Actually, given that his article was written the week after PenisBeakerGate and everything that (sadly IMO) went with it, he has a point.
There were always the odd sex talk threads, which by and large were funny.
Then it just got sordid and squalid, and sadly many of the clicksters who arrived with penisbeaker forgot to leave. Not a day goes by now when some hairyhanded bridge dweller doesn't start a thread on their genitalia and what needs doing to it (I know what I'd do with it, sad fuckers) and then (presumably) sits back slapping the monkey while MNers fawn and pander (whilst simultaneously spilling hot beverages over their laptops and telling us that "a little bit of wee came out".
Unfortunately for those of us who still recognise the MN the journalist refers to in his article, it's a bad day on t'interweb when you realise that clicks are more important than credibility.