I've been involved online with MFC since early 96, the mailing list, then the yahoo group, chat room and here.
It may have been down to who was online at the time but debates were sensible for the most part since it was mostly real names and probably the lack of teenage presence etc. Holy shit that's almost 30 years.
I approached the club in May 96 about setting up a website, had a meeting with John Swineburn with grand ideas of what we have now, only to be told that the internet was a fad, that no one would want access to the club's history (Keith and Graham's book) instant news updates etc could be gotten on teletext, every idea or suggestion of use was shot down into flames.