rec.boats dropped from 6754 in the year 2000 to 3603 in 2003.

One factor may be that people had stopped "churning" as the ISP's called
it. That is, they stopped hopping from one service to another and found
a home somewhere.

I think hi speed DSL and cable modems had a big effect.

You really don't have a clue, do you? It's like you're standing in a huge
pile of your own ****, and you deduce that someone might have farted in the
next room. The "big effect", Sherlock, is the abysmal posting content of
late. It plays to a small crowd.