"That quote was created before the offtopic board,"- no, it wasn't
The original welcome page in July 2001 read:
You have reached the Habitablezone. This is a place for those with an interest in space. The Habitablezone Space Science Bulletin Board was started because of the deteriorating quality of the MSNBC Space BBS. The Habitablezone space board is lightly moderated to ensure that the same does not happen here.
Posts advocating an alien built face on Mars, Government conspiracies to cover-up aliens etc. are not welcomed here. It is preferred that those posts stay at the MSNBC Space BBS.
Flame wars will be moved to a special board here and off topic and current event discussion may be brought to corresponding boards at Afterhours.cc.