I meant about 15 years ago when I believe it was mangos and scriptdev2. Compared to runescape servers which I don't think any server software even had a CVS/SVN repo. It was just zip downloads on rapidshare on a downloads sub-forum with zero expectation of there ever being an update.

In fact it looks like those forums are still up, and still has all the old posts. I found an aggregate list from 2008 with 300+ (dead) links to various releases. And this was before multiple clients versions were even a thing. There were only 317 servers, which still seem to be very popular today.

I'm also in wow emu world and I agree. Maintainers seem to be quite picky with accepting changes.

there's also so many weird quirks to the projects, it's basically what keeps me coming back.