>>9680
I browsed for a few years. The users aren't "bad people", mostly, but the main reason people go there is to shelter themselves. If you like sheltered people, it's the place for you. It changed a little since, but the thing was built to shelter people in the first place. It shows when you take a step back.
For some of them, that means it's the only type of site they browse, and their social exposure is limited, if you exclude facebook maybe. For some old guys, it's a way to try to keep a 90s to early 2000s long rotting mindset alive, that at best works akin to a low-level mom and pop drug operation... from the 90s. (The only reason these people ever survived was lack of enforcement) When they do have some exposure, it's often from interaction with the furry community, which is more like taking away a badge than giving you one.
After awhile you see the type of common poster and mentality and it's glaringly obvious a lot are just there to reinforce each other's defects, and with occasional exceptions, even disagreements are superficial or they're not where it matters.
Strangely, even though Beastforum is a much worse site, I felt that it gets proportionally more normal-ish people than the offshoot zoo sites, not only but ZF in particular (it was largely derived from BF, the owner used to post there, and that's their central point of reference for making a website). Although a lot of posters on Beastforum come off very sheltered too, if not often more so. But places like ZF seem to concentrate it.
Branching off a bit, most signups have no idea what kind of place ZF really is, because the truly awful stuff gets swept under the rug by the admins, or restricted to a private section for VIP members. Such as, not one but two moderators (that I know of) having convictions and one ending up in the news. (It's not the first time I say this I'm sure, but 8archive.moe is in repair) Or having owners and mods living in the UK (zoobb did this too iirc).
The most disappointing thing I've seen lately is someone advertising zoophilia.pictures. When I signed in, the rules list was obviously copy-pasted from zoophilesforum, and they seem to even share a host? Same basket. A decade later and these people still don't get it. It's a microcosm repeat of ZF branching off from BF and EZ.
You know why I browse 8chan/zoo? Because apart from some wayward users and content, there isn't a trace of Beastforum, Zetaforum, Zoophilesforum, OR zoobb.com foundation here. It's a simple board that just does its own thing with no unnecessary moderation (if you need that much moderation it means you're doing something wrong somewhere else), and its foundation is something outside the decrepit zoo world, and what do you know... it works! The perk is... over time you'll end up with a less sheltered and more self-sufficient (and less trust-dependent) userbase (which coincidentally happens to be the only smart way to keep zoos out of jail). Assuming all this survives the aftermath of the Josh cataclysm.
Hope you got enough info in there.