...because I think in about 1998-ish I actually broke one by being soooooo boring. And I can't for the life of me remember what it was called. It had "family" in the title though.
It was quite similar in format to MN, but obviously less sophisticated. There was quite a lot of anti-immigrant daily mail type stuff, and I remember becoming convinced that the BNP were using it as a platform, so I spent hours in tedious debate under various pseudonyms trying to hold back the neo-nazi tide until the hundreds, if not thousands, of people using the board seemed to just stop posting and go elsewhere, probably worried about asking about teething for fear of inciting a debate about Aryan supremacy...
Perhaps this forum's demise actually helped mumsnet to form? Does anyone remember, or have any similarly cringe-worthy tales from the early days of the Internet?