I don't think it's all of the sudden. This forum has been dead for years and it began with the "rules" and the moderation and the bans.
They don't ban people as easily now. Skuzzy banned people for almost nothing at times.
Dale seems to go away for days/weeks and then comes back and just shuts down threads and tags people. Probably sucks for him to deal with all the petty stuff.
like I was saying, the way bad actors can come into a thread and get it shut down is a bad dynamic and it allows those turds to harass people through the complainer button, essentially.