I know this is probably a bad time to say this, but I was one of the other people who proposed the thread split, for various reasons. I understand most people hate it, and I totally see the benefits to the general thread - but the longer I've tried to browse here the more people seem more simply jilted and less willing to discuss the streams and content over the drama.
I liked the general thread format for a long time. Back on Kiwi, we all were kinda cramped into our own space and when events went down people would constantly livepost about them, there was a pretty decent appeal to that. But when there were talks about a splinter forum, I already was saying that a proper organized, traditional forum would be much better, simply because it would make the site less intimidating to use and more accessible to a wider audience. I get the fact that the general thread format in the first place is supposed to be a big filter, but I think its unfair the site has become this massive sekrit club where a lot of newbies end up confused over the layout of the site and choose to stop browsing rather than feeling comfortable. Site growth is an unfortunate necessity for it to be upkept.
One of the big reasons I tended to dislike the general thread format, especially lately, is because a lot of the fun has simply been overwritten by people constantly getting jaded over the state of vtubing as a whole. It doesn't help that a handful of people here have effectively written off vtubing entirely and treat the site as a dumping ground cough Xenlar's clique cough over trying to contribute to it being a better, even great place for vtuber discussion.
It also doesn't help that with liveposting moved to its own thread, we don't see endearingly obsessed fans of certain vtubers really properly advertising or even showing their appeal to the rest of the site. It brings the energy and the unity of the site down as a whole.
I will say right now, before I continue: I do not particularly like Proctor. Frankly, he was incredibly stubborn to budge on this idea, and when he actually took it he took it for all the wrong reasons, and has explained them incredibly poorly. He's too autistic to properly explain his reasoning in short, so here's my reasoning, summed up in a small, neat package:
The general thread has stopped being fun. Vtubers are now too much of srs bzns to really discuss jovially in a larger capacity, which is why I see split threads as a good way to reignite some passion in people. Not to encourage tribalism, but to bring people together over the joy of our favorite corps/Vtubers. A perfect example of this, although I know people loathe it, is the Pippa thread - the people that spend time there are more passionate about the girl they watch, more fun to spend time around and banter with, and generally much more enjoyable company because they have a (properly moderated) space for themselves.
We all need a little room to get ourselves out of the pits of sadness and misery.
I completely understand at the end of the day if this seems wrong, or if I'm blatantly incorrect, but the feelings I feel in the general thread are the same ones I feel browing a schizo-filled general thread on /vt/. The split threads and even the Pippa thread give me the same warm feelings other good, fun forums gave me in the past, and we ought to have those feelings here.