I wasn’t here previous to 2012, and I specifically mentioned that in my reply.
And I don’t know where some get the impression that I respond to every single thread – the reality is quite to the contrary - many don’t interest me at all.
And what is the opinion/reason things changed?
I’ve been part of, and admin’d/SysOp’d forums since the early 80’s. I’ve seen these sorts of situations countless times. Forums change, members come and go (or get banned), and yeah, it changes the feel/vibe of a forum - some don’t adjust or yearn for “the way it used to be” all the time. But typically it’s just change (time marches on) that many object to...and there’s no solution to that.
I’d love go back to the BBS era of the early 90’s, but that ain’t happening.
One can always start their own forum any time they want. I still help run several (and host 2 on my own server for friends), at least one which was started because someone didn’t like the way their favourite forum was headed and decided they could do better.
Not advocating for such or saying that GTAM isn’t just fine as it is (again, I enjoy it here, as per my last comments which some clearly didn’t read), but I’m sure others don’t feel the same.