Watched the same thing happen to my hometown paper's page over the past couple years. Used to figure it was just folks getting bored or moving to other apps, but then I actually looked at what changed. The paper turned off comments on anything even slightly heated, and the few threads left were filled with the same five people copy pasting the same takes. So yeah, the reply counts tanked, but it wasn't some mystery. People stop showing up when the room feels dead or rigged. My view flipped once I saw it up close. It's less about people losing interest and more about them deciding it isn't worth the hassle anymore.

So the boot gave up about the same time as the Mariners playoff hopes. Four months is rough for 220 bucks though. That works out to like 55 a month to keep your feet dry, which is a bad deal no matter how you slice it. Duct tape on a wet sock is a special kind of misery, been there. Wet brush work eats boots for breakfast around here, the mud and the slash and all that green stuff never dries out. At this point the smart money might be on the cheap pairs you just replace twice a year instead of crying over the fancy ones.