If you have problems with things like this, either get in contact with a mod or post in Forum Support. I don't know why you'd post a thread in here about something like this when there are places actually meant for it.
That said, "we" didn't do anything. The locking of social threads aside from the character boards was a decision made by the higher-ups, not us. And the idea was that social threads often attract all of the attention into one thread instead of having quality discussion throughout the board. The fact that you say the social thread was the only reason "regulars" came back is kind of evidence of that.
That said, we've had an inactivity problem for far longer than that, and I'm trying to help out with that, but there's only so much I can do when I feel like half of the remaining visitors to this forum are so hell-bent on complaining about how dead the forum is that it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.