In short GTI owners were getting bored and pissed off with all the R talk...
I missed all that. When I joined this forum in 2010, the GTI drivers seemed pissed off with all the GTD talk. Some forum members were real dicks. So I lost interest. That all seems to have settled down now.
I'm guessing that some GTI drivers didn't like the fact that the Golf R was the top dog.
Over on an Audi A3/S3 forum talk seems to be dominated by S3 drivers. So it is good that there is another forum for Golf R drivers.