IMO the slide started when they started trying to police whole broad topics rather than actual objectionable behavior. then they enforced it sporadically, inconsistently, and haphazardly -- "seagull moderation" if you will ('the seagull moderator flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything then flies off again leaving a big mess behind'). that started causing resentment among many posters, and one by one many of them started going out in a blaze of idiocy in "protest". others got annoyed and less interested as a result, either annoyed with the moderation, or annoyed with the people who push the moderators. the pattern keeps repeating itself in a continual downward spiral. I would say that all they really accomplished by banning topics was to dumb down the discussion of those topics and turn the whole place into a grown-up romper room. like many others, I am pretty bummed about that because I consider a lot of the old huddlers good friends and I miss what we used to have here.