shobob, you're on the right track, but getting ahead of yourself. We do need to close or merge a bunch of worlds. Not five or six, like you mentioned, but probably 15-20. The supply so greatly outweighs the demand right now, and demand is only slipping further back every week. The keeper world idea is a good way to pump some life into a world, but it's basically a one-off. You can't save every world with double-digit openings by throwing the keeper idea at it, because there isn't enough interest from the population for that theme.
You mention the "good old days," when anyone could create a new world, so long as it filled quickly. Remember when demand was greater than supply, and even the worst private worlds still filled in less than a week? That's what we should aspire to get back to. And then maybe if we got to a point where average worlds have a wait list, and top worlds never have any openings at all, maybe WIS will let you have your new world option again.
Mike had a thread a couple of weeks ago, asking people what they thought was going to happen while they sit on their hands as their world has a dozen openings. I don't think anyone really gave an answer, but I think owners in those worlds fit into two categories. One is "my world is really special, but nobody knows it, and we'll fill when everyone realizes that," and the other is the owner who thinks WIS is going to magically fix this.
But those worlds aren't special, and the cavalry isn't coming. I'm actually in a world that is hovering around the double digit openings mark, and I have no faith in us filling. I just don't see how it's possible, unless the keeper theme comes to us. Nobody in our world seems interested in merging, because once you merge, it's not really your world anymore, since the history and half of your world disappear into the ether. I would vote to have our world archived. Not deleted from the system so that there is no proof it existed, but put in a spot where nobody can join. Your record in the world still shows up on your card, you can still click on the world and see the HOF, but it's a world with 32 openings that nobody can join. Do that with ten worlds that will never fill, then merge another 15-20 (a bunch have 6-8 openings, so maybe turn three worlds into two, or something like that), and bring supply back in line with demand.
The problem is that everyone thinks their world is special, and that their team is going to win the WS this year, so they don't want their world to go away. So we'll sit here and continue spinning our wheels.