hmm…yeah, that could work! 
awesome idea, kram!
so far I specialize in Modelling, so maybe I could contribute in that, but I have no idea what level modeler I am 
we could maybe even ask one of the Mods (who are more often on here, i think) to make it a Sticky thread…
it’s still on download.blender.org, if you use"site:download.blender.org" on google you can see what’s basically the most complete listing of it you’ll see anywhere. there is a LOT there.
blendermaster
this actually does not work anymore.
My 2p: I started with Blender in November of last year. I worked with other 3D apps for some years prior as a hobbyist and with CAD/CAM systems to put food on the table.I had to drop out of the hobbyist side for a number of years until retirement (I’m an Old Guy) enabled me to take up modeling again.
At this point in time, the number of people who might be inclined to take up Blender and stay with it past the fairly steep learning curve for 2.49 may already be on board. I know that I tried an earlier iteration some years ago and just could not get past the the quirks of the interface. On the other hand, a noob can buy Bryce for cheap, or even download an earlier version for free, and be creating something in minutes. It won’t be something great but, it will have a fair landscape, nice sky, and a finished render with a couple of clicks.
That isn’t a knock on Blender; Bryce’s ease of use imposes severe limits on what you can do with it. On the other hand, it will take anywhere from hours, to days to weeks, for a new user to come up with a polished-looking piece of work in Blender 2.49.
This affects BA, in my opinion, because of the gulf between new users and those who have taken the good time and trouble to master the app. It takes a lot of dedication and patience to plunge into the forums and explain to someone how their render might be improved - particularly when they’re not accomplished enough to even know how to post a wire frame, for example, or how to apply the suggestions that are offered to them. By now, many of the stalwarts may be burnt out and the community here is just not large enough to produce replacements. We may be losing new users because there just aren’t enough if us here to shepherd them though the early stages.
The comments about updating and moderation are well taken. I would add though, that mods get burnt out too.
Thanks for reading this.
cecuhnen,
I just looked at an archive of BA here:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://blenderartists.org/
On the Wayback Machine at Internet Archive.
It goes back to 2005, which seems to be about when BA started.
I tend not to be as involved as I’d like to simply because there is too much noise and not enough signal in the forums. It makes trying to find anything painful.
Things that annoy me the most:
large numbers of completely unhelpful and uninspiring thread titles (a mini image preview like CG talk would be great here)
large numbers of overly nice and superfluous one word comments, even when someone posts something crap. More artistic encouragement (where something sucks but can be improved), less parental encouragment (where everything you do is wonderful and fridge worthy). The focused critique forum was supposed to address this issue but that really isn’t working these days.
threads asking for modelling help in the News and Discussion section. Geez that annoys me. There seems to be a disproportionate number of people who cant figure out or simply wont post in the right forum. It’s bizarre.
also poor forum etiquette is everywhere. No one uses google first, puts [solved] in their help threads etc.
the layout of the forums. It always feel so cramped and a little tacky with the massive smilies everywhere.
Unfortunately, I have no idea what to do about most of the above which probably makes me just another whinger but do I like Richard’s idea about user portfolios or doing something to keep more experienced users around.
Plus I think Atemporalskill has a point about blender development. There’s a fairly obvious split in the community between the 2.49 and 2.5+ users. There’s a lot of tests for 2.5+ but it doesn’t contribute a whole lot since everyone seems to be more interested in making a video tutorial than making a model. The lack of feature completeness of the 2.5 series doesn’t help either and I’m a little surpised that so many people have moved over to it.
Concerning the normal noob questions.
Recalculate doubles, check normals, change modifier stack, change the mapping option.
How about a cbox. I remember them from RP Forums.
That way new threads aren’t created, questions are seen instantly, and that means they can be responded to.
Also someone who’s questions is knocked out, will be able to see that.
And ask again.
I also think a redesign of this site would help.
Other forums, and I’m not talking about CGTalk,
other forum sites, are pretty nice looking.
And I know they take time, But this site is pretty flat.
Which is a bad reflection of the great stuff that does get posted here.
Ainn’t you all kicking up a fuss over nothing. If you look at the place where people are actually using Blender and not just talking; WIP, focused critics, animation, python scripting, game engine the are all pretty active. Frankly am not buying into any of these arguments you are all putting forward it all sounds like a bunch of people crying wolf when there is no wolf.
If the first page of WIP contained a thread that had not been updated in week than I would be worried. To me this forum is alive and kicking if a bit understaffed on the mod side of the equation.
My browser’s also got this issue. Lots of blank space to the right when viewing any given section of a website (my desktop resolution is 1280x1024.) Using the current version of FireFox as of posting.
blendermaster:
http://download.blender.org/
download.blender.org: browsing this website has been disabled.
Here are some cool places to look:
Blender website (main portal)
Projects website (svn, bug tracker)
Download Blender (all versions)
Blender E-shop
I KNOW browsing has been disabled! that’s why you’d use google! it builds an amazing index of the site, which is the best you’d ever get without the browsing enabled. so stop saying it won’t work, I’ve tested that google link, it works! if you want to see, what’s on download.blender.org, follow it!
ok maybe I dont get it. I see that you can browse specific folders.
What I am mainly looking for is the old homepage with the old
interface and design style. That I do not find.
This is oldest I’ve found
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://blender.org
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.blenderartists.org
BTW regarding BA.
one thing I noticed is that in the recent years in particular lately
you see actually a lot more professional work being done with
Blender and posted at BA or BN.
Maybe it is time to forget about the Blender Image Gallery in the forum
and establish a user based image gallery with a tag system.
It is often so hard for me to quickly find good work to show somebody
when I need to. In the past that was always a hit and miss.
There is a gallery at Blender.org but that one seems deserted plus
again it is on a different site - both should be combined.
The header of the BA maybe could be better be an image feed from
the main gallery so people have a higher intent to click and go to
the gallery.
It wonders me why other forums have tag driven galleries and just
Blender does not.
The work produced by it are so important for advertising the maturity of
this app.
+1 Agreed to everything you said.
In addition there still could be a community driven best of gallery work
since in the past it showed clearly that some get in and some don’t
while for both the work was good. It is actually a shame to see this.
This image collection then for example could feed the banner ontop
of the BA page.
I think this would besides organizing the work done with blender also
build up a good user based listing and what they do and the areas
where they apply blender for.
all those “what do you do with blender” threads or people who try to
sell this as a serious user research and rather advertise themselfs
would gave no ground anymore and we finally would get a usable
collection of information about who is where and for what using blender.
The more I think about this I feel BA, BN, and Blender.org just have
way too much information to maintain and a slim down will first
make it more manageable, prevent people getting lost, and third
produce more consistent and professional web presence.
Take a look at the script and tutorial list in the forum. It is a nightmare
to find something. With a website hosting the tutorials
and listing them with tags sorting, presenting, and ultimately finding
them will be much easier.
Too much is just decentralized and Blender grew so much that we
need to centralize.
community gallery? interesting idea! 
i don’t have much experience with galleries except my own - none of my work is really good enough yet for Blender.org’s or BA’s - so I don’t really know all the implications of this, but still, an interesting idea
however, one thing I just thought about is…what would determine if a project makes it to the gallery or not? it would have to be quite unbiased…'cause personal preference can’t really help in these situations - po-tay-to vs po-tah-to
It’s not reallly whining, the last bit has been ways to improve the site.