Quoted from goatdan:Three, four, five years ago there was almost no political or personal crap on there.
Are you kidding me...of the ones mentioned only Frank is a newer member. 2 of my examples were 5 years ago and longer.
My MM remake from Wayne is over 5 years. Do you remember those threads? Didn't Mars need Women die after arguments on there? Gary was posting in 2004- almost 10 years ago and those were some whooper arguments that would be shut down on here after 5-10 posts.
Seriously, do you really want me to bring out old RGP crap to show/prove that the more things change the more that they stay the same. It is not hard to Google some of those threads.
Bottom line- RGP was really the only forum. It intimidated a lot of people because of the crap that was being spewed on it. More lurkers than posters. When Pinside came along, it was a different attitude as there are moderators and new people to the hobby weren't here to look for drama.
Yes, there were/are some great people on there, but to act like the drama is only recent means time has clouded your memory.
2001 on is when things started to shift over there.