Bring Back Crappy Forums: Web forums were rough around the edges and faded in relevance as seemingly better options emerged. But what if we had stuck with them?

beep@piefed.world · 13 days ago

Bring Back Crappy Forums: Web forums were rough around the edges and faded in relevance as seemingly better options emerged. But what if we had stuck with them?

brucethemoose@lemmy.world · 12 days ago

This is a moot question, because the only thing that matters is engagement.

Internet forums:

Are (mostly) specialized.
Don’t have S&P 500-level advertising.
Don’t constantly ping your phone by default.
Don’t incorporate “dark patterns” in the UI.
Don’t have AI-based algorithmic feeds.
Have rules for posting, which slows down posting.

People didn’t give up on them; their attention got sucked away to other things. And nothing could have changed that, no matter how much they improved.

Not that I have any high horse to stand on.

For a few years, I’ve been telling myself I will become active in a few still-extant forums again (like DPReview and SpaceBattles). I never did.

Bring Back Crappy Forums: Web forums were rough around the edges and faded in relevance as seemingly better options emerged. But what if we had stuck with them?

Bring Back Crappy Forums: Web forums were rough around the edges and faded in relevance as seemingly better options emerged. But what if we had stuck with them?

What We Lost When We Quit Using Crappy Old Web Forums