get 50~ votes, and glancing Tourneys the most posts I see in one is 30~(assuming those are all votes, which they are not likely). Even if it cuts that in half it's as good as a board tournament.