I took a quick look at the Dvorak link. As you imply, he's a famous troll. Any forum which (a) uses email and (b) publishes a list of its members on a web site deserves what it's going to get.
Dvorak doesn't mention usenet on the page that I read, but "Death of usenet" has been predicted for so may years the the expression has long been a standing joke.
There are many email forums (including the closed yahoo groups) that are subject to enough control that they don't get out of hand. Mudcat comes into that category too, being privately owned and run as a benign dictatorship.