I can tell you when my tipping point came - it was when SallyCat posted a GBCW, or a least a TTFN. I can think of a few others who've temporarily given up on us and who have come back (at least to a limited extent).
What's doing it? Candidate wars and their spawn, candidate diaries.
What's the antidote? "Not A Candidate Diary"
For those of us who would like to stick around but who work hard to stay out of the piefights and flamewars, this might help us find your diaries - slip NACD into your title and/or tags.
This was inspired by teacherken's diary which I hastened to open not just because it was teacherken, but because of the magical words "Not a candidate diary" in the title. I know people say "just don't read the candidate diaries", but lack of a candidate's name in the title is no guarantee of status. A little truth-in-labelling might keep the GBCW numbers from climbing during the next month.
I feel (sorta) guilty doing such an insubstantial diary but there's really not much more to say about the idea, is there?