[bmah]

Originally Posted by TheRapingDragon

When you look at how osu! is doing since it started in 2007 (8.5 million users, thousands active at all times) it contradicts your statements about rhythm gaming being in decline. osu! has a global Alexa rank of 2,879 and FFR is at 211,098 (as of right now). If FFR had done more then it could have easily been up there. Same with looking at when games like Project Diva get released and go on to sell millions.

Keep in mind that osu's activity is largely due to the database of songs that users create, and that database is prone to a lot of liability, despite the site having a clear-cut policy when it comes to song removal. FFR sacrificed its simfile database to comply with the law in regards to questionable audio distribution. You can say that osu has also made a lot of better decisions when it comes to the direction of the site, gaming, and community, but I'd also categorize osu as a current trend (much of it kept afloat by the anime/Vocaloid/Touhou sub community, same with Project Diva).

Originally Posted by devonin

Is there a reason to not actually delete those accounts that are the majority of that number, and bring it down to something that at least vaguely represents the size of the userbase?

It makes the site look a lot more crowded and busy than it ever will be to a new player, who is either going to be intimidated by thinking about competing with 2 million people, or wondering where the hell all these people are, as they consider joining the community.

I was told that Synthlight for some reason really really frowns upon account deletion as opposed to account closure. Maybe the reasoning has to do with archival purposes, but it's not one I fully understand.