Old-school forum with under a hundred people and a couple mods that give a shit is peak but does have problems with stagnation and over-specialization. Casual chat rooms or a -chan style board are a good counterbalance and nobody should exist in only one social space. Reddit et al. is a weird in-between and Discord feels like worse IRC.

I don’t care much about karma (that would be up and downvotes, around here) but I do miss the old forums not being centralized and/or owned by a single entity or authority or, more exactly, not being the only space available no matter who owned it.

This allowed for a lot more divergence of opinions and dissent. There was no such thing with the advent of centralized social media. Which is the reason why I was so happy to jump onboard the fediverse when I heard about it: no more owerpowered centralized/unique owner and censor. Worst thing happening around here, I would still be free to move to another instance, or even create my own. To me, even though I don’t think I will ever need it, it’s great.

Another thing I miss of back then are blogs. They still exist, but I miss the thriving (and exciting) communities that existed around them, with its engagement(s).

Blogs sometimes allowed for incredibly interesting conversations, between very different persons expressing their various and oftentimes conflicting opinions. It’s something I think is badly needed today more than it ever was. Something that would help a lot of us rediscover the true meaning of the word ‘discussion’ (which is not to agree with one another singing Kumbaya) and would help us re-leanr/rediscover the importance of being able to debate with people we disagree without calling for them to be censored or worse… That neutering logic of the ‘either you agree with us/me, or you’re out of here’ (or, I insist, worse).

That variety (and healthy tension in debating), I miss. It still exists online, but it’s rare. It’s much simpler to find it offline, irl while having discussions with close friends who are not afraid to speak freely. And inside books… those books whose authors are challenging to read at least. Which sadly means avoiding not all but a large chunk of the contemporary production to focus on long gone writers, classics or not, who trusted/expected their readers to be smart enough to be able to read even the most disturbing ideas without immediately suing them or calling for their cancellation.

I still use them, because they’re awesome.
They’re not gone, although there are quite a bit fewer than some time ago.

I used to mod for a forum. I would not do that again.

Also, isn’t this interface just forum+?

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.

I miss the community. I was a member of a community forum for about 18 years. You knew everyone and it was generally nice.

They’re still alive and kicking.

discourse > discord

No, I never liked the interface with all the conversations mixed so you had to copy most of the thread for context just to add half a line.
I always found them tedious and confusing.

Personally I think that this Reddit style is an upgrade design wise. And as far as recognising people goes, I’m using an app that lets you tag users (Summit) and this has gone quite a long way. It’s also made the start paying attention to other usernames to an extent, so if I notice that someone often posts content that vibes with me or whatever, I can give them a ⭐ or something.

What I do miss from the days when forums were dominant is that people stayed in their lanes a little more. A particular forum or board or even thread is for a particular topic, and people who derailed or came along just to insult and shit on everything were dealt with, without this crying about ‘free speech’.

Current day social media has spawned a bunch of people who feel entitled to say whatever they want to whoever they want in any space they want, and cry about blue haired SJWs or something if there’s consequences. And they act like the internet used to be this place where forum moderators didn’t rule with an iron fist, or like the ‘real world’ is somewhere that you can behave this way without being punched in the face.

I just think a lot of problems could be solved if jocks went back to discussing sportsball and cars and stayed in their lanes, instead of considering themselves to be experts on biology and sociology and vaccines. There’s a fine line between ‘free speech’ and letting the inmates run the asylum, and the last 10 years have proven that.

Basically what I miss from the forum days is that back then, the conspiracy theorist idiots would’ve probably been banned, and would’ve stayed in the fringes of society instead of going mainstream.

No. I feel like reddit/lemmy is a good progression for forums, and I absolutely hate discord when used for technical stuff

I still use some forums like xda-developers and I don’t enjoy it as much a I did 10-15 years ago

there are still here, but not very prevelant as before. the problem with some is some mods are very uptight and when admonish you or ban at the slightest notion they think your violating some rule. Also other people giving you snide or condescending response might be harder to deal or report against, and sometimes you cant contradict someone who has older account who gatekeeps the subject of that forum. forum post also dont see much traffic either, usually its gets ignored pretty quickly.

Unrelated but does anyone know how to fix my gpu drivers?

Never responds again

Forums were cool. They often had their own culture and in-jokes. People would become well-known on the forum. There’s a couple names I recognize on here, but it’s mostly transient. (On the other hand, I’ve probably had a vicious argument with someone and then a nice chat with them later, without realizing it was the same person).

Most internet users seem bland, and just congeal onto youtube, discord, twitch, and other nightmares.

Ah, the good old days of the internet. Yes, I miss them. There are still a few around, like the Linux Mint forum, and some other tech-related ones. But it used to be you could find any topic you were interested in and your account and username were specific to it, and they were separate domains (in the normal, non-tech sense of the word). So you might show one aspect of your personality in one forum and a different aspect in a different kind of forum. Just like you would with different friend or acquaintance groups.