Queer my veer.
The General forum that you miss is the one that was heavily monitored by the cool / elite police. Unfortunately all the cool people have grown up / got married / had kids / moved on / lost interest. This wave started soon after the very controversial decision to eliminate TCR which effectively killed all tharkee-pana and the above crowd which thrived on it.
General has now been invaded by the Cafe janata and renamed to All Views. The forum is now meant for a select few of the Cafe crowd who are getting just a wee bit sick of Cafe but not yet socially matured / seasoned to take on General topics that require heavy use of sarcasm / wit and at the same time totally avoid the use of smilys to make their point.
Some remnants of the General you're looking for can still be be found lurking around GS as free radicals. You will find them if you look hard enough.
hehehe!
Thank god you're back Chee!