I’m guessing they’re either referring to the unbelievably gigantic number of threads making it impossible to find the important and notable ones, or they’re referring to the fact that significant forums on the site have been closed down and either deleted or hidden.

I was active on SA from 2004 to 2010, and at one point I was a contractor who worked on the forum code. I was also an admin for a short period. Having been so immersed in the forums for so long, it blows my mind to think that so much internet culture originated on SA. They basically invented the now hugely popular meme format, though they were called image macros then. “tl;dr” and “pro tip” originated there. 4chan was a spin-off forum from their anime forum. I’m sure there’s more I’ve missed.

The allegations in the article against Lowtax are disturbing to say the least.