This is a post about the psychology of mindsets and how to get a healthy one. The following words are not to judge this community, say what is right and wrong, or hurt. These words are to show what is observed, what works and what doesn't work, and how to solve the problem.
Currently our community is in a rut. Its very obvious to see when looking at the front page of ESR. Zero online tournaments have happened in the NA scene as of late and it seems there are less in the EU scene as well (correct me if I'm wrong). Now there are many factors to this that are normally said when the topic comes up, "We don't have a built in elo system!", "We don't have x popular map!", "We need prem maps to go free!". I could go on and on about what the community says we need for this game to grow but it wouldn't help address the main problem.
So what is the main problem?
Our mindset.
Taking knowledge from movies and books that I have read and seen I can safely say that our thoughts make our world. If our community always thinks of what we need and how we don't have it then how does that solve the problem of getting it? It only states the problem, not the solution. What if for a second we thought about what we already have? We could be very grateful for what ID has done for the quake community. They gave us an accessible way to play this game and share it with people. They gave us many things that some of us are not grateful for and if we simply look at it then we can truly appreciate it. There is a simple way to look at this and end it once and for all. That process starts in the mind.
Our thoughts make the outside world. If we think that the community is dying constantly what do you think we will see? We will see our community and game die, that's it. Now there are always two sides to a situation, so what would be the solution here? We change our thoughts regarding Quake. We think of what we need, how to get it, and keep a healthy outlook on the current status of Quake. This will keep a positive mindset on the situation and then produce positive results! Its as simple as that. No solutions can be found in the outside world because the problem isn't out there. Its inside! Once you realize this then you can solve the problem. That is pretty damn awesome.
Now for changing our thoughts that will take some introspection. You can't change your thoughts by looking somewhere else but your own mind. So the best thing to do this is to meditate or just try to be aware of what is going on in your mind. I'm not saying you have to start a deep spiritual journey to make Quake big again. I'm saying that it will take some looking at what is producing Quake's "downfall" and then addressing it.
Trying to put this subject into something that is read in a short amount of time is very though. I'm only skimming the surface of an ocean of psychological techniques and if the community is interested I can write more about this subject. Hopefully this helps the community grow and gain an invincible mindset about itself.
TLDR: There is no tldr because the message it too big to fit into this.