What was once an open place is now very, very constrained. The acceptable range of viewpoints has ratcheted into a narrower and narrower consensus, to the point where the discussions are boring and you have to be careful to not make them interesting. The viewpoint racheting alienated a lot of people from the site who used to feel like they were part of the community.
So true! Controversial topics and confrontation are avoided at all costs. So from one side metafilter it is very civil and quiet, but from the other side is quite uninspired and dull.
Metafilter is like the American suburbs of the internet. Nice and tidy, but boring.
