I'm a veteran who returned after a couple years of retirement and I'm much more disgusted by what I have read on AT and the toxic atmosphere that rules on these boards for the last couple of months (and even more so in the last couple of weeks) than by the ingame actions of alliances. There's nothing there that hasn't happened before.
If you have an in-game system whereby you encourage players to participate on the forums, not making them a cesspit should be a priority.