It's still happening today just not on as big of a scale. I have given away more coral in the year before I shut my old tank down than I did sell. However it was all to people that were friends or I had seen more than a handful of times.

What is gone are the days of people actually going to look at tanks. Seems since the social media thing took over, people would rather see a picture on instagram rather than driving across the city to look at a tank in person. If your not going to make face to face contact, how can you expect to actually start a friendship and give each other coral.

The hobby has become less of a community and more of a instagram follower, let's give likes, sort of a community.