I've been here since the beginning (and over at the D&C board before this) and anybody saying, "it used to be better" is just romanticizing about the past ("ahh, the good ol' days!"). There have always been fighting, flaming and arguing. ICE threatening to hack the board and shut it down or beat people up at games...and he wasn’t the only one displaying this behavior. The only thing that has changed is we now have people saying, "it used to be better".
There will always be people on this board who are in cliques, people who are great friends in RL (or in virtual life) and people who just don’t like one another. You’ll also have random flamers who just like to cause trouble or people who lose their temper and post things they shouldn’t or wouldn’t normally. It’s always been this way and it always will be. You won’t find it any better on any other board on the internet, mostly because they’re likely missing the great friends aspect of it. So just enjoy the parts of the community you like and do your best to live with the stuff you don’t.