What exactly do you miss about early internet forums?

[fonduegirl]

[Maybe_Maybe_not]

I think the non-chat, non-instantaneous, slow nature of forums gave more space to think and elaborate. As opposed to Facebook and successors that normalized reactions instead of discussions.

Decentralisation was also the norm, I liked that better than having a few gigantic entities concentrating all powers.

Still related to decentralisation, I kind of miss local emojis brought by the forum itself, instead of the streamlined emoji set we have now. But Discord fixed that, with bringing back custom emojis of the 2000s

[RachyRach]

More freedom to say what you want without people being offended.

[fonduegirl]

SO TRUE nowadays you have to add 900 disclaimers before posting ANYTHING

[RachyRach]

Facts.

[EzraIsShy76028]

I've never been super active on them but I guess perhaps authenticity. Now everyone just wants the most likes or followers or whatever.

[slatyb]

How early? Before Compuserve and AOL, Usenet home to intelligent discussion. When it became available to the general public it was filled with nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Some gaming companies still have forums where you can discuss their products and also socialize

[TonyMetal___1986]

It was more realistic and you can express yourself a lot more

[SixFootSexy]

Knowing the bots weren't smart enough to fool you for more than a couple messages.

[Anonymous]

some of those the people were more open and honest i can recall a few good sites where i got good info

[AgentG111]

Less BS less AI less government crap more open and real.

[dudeinohio]

More on topic discussion and people weren't as rude.

[loveslongnails]

The absence of scammers.

[Kaneki05]

Less government oversight

[DryGermanGuy]

No gigabyte of data for one website…

[6942Dantheman]

no bots, more taboo, more freedom.

[MereAnarchy]

People have become enshittified.