i started using the internet in the late 2000’s and still remember when you search for something most of the times it would return with a forum post … now its just random websites … if you ever need real and concise answer you have to add site:reddit.com at every search and since discord or twitter are not crawlable by these search crawlers they are not mentioned . Where did all those forums went…are there still active forums ?

  • BudFactory@feddit.deEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    Discord is pretty much the worst thing that happened to readily available information on the internet (when it comes to games and tech in general at least). No, I don’t wanna join your very specific niche server and use a search function worse than any forum back in the days had in hope to find the information I want.

    Also Google got way worse, but that‘s no secret.

    • SkyNTP@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      “Join our discord”.

      No I don’t think I will. I don’t want to chat. I want to RTFM.

      • BudFactory@feddit.deEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        That‘s not even all. The process now is something like:

        Search on Google: no answer -> search on Google with Reddit.com appended: no answer -> search on Google with Reddit and Discord Server appended: click through 3 expired invitation links -> finally find a working one: scroll through pages and pages of memes and rule34 content to find the answer you wanted

        I want my searchable forums and bulletin boards back ffs.

        • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          People falling back behind closed or private barriers for guaranteed human to human interaction and information as AI rises is more and more likely in the future … IMO.

  • pinkfootedgoose@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    People hosted their own forums as there was no viable alternative, and you didn’t care about legal liabilities, data governance, right to be forgotten, DDoS protection etc.

    Most people (not all) will choose the easy option of an existing service. Of which the value for that service is to lock you in and spend all your time there.

    Saying that I’m still active on multiple forums, but they’ve been around for years, and it’s definitely an older nerdier demographic.

  • Harryd91@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Not dead but definitely on life support. I really do miss old forums. Reddit / Discord / Fediverse don’t come close to the old community feel. Facebook groups aren’t so bad sometimes for that but then the content is organised terribly. Say what you will about forum search engines but I could always rely on being able to enter a keyword or two and get what I was looking for.

    A lot of forums I frequented were actually pretty well organised with subforums. It just isn’t the same these days.

    Also web forums were the absolute best for petty drama. I do miss that in a weird way. Always that one angry gatekeeper flaming everyone.

  • Hubi@feddit.deEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Just to give another perspective, the German part of the internet is still full of extremely niche bulletin board-style forums for every hobby/technology imaginable. Many have millions of posts and have been online for 20+ years. Seems to me like it’s mostly the English-speaking web that’s been affected by these large content aggregators and closed platforms like Discord.