@surreality
You are also comparing now to a history of almost twenty years. WORA--the first Wora, the genssis--was originally started for two purposes. One: In order to out the shitty behavior of staff of WoD games, specifically around the Ashes to Ashes/Start Your Engines era. We had a lot of Psycho Hose-Beasts (PHBs) running games as personal fiefdoms who would gladly screw around with those who didn't fit their own personality or upset their extended clique. Young Hitler (sorry, little Hitler baby sir, I forget your handle) had friends and they spread the posts. Essentially, Wora, at the outset, was a blog.
The second reason WORA was created was to drive those people insane, to make fun of them, and in some way to give them a taste of their own medicine. Wora was created to treat shitty people shittily. When Wora became more of a message board, it had only one rule: Sink or swim, it was up to you. Later it added a second: No personal information. (You may even be able to thank @VASpider for that one.) That was it.
When I stepped into Wora, at the tail end of the original message boards and before its first major change, it wasn't much different than your typical Usenet news forums, equal parts Insane Clown Posse and casual conversation. Few people did what Ark and I do, sit around for lengthy periods of time hashing out a post. I went back to see some things I'd posted on one of the incarnations thinking that I had this lengthy discussion when it was me saying something, someone else disagreeing, me disagreeing with them, and the rest of the people reading ignoring it and moving on.
In total I think that part of the discussion was maybe fifty words. Glasses can be tinted with rose or brown crud. Hindsight can be nearsighted as well as 20/20.
Until Soapbox, Wora was still filled with people who shit-posted for fun. I doubt any of them were terribly serious about it (though a few were). It might have been called trolling, except that Wora's seen precious few actual trolls; everyone else was either too serious for their own good or giggled at themselves then forgot about it until later.
What Wora was, though, was a reflection of our WoD-centric corner of the hobby. Even as late as 2010, if you didn't see slut-shaming a-plenty on WoD games, then I envy your sheltered online life. I was just as pissed off at VASpider and I can't remember who all mocking people by spamming conversations with talk about being served drinks by cabana boys and the deliciousness of pie, because they were not much different than the people they hated for spamming discussions with more boyish shit-stirring. I don't think the ability to distract and derail a conversation is something to be proud of.
(I do, however, think there are exceptions that prove the rule, such as punching Nazis. It's always okay to punch a Nazi.)
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Someone whose opinion I respect says that Soapbox has gotten boring, and that's the downside of it; being afraid to offend is not conductive to discussion. Sometimes discussions will get heated, and that has to be okay; even frustration or open criticism needs its safe space.
All of that said, I am elated that it's largely changed. I'm seeing different kinds of online games discussed and advertised. A lot of what I'm seeing (and a lot of what I'm saying!) can be too analytical--get your hands dirty, people, and make games and play games and rar!--but a lot of people who have been too afraid to say anything are saying things for the first time in ever. That's awesome.