I miss traditional message boards. No karma, no sorting algorithms, you just get new topics on top and replies are sorted oldest to newest.
You can have forum threads that go on for decades, but Lemmy’s default sorting system quickly sweeps older content away. I’m aware you can mimic the forum format by selecting the “chat” option in a thread and sorting by old, and you can sort posts by “latest comment” which replicates the old-school forum experience pretty well, but nobody does it that way, so the community behaves in the manner facilitated by the default sorting algorithm that prioritizes new content over old but still relevant content.
I also notice that I don’t pay attention to usernames on Lemmy (or Reddit back when I was on it). They’re just disembodied thoughts floating through the ether. On message boards, I get to know specific users, their personalities and preferences and ups and downs. I notice when certain users don’t post for a while and miss them if they’re gone for too long.
I still mess around in some traditional forums and I do not miss them.
The time bias is much bigger. First comments are usually the only ones people read and replies. If there’s a great comment in page 5 no one is going to see it. But if there’s a troll comment in page one it is on everyone’s faces. Karma system fixed that.
It’s true the thing about usernames and avatars. But I prefer not to personalize a lot so for me that’s also a plus, I can focus in the comment and not in who has written it.