I think the BBs left are just programmers, not guys hired, paid or interesting in PR. They ahve been burnt in most their efforts too....
Seems like they are using GMs now for PR....and the results are .... less than flattering IMO
It does not seem that the users are not coming in different numbers. They are joining at a rate of about 2500 users a week. Which for the size of this community is not bad at all.
Hence, the problem is not that there are not enough users joining the game due to bad "publicizing".
This leaves us with the other option - Users are leaving the game much quicker. Why is that?
Once you wrote that in the Nippon league, it happens because they cannot compete. This is not only a problem at the small BB-nations, as if small BB-nation cannot affect the "departures" numbers that much.
In the end it is all coming back to the same thing I am saying and proving over and over again - there is a problem of competitiveness in the game that needs to be fixed immediately.
The other reason is that the game losses much of its beauty on the higher division (as some of the features aren't relevant there anymore).
I do agree that the owners had not been seen for a long whiile.