I would feel the same as Ryu, only without so much bias and maybe a little bit more fondness for the old days. The 1 reason for that is simply because some of us were still heavily discussing Shenmue and the future of Shenmue etc, that there were some awesome conversations, research, modding and hacking going on that it only added to the appetite for Shenmue III. Incidently adding to this was that there was a high chance of Shenmue III at that time, with Shenmue IIx being released, Microsoft quietly announcing that Shenmue III would be coming,and the Kizko article etc.
Some people dont like them days as much as me, and thats fine. But back then i stayed out of the aguents and politics. I turned down a mod post back then because i really just wanted to say Shenmue focused and not be dragged into, what was back then, a huge dictatorship with too many chiefs and not enough indians. In this day and age though, from a Shenmue standpoint, these forums have dropped in the levels of discussion, but that has balanced out with the increase of general gaming and life discussions that we really do have the best of both worlds here right now. The forums are excellent, being ran excellently, have an appeal to new members and also have a collection of great people i can be privelidged to call friends that visit here on a daily basis.