Yes, they even had full-time professional writers - happier times.
The writing was great and the comments were so good. There would be hundred of people trying to guess what the next episode of Mad Men was going to be about and people picked up on tiny little period details.
Unfortunately they were removed and I don't believe they were archived anywhere :(
For a while I was under the impression that all the reviews in The A.V. Club were satirical, and I could never figure out what the joke was supposed to be.