Le sigh. It is still a matter of scale. How many devices do you have these days that can be used to post a review online would be the main point? With that capability I would expect the more modern D&D is the more I would expect people to post about it and do things like online reviews.
Being honest how many online devices did you have in the following years in your home. And by online devices I mean things connected to the internet and could be used to browse it?
Mine
1998 0
2000 1 (1 console)
2003 3 (2 console, 1 PC)
2008 7 (2 PCs, 3 consoles, 2 phones)
2014 14 (2 phones, 2 PCs, 2 TVs, 1 tablet 7 consoles)
The jump between 2008 and 2014 is things like smart phones, TVs, and every gaming console having the net built in. Is my household unusual in the amount of web capable devices being added? I suppose it is odd I kept my old consoles including the one I had in 2000.
1992: 1 (via dialup through the university)
1994: 2 (via dialup through the university - both desktops)
1998: 5 (3x desktop, 1x laptop, 1x Newton MP140 with modem) and a cablemodem
2003: 5 (3x laptop, 2x desktop, 1x Newton)
2008: 12 (3x laptop, 4x desktop, 1x newton, 1x Wii, 3x Palm with wifi, 1xDSi, 1x DVD player)
2014: about 16, counting all the abandoned functional hardware of my parents. as in, 16 that one can pull the dustcover, plug it into the wall, fire it up, reset the clock, plug in the one physical cable that is there, and be able to go online. I'm not counting the half-dozen assorted needs-a-part or needs-a-reinstall.
One of the desktops only supports HTTP 1.0, and hasn't had a software upgrade since 1998. Runs Mac OS 8.5.
The Newton's browser sucked, but worked. The hardware still works, but I can't get dial-up any more.
I've got an ethernet card for the Apple IIGS, and could, in theory, run the web browser for it... but haven't counted it in any of the above.
All the local high schools had internet by 1999. Students were allowed to use it by 2001, when I started working for them.
I've had internet access since I started college... in 1988. Rec.games.frp.dnd dates to 1992. Rec.games.frp dates back further still. I didn't get into usenet until 1990, but there was discussion there about games already. And gopher servers on the internet with netbooks, often the same ones as were on WWIVnet. And wwivnet discussion groups were often nation wide, tho' it could take upwards of a week to see responses to your post from across the country.
There has always been a strong tech-geek element connection to RPG's. And lots of opinionation about them.
Most of my friends were on the internet by 1995, either through fidonet tie-ins, Compuserve, or through the university. D&D discussion online was pretty common. And blogs were happening - even tho' the term wasn't used yet - with people putting commentary up on their website, and then posting response comments to it received via email by manually editing the HTML. Much of it looked much like JH Kim's website. Internet email discussion groups were really popular from about 1994 on to about 2002.