The forums you're referring to as having any bearing on this sterile blank canvas in any negative way, were by far more interesting, more frequented, and more diverse......They also forged life long cyber friendships - some of them in the Real World.    It's true you had to know how to duck, but the baddies were vastly outnumbered back then. 

Even if you just wanted to be a lurker, it was a laugh a minute.....!!!  

=Apples & Oranges