The forum operator sees the declining maintenance as a result of shifted private and professional priorities and an intensified collecting focus on old Montblanc pieces; advertising or a handover of the platform are excluded, since the project is purely hobby-driven. The collector community is also changing: many formerly engaged members no longer collect or no longer Montblanc-focused. Despite recent weaknesses, fountainpen.de remains the most important German-language contact point for Montblanc collectors; collectors largely react rejectingly to a shutdown and insist on the value of a German-language forum alongside FPN and Penexchange. Discussed are also questions of whether two German-language forums are needed and how recent Montblanc marketing decisions (e.g. on the 100-year anniversary or the model history of the 149) affect collecting interest.