Hal, there have been many different sugestions for consolidation. I sat down and counted which ones were more popular, and tried to streamline all the different choices into a manageable bunch. All options were valid but this is a democracy so we have to go for the most popular option... it doesn't reflect on the validity of any given option.
Most people who have posted about this issue seem to believe that consolidating the large number of fora into a more user-friendly structure is a good idea. Therefore, we move one step and present a few choices for consolidation. That's all. We can discuss the issue endlessly and never do anything, or decide on a cutoff date and act.
If this issue had cropped up when you were still a ranger, the rangers would have discussed it among themselves and the majority would win. It's as simple as that. We can talk about stuff for as long as we want, but if we want to do anything? We have to DO IT.
And that's what we're doing, at last. It feels positive to do something, rather than letting this board fester and rot in inactivity. No, the board structure may not be the cause for the lack of activity, but changing the structure might help. And I'm pretty confident that it will help a hell of a lot more than not doing anything.
As before, feel free to disagree...