I have been viewing airliners.net since 1999 when I was still a kid. The last time I thought the site was really good was around 2004. I don't spend much time on the site anymore because I think it looks too cluttered the quality of the pictures and the variety have pictures have diminished, and the search function is just downright terrible. These days if I make a search for an specific aircraft, from a specific time, at a specific airport I just get no hits when I was mysteriously getting many hits for the same searches during the early years of the site.
It's still a great site but only a shell of what it once was. I never waste my time on the forums so I can't comment on that.