I just figured that I am now part of the scary silent majority - that invisible army of the mute - and am therefore able now to provide some insights into their world for the VFPs, and EFPs, and UFPs.

Due to time constraints I now primarily consume and only rarely produce. This is how I still use the site:

1. I listen to the new lesson on the way to work - via m.chinesepod.com. That is, only if someone comments on the lesson, because the "feed" does not work for me for whatever reasons. Never did.
2. I download the lessons (including audio review, PDF, HTML. expansion). That is right - no feed, manual download. I've been dowing that since the dawn of time.
3. For assigned lessons (guided) or selected additional lessons, I work through the dialogue and expansion parts + listen to the audio review and the full show. Then I do the Skritter part and eventually listen to the dialogue once again.
4. I skip through the comments once or twice a day to look out for interesting contributions (I always watch out for Changye-comments!).
5. Once in a while I do a placement test for the fun of it. Although, the punctuation-"errors" are still annoying.

Progress has of course slowed down in comparison to the "wild days", but I try to keep going anyway.

This is how the changes to the site affected me:

• Browsing through the comments have become a little harder since the introduction of threading (and of course the first week of the dashboard comments were unusable). But that is not dramatic, since I don't actively participate.
• I don't really get what the "dashboard" is all about. It seems to melt together the feed-idea with the groups-concept and somehow multiplies their usability (for me: both below the value of 1). But I don't mind, as long as I find a way to the good old lesson pages with their download options.

So in summery: no significant change for this type of usage profile.

Consequences:

For me, changes to the community features don't have much impact (currently). Regardless of how good the features will become! Unless it includes a time machine feature it will not bring me to contribute. I profit from all content related changes that fit into my time slot - although superior new features might substitue old ones (as Skritter did with the exercises).

So, the bottom line is simple: If CPod wants to add value for the community, go with the Very, the Extreme, or the Ultra Frequent Posters. Do not listen to me as it doesn't affect me anyway.