I don't think there's any use in trying to change the game to
recapture those former players who've left for the tenth time
and won't come back for real until X changes exactly how they
want it to.

Everyone who actually left is gone and isn't going to come back,
the better the question is how to retain the players who actually
play and maybe entice the lurkers who aren't just hanging around
to squeeze out diarrhea on the boards once in a while.

So far I think the efforts of the current imms are about the
best answer to that currently available. Just this last week
with Emnon's char challenge I've seen a bunch of names pop up
that I hadn't for years. Let's all take a breath, put in some effort
into that and see how it pans out.