I'm afraid the most active years of this forum have long gone by - but there's still a vibrant community and you'll see things pick up from time to time.
Stick around! There's also a treasure trove of info you can't find anywhere else if you do some digging.
Forums are getting weaker and weaker year after year, in general. I'm afraid that social networking is now the quickest way to communicate and interact with communities. We all have to deal with it.
Nah, it's just that more message boards are available I think. There are still more than enough active ones. I personally don't see much reasons for activity in the ones about artists though. Usually there might be some "hype" when a new album comes out, but after that there's not really much topic-related to be discussed.