achance was apparently connected politically in Alaska and came at Palin from an Alaska insider's perspective.
Vassar Bushmills -- well, let's say I respect him as much as the top half-dozen posters at FR. (Not to step on anyone's toes, I have a private list of who's credible & worth following regardless of topic.)
achance bit the dust first; but then Vassar and a couple of other posters were writing detailed strategy memos for conservatives: and then around the beginning of 2011 a bunch of then got banned. My memory is admittedly hazy, but it seems the management of the site didn't like the group becoming a law unto themselves and monopolizing the "recommended by" feature: despite the fact that in my judgement they were far better than the founder of the site.
I wish someone would either get in touch with Vassar and invite him here (I was an "almost never" poster there and didn't have his contact information), as well as ColdWarrior, with his Precinct Committeman project.
The rest of the site has fallen off badly in quality since the purge.
Cheers!