Just curious what happened to all those who used to discuss MUDs... were they all run off by the spamming? Lately, all I've really seen is things like 'which testosteroned up loser can break more boards' and 'what gaming chick makes me want to be by myself most' instead of the interesting things that used to show up here. :\

What happened to it?

I'd have to say that it's due to the polls.

Now that there're polls, many people don't bother to post even a short note, feeling that clicking in their vote is sufficient to express their opinion on the matter.  Even when people do rouse themselves enough to make a feeble attempt at a post, the majority of discussion generated by a poll tends to be about either how the poll was badly designed/should've included more options, limited to the choices presented in the poll, or expressions of preferences/dislikes for multiple options.  The scope of discussion has consequently become extremely narrow, and comparitively uninteresting.

Floods of off-topic posts would be a close second IMO.