It might bring it back to life, but only in the sense of swarms of unbearably deluded collge kids jerking off in fantasy posts about being Real Businessmen.
Why not focus this forum on the tangible skills that working in direct response marketing (ie. aff marketing for the most part) can afford you? This forum seems to mostly be about SEO and teenagers feeling gangster for buying a cloaker, rather than selling impulse products to mindless consumers thorugh understanding copywriting, design, psychology, etc.
I don't see why it has to be like that. There's billions to be made in direct response all over the wold, and the fact you can start it online (and scale to the moon) for a few thousand instead of having to pay for TV/magazine space is very exciting and nowhere near its peak. The immediate data you get online has also brought new life into direct response and it is exciting.
I mean, most people who cry about "the easy/fast money is gone" in regards to IM were never marketers, they were skilless opportunists who may as well have been gambling and their luck ran out. There's still plently of easy/fast money to be made here if you step up and actually do the dirty work to start with (ie. learn how to manipulate impulses and understand why).
If there were meaningful discussions on this stuff -- not sharing methods and loopholes like little kids, but talking about the actual skills and concerns behind direct marketing -- this forum would come alive. Like IM forum 2.0, after all the lawsuits and prison terms have proven that this is a real thing that will last, not just something to churn and burn through for petty cash.
