This board has had a fascinating culture for as long as I've been on it, which is about 15 years at this point.
Absolutely borderline insane levels of personal attacks, up to and including assault, doxxing people, attacking peoples' families, etc., peaking in the Wulff years, as I recall. Even when not rising to that level, for years, it was wild how no matter what the topic, and almost always would wind up being some kind of Wulff debate, even years after he was gone.
The overall tone always has been really negative and confrontational, even in better times and when things weren't at peak dysfunctionality. Things on here have been a lot better in recent years than they used to be, subject to the board being insane during the COVID years and pre-2020 election for all the reasons you'd expect.
The football discussion on here always has been by far the best real WSU football discussion you could get, for free or otherwise, but especially for free, subject to you needing to filter a bit sometimes. Brand X always has just had a lower general level of mental horsepower among its premium members, and the premium board is the only place any semblance of discussion takes place. Half the threads on the premium board are exhortations to donate, and most of the rest are Pollyanna bullshit. I was a premium member for a long time but just dropped it a few years ago. On Brand Y, few comment at all, and the few who do typically don't contribute anything substantive.
(I am not knocking the actual purveyors of Brand X or Y here -- at least to the extent others do -- as they work pretty hard to provide decent content, subject to Brand X being a bit like Pravda sometimes and Brand Y leaning too heavily toward a Millennial / Gen Z social issues blog instead of a sports blog. Just saying the commenters don't add anything like the actual football discussion value that is and always has been here if you filter a bit.)
