that's probably a really true/honest answer, in the sense of: this site caters to so much/many, it's all about what you're into, who your "favorites" are, who you interact most with, etc. And, like life, there will be good times/bad times, flush times and lean times (i just came off a few weeks of heavy clip-buying).
I've been around the online wam scene from close to the start, and I've noticed that there appears to be a definite correlation between forum activity and key dates of the academic year. This time of year, people are finishing shool, changing address, getting into the summer routine, summer jobs, and people with family who are normaly attending, or have people living away, also find them back at home for the summer, etc. so that can cut into the quality messy time pretty substantially. Producers who shoot outdoors - particularly mud makers- are busy gearing up for shoots to bank & release during the colder months, etc. so there's that, too.
That's an interesting take, Plonk - had not considered.
Ironically (or not?), after that silence, came the one squabble amongst models, and now this whole Nadia thing (again) -- the latter of which seems to come about at least a few times a year. And has gotten really grotesque and mean and cruel and judgey on both sides, which makes me a little embarrassed frankly, how childish and petty people can be (both about getting "fooled" by at TG, and by people feeling the need to defend TGs against people whose minds are, for what it's worth, very made up).
I feel like the closing of so many stores has sort of "shaken up the soda can", and things seem especially snarky and cold in the last week or so. So, we went from silence to now everyone kind of drawing lines in the sand.
I was very glad when Jessie came on and did her gateau-sitting, it was exactly what is needed. I mean, i dig this place......but when it's super silent or (worse, obviously) super angry/bitter/riled up, it's not a really fun place to be.
Pertinent to your post -- yes, definitely think the warmer weather brings out a lot more production/self-WAM (hooray for Rich's outdoor shoots!), and also i'm sure there is that thing (which used to happen to me) of "Well, i'm not about to start ordering videos and doing WAM stuff while i'm in a dorm room with other dudes who can figure out what i'm up to", etc.
I hope to do a couple outdoor scenes this year, BUT... I'm telling you right now, outdoor scenes are a rarity these days. I finally have a good interior setup with lighting and I really like the results. And outdoor is a longer setup & teardown, plus I have to deal with the sun. (Or more precisely, clouds....)
That said, you can only do a lounge chair slime scene outside, so that's bound to happen soon enough.
Actually, the best way to deal with outdoors is to have a scrim above the shot to diffuse the sunlight and then supplement the daylight with lighting color-balanced for daylight. For example, I have a "color temperature - blue" (CTB) filter for my LowePro Omni that converts its Tungsten (3200K) light to standard daylight white balance. It's only 500 watts before the filter, 250 after the filter. So I need more lights to really replace the sun not to mention a filter for my DP (1000 watt) head. I've used it for shadow fill and to light e.g. the interior of a van where there is some daylight but its too dark.