I've been a member for about 7 years, but I've only posted regularly in the past year. I think the place is great. Back in the old days, it was so crowded, you couldn't have a discussion. Posts flew by so fast, any comment you made was buried pages deep in a matter of hours. Lots of low-effort, one-liner posts. Lots of clutter and noise. The SJW mods didn't help, although it took me a while to catch on to how toxic and repressive that stuff is.
Anyhow, GAF is great now. You can have discussions. You can recognize individual people and begin to learn their personalities and posting styles. There is free speech, with reasonable limits. You can say what you think, even if it's not politically correct, even if it might hurt someone else's fee fees, and even if everyone else thinks you're an ass. It creates a free-wheeling, easy going atmosphere, just like a game forum should have. It's got a good diversity of opinion. It has a wide range of topics being discussed, with a lot of different perspectives. I like that it has a lot of people who've abandoned Reeee. Those are my people.
I'm also really pleased that it's rebounding so nicely. Good to hear about those stats and the trajectory. It's nice to be a part of a forum that is growing in such a positive direction. Congrats to all who hung in there and helped out.