GAF ain't all (that) bad doodz.
Sure it is. And I say this as a die-hard. It's way too big now, and too many of the intelligent, insightful posters have just flat-out disappeared. Phoenix, Loki, dark10x, drohne, 50 other names...I mean, Mandark posts here regularly now, but I don't know when I last saw him post on GAF...
Yes, there's an element of "damn kids, get off ma lawn" in saying that, but still.
In any half-serious OT topic, any given thread will be flooded by now-anonymous posters who fill the thread with shit. Post a contrary opinion, and you get a pile on of "lol"s and snarky one-liners. The sort of shit that used to be limited to the gaming side has steadily infected the OT as well.
I think that there is an optimal size for discussion boards, and I think GAF passed it a couple years back.
I agree with you that the "sub-communities" still have value, but the fact that you have to label them as such shows how hard it is to get value out of GAF anymore. The various sports threads are great for discussion, but even as one of the MMA die-hards, MMA discussion has been dumbed-down over the past two years.
I'll probably never abandon the forum, but as of today, I probably spend twice the time on EB as I do on GAF. Two years ago, the reverse would be the case.
