You know, I also use a program called vectorworks architect. Great program. About 5-7 years ago it had fallen behind the times. Great 2d tool. But.... Late to convert to 64-bit. Weak 3D geometry editing abilities. Weak rendering. No associativity. No procedural modeling. Slow to adopt BIM methods and tools. The forum comments had a similar fee to these forum comments. In the case of vectorworks, they did slowly address the major issues between about 2010-2015. By slowly, they were bringing out one major fix/upgrade per year and many minor fixes/upgrades per year. And at one point, in 2015, they rolled out several new major features that were very well implemented. I don't know how they introduced so many new features in one release and integrated them that well. Now their forum comments are filled with task oriented questions and optimism-or at least not negativity and concern. They also have engineers participating on the forum. It went from looking dire to lots of optimism and enthusiasm. So turning things around can happen and it can be worth sticking with a company and a tool. But it does mean that real progress must be made. In the cas of vectorworks, they also adopted a customer-centric approach to development. They did ongoing, continuous customer engagement and research and oriented their efforts around what he market was telling them they needed.

with respect to the forum itself, the modo forum is a great example of the forum as a primary driver and value of the software. Since its start, it has been a great community. In that case, developers from the software maker are also heavily involved with the forum.