I'm coming into this thread really late and there's a lot to read here so I'm going to respond as if I was just getting in on the first couple of pages. Apologies if I'm being disruptive here.
The Blockland Forums were a force to be reckoned with for me. I had taken a break from the Chao Island forums (my previous stomping grounds, and one whose former community I still consider close to me) and attempted to truly join in here somewhere around 2014. At the time I had just become a teenager and still in a very awkward phase around self-acceptance, more specifically trying to come to terms with the fact that I am autistic. On the other hand, the internet as a whole was changing; cringe culture was being pushed to the forefront and "edgy" right-wing culture was becoming much more commonplace—and of course, being a very sheltered, misguided teen with no real outlet for his emotions and attempts to fit in, I wholeheartedly bought into that mess, no doubt being indirectly goaded on by the BLF. It got me attention for the first time, it felt like I was actually a part of something.
Somehow I managed to evade the invisible hand of vitriol that permeated the site, but man did I say some choice things on this account. That one April Fool's joke about "4kidschan" comes to mind because that's near exactly what this site was—either that or a tamer Something Awful (pretty sure that's where Badspot got the paywall from). Again, I mostly ended up staying out of things, probably because I was still very clueless, but I did watch the drama from a distance. I thought it was funny. Imagine what it must have felt for those on the receiving end.
I'm still trying to unlearn my mistakes and conquer the seemingly infinite anxiety I have over being myself that I learned from my teenage years and my time here. It's been a long time coming but I'm glad that more of us are aware of the issues that this website caused in the long run.
