The thing with GAF is that it sprung up in the early days of the internet. DIAF and GTFO were common greetings at the time.
But GAF never quite grew up. It still had that old school macho bullying culture. Look at the ban messages. Look at BishopTL's antics and demeanor. And so on. But the internet is becoming more and more inclusive and being a jerk doesn't work since there are other alternatives now. EL thought he would ride the wave of being an authoritarian dick forever. It doesn't work that way anymore with so many other options.
inclusive to control motherfuckers into being lobomised like they did in the episode of black mirror? nooo thanks
I'm not talking about ERA specifically. I'm just saying that you can find online communities everywhere. GAF doesn't have a monopoly on video game discussion. There's Twitch, YT, Discord, etc.
EL ignored this and rarely innovated. Yes, even if you are Social Studies Warrior, you can find and create your own communities. Isn't that what Tumblr was?
Ah yes, the early days of the internet. The Wild West days of 2004, if you will. When the internet had been around for 20 years.
LOL. C'mon, man. No one was using the internet in 1984 en masse. The first big wave was in the mid 90s. And still that's only 10 years. That's a pittance historically. The internet didn't become a mass-market thing until the FB era, when grandparents starting joining in big numbers. Don't let your geek glasses blind you to this fact.
Before that, the internet mostly catered to straight white guys in terms of content. The internet is still very young too. Now you find niches for every kind of demographic. Now smartphones driving more internet usage and traffic to underserved areas like the 3rd world, who are skipping over landlines altogether due to more expensive infrastructure requirements.
