<p>I was around when the journal clubs took place, so here is my take.</p>

<p>The journal club (and the blog) were events outside the usual Q/A that a few involved community members took time to initiate. Neither built up much outside participation, so when those few motivated individuals stopped doing them, they effectively died.</p>

<p>There was no negative push-back from the community, but to be viable they needed to have (many) more people participate and to help organize. So I chalk them up to a failed experiment. </p>

<p>A long time ago, the community was more worried about attracting outside individuals - and these were things we thought might help to advertise CV. That isn't so much a problem now - we need to worry more about answering the tons of questions we have. </p>

<p>So in short, there wasn't anything wrong with them, but they never really served any vital function to the community either. </p>
