Is it the cheapness of it? You gotta hit "TOP" and then hit "DALLAS COWBOYS FORUM" to get back and refresh the forum, like a schlep? I know... pretty amateur.
This site's engine is vBulletin version 4. It does exactly what it's needed for. vBulletin for decades was the premier forum software platform. The platform now considered more "modern," Xenforo, is a creation of the same guys who created vBulletin and after vB was sold to a conglomerate, they struck out on their own. XF is designed from the ground up, to be mobile-browser friendly. But other than that it's essentially the same platform with the same navigation, the same basic features. And the same cost for the license and the cost of operation is similar.
I'm admin on one of the busiest sports-related forums on the internet, and it's a vB version 3 - MUCH more "archaic" than this one. At this moment it has 460 members and 5827 guests online. It has 743,029 Threads, 18,186,260 Posts, and 228,661 Members. It is heavily monetized with national and international contracted advertising accounts. It is also fairly strictly moderated. So, it's not the "modernness" or "cheapness" of the platform that drives traffic, it's not whether there's rules or moderation or not, it's really all about what forums are and always were - the subject material.
You gotta hit "TOP" and then hit "DALLAS COWBOYS FORUM" to get back and refresh the forum, like a schlep?
No, you do not. The "What's New" and "New Posts" buttons work great for seeing everything that's newly posted. Getting to the top of the page is very easy, there's a "top" button in every post, right next to that post number in the upper right of each post. Looks like a inverted yield sign.