thanks for offering an example with which to contrast HN and for being open to disagree with the premise of questions from my original post. I'm interested in this 'healthy enough' bit that you bring up - do you think there's a threshold of being 'healthy enough' that online communities should reach? is this threshold constant? can it be met then lost then met again?

I also find your suggestion of examining places that were 'fantastic for year but died to events' unrelated to the core function of the community really intriguing as well.