Its all the fault of Ash and
Ash Alert
Ash was a poster who kept logging on again and again under some similar name as Ash or variations. It became great sport discovering who he was and being the first to out him. Both < /sarcasm > and outing Ash was done as fun, not serious. The other major shift came when quite a few freepers fell for a self proclaimed service man who called him self "Deep in the Hurtgeon forest. or something. Many fell for his line and were deeply hurt.
Its too bad, we need more humor. Liberals hate humor.
LOL! Sounded like a case for a guy like Ashcroft to solve.
;-)
How dare you not give honorable mention to CGEB,he/she was a classic.