I think an important thing about that CW thread is you get a strong group of regulars. Any fora with a strong group of regulars can survive almost anything thrown at it - except an influx Eternal September style of newcomers that overwhelms the group.

It’s been seen time and time and time and time again and I’m not sure there’s any real way to preserve it.

You have a similar thing with tiny tourist places - everyone wanting to go there forces it to change, it cannot remain a tiny tourist place and almost always ends up being a place that is “on show”.