I'll throw my two pennies worth in here to...i fully agree with all of the above.
The founding ethos of this site was to share with each other the passion we have for ships, of all types, large & small. When i joined many years ago, i was welcomed by countless messages at an early stage, made to feel like it was a extended family, and i looked forward to visiting the site after a long day at work and post any photos i might have taken to share with the community, and that's what it was, a community.
The old site was basic but that's all that was required, no need for flash re-branding, or features that many would not be interested in. It was popular and more so than now i think that's clear to see.
I have a few spotting pals that no longer post on here for various reasons and i can understand why...this site HAS lost it's way, HAS become detached from it's membership, and HAS in my opinion tried to move away from a community and operate more like a business.
But as we all know we do this hobby for it's pleasure, and getting rich off ship photography it's simply never going to happen, whether it be by individual photographer or site owner. And of course a site like this dies if the members melt away.
SO my message to the owners is get back to basics, ditch the pop ups, glitz, twitter, Instagram et all and give us our community back. If these few members on this thread speak for the majority then this site is in trouble as more will simply give it up.