Ill prob never read the response to this post but as a nov 2004 subscriber.
1. The community is gone, before the community was never top notch but it was relevant. And they all wernt whining.
2. In vanilla being in a reputable guild meant something, now i can only name maybe 4 guilds on my server at the top of my head, cant name any of there gm's.
3. Lots of people didn't like vanilla because raiding was NOT accessible to everybody. I got REALLY lucky and got a spot in a 40 man guild who was very good and consistent. However, i did notice that a lot of other players did not get that same opportunity.
4. PvP was kind of a joke, i got to rank 12 (general) and if i would of gotten any further i would have to given up my job.
5. Just overall realm presence, feels like im on a realm with abunch of random people, whereas before i knew people from random world bosses/ or dungeon runs that we did because there wasnt crossrealm
6. A very elite few controlled the AH
7. The epicness is just gone. Its gone forever. Play vanilla on a private server or just enjoy the remnant of once a great game.