Yea...I'm still here. Lurking daily, posting rarely. But I'm still here
I was one of the complainers about the self promotion thing, it actually pushed me away from MR for several months until things got sorted down and the flames were finally reduced to embers.
Is it a worthless forum? If you think it's worthless, then it's worthless.
I think its invaluable to the community and to your audience. It keeps everything where it belongs, it lets people browse the board like an old Scholastic Books catalog.
Honestly, I use it almost exclusively when I want to weed through the endless crap that exists on Smashwords and Kindle.
From the threads alone I think I've purchased close to 20 titles. And I've learned which ones to stay far, far away from. I will withhold names, but I'm sure some of the other old timers know who the bad ones were
Some of the most prolific reviewers of self published works browse the forum extensively (Grace, I'm looking at you) and I think this community as a whole is one where you'll be likely to find reviews from customers.
But, if you consider us worthless...well then, imagine what we'd think of you