Ask Lemmy

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.

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.

Visit cyberspace.online

I was just thinking, the optimal "reddit"-type site should have been just a big list of links to different forums, and nothing more

I miss Livejournal, the original Livejournal where you were able to tell people intimate things about yourselves and make friends for life.

Kinda but in general, I miss when a online community wasn't a walled garden and is open to everyone. I prefer the format of Reddit/Lemmy as I find some forum thread to be difficult to read as there's few different conversation going on.

One of the things I love about forum is that I know that it can be find via online search. Something nice about finding answers from a smaller-niche website that's away from places like Reddit.

Except for the fact that a lot do the "create an account to see the link". Aside from being annoying, encouraging dead accounts is a security risk, not for the forum but for the users.

I loooooved online debating back in the day you used to really get interesting and diverse conversations, they'd go on for pages and have a range of perspectives. On a good board you'd have well reasoned and well sourced arguments, and really learn a lot. All that's gone and sadly I don't see it coming back

I get the nostalgia, but I do like the thread format of modern forums. Sometimes I don't want to wade through subtopics that people are discussing. I'll just collapse the whole thing and focus on what I want to read. I think it's nicer this way.

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.

Tremendously. Forums give me a social boost, social media and Reddit-alikes don't. As you say - disembodied voices.

I detest the deliberately ephemeral nature of modern platforms.

Yes. I’m still on one or two but they’re definitely diminished. They had a bad habit of degenerating into factionalism, or losing their plurality of viewpoints due to popularist ideological purity purges.

Might be handy if Lemmy allowed to hide karma altogether. You could still up-/downvote (depending on the instance, only upvoting allowed). Or places where karma is disabled by default.

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 feel unseen.

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.

I like the anonymity, though.