Puma, I am aware that you do sterling work on this site and are a very knowledgeable and straight shooting guy when it comes to this genre so what I say, I say with respect.
If you look at the three stickies in Western SYW, you can see we've tried to jump start the forum before. And we've had some darn good people involved - but it hasn't worked.
I'm not denying that, but two of those stickies are taps 3 years ago and the most recent is human baby gestation months ago.
If I was me, I would unstick those stickies and clean up the Town. Start a regular, well sign posted prompt. Perhaps launch a competition. Get people showing the Western SYW in their sig. Petition the PTB to randomize the SYW genres so people have to search through their comfort zone. Highlight what excellent Western writing there is out there and so on and so forth.
I am sure this has all been done before but ...
Just because good people have tried before, doesn't mean they can't try again.*
I think one of the issues in Western is defining the genre...
I think you're right and this also, in my opinion, causes people to be a little hesitant in writing and critting Westerns. Therefore, the more people get involved the more things move, the more people will get to grips with it and give it a go.
I favor the old definition, but I will be the first to admit that my Western writing stretches the classic definition (but not badly).
With all due respect, I feel this is why you are being reticent. It probably doesn't help that the last Western thing I wrote was This; but I hope you can see that I posted that in Interstices to avoid sullying the Western SYW and I was certainly at the extreme end of the Western wedge there.
With that said, I do agree with Daniel that things should expand and move forward. After all, the Western (certainly in film) is the vehicle that America used to use to discuss both its history and its contemporary issues. So why shouldn't it reflect this in its boundaries?
This tension between the classic and the modern Western doesn't have to an awkward one. Prompts can focus on the classic and the modern. The two can sit side by side and both compliment and, by virtue of difference, bring new ideas and fresh approaches.
This does not have to change the classic Western, but, hopefully, would put new eyes on it and reinvigorate interest in it.
How do agents and magazines publishing Western material define the genre?
This I do not know; however, if film is anything to go by, they want something good - be it old or new style - and they want something fresh - be it old or new style - and they want something saleable.
I think this can only happen if people are practicing writing and critting the Western genre.
And people can only do that if they get engaged with it.
*How's that for a prompt.