I get it dude, Forum boards will forever have a special place in my heart. It was like viewing another world from a glass window. I had always loved them since I found out about their existence back in 2016. Even though I was too young to ever experience and know how these worked back during their peak. I still remember going onto something awful and game faqs and seeing the different communities formed and how they were tightly knit together and how the members would be talking to each other as if they were lifelong friends. The guides, fanart and whatever else they posted was beautiful in a sense. But it hit me so hard in the gut to see these communities died years before I ever viewed them or that only the most dedicated decided to stay and keep them up. I sometimes will shed a tear when viewing them because its that sad to me to see these communities fall out of relevance.
And the things that replaced them, are just worse in every way, that freedom of expression and being able to show others is just gone. Reddit, if you don't talk about the game or show fanart, you will be ignored. I have seen people in forums make whole guides for people who need help, people who will take on ridiculous challenges (like the person who wanted to get to level 99 in the first area of Final Fantasy) and they account what was happening or what they were doing, or seeing people make LET'S PLAYS and review them on forum boards. You would never see this type of content on reddit. While on Twatter, if you aren't talking about what is popular or trending on twitter, forget about people caring about you, the mob will drown you out. And discord is just twitter again, don't talk about what most people are currently talking about in that channel. You'll be drowned out once again. Another thing they all share is that, if you aren't very closely integrated into the community and do something to it everyday, no one will remember you. While forum boards, you could be gone for months, and because of how dedicated some members are. They will remember you and you talk to each other like you had not left at all. Forums are so closely knitted that almost everyone here is or will be remembered by someone.
Ironically even though the Y2K internet was fractured, it created the most tightly Knit communities. And ever since they internet started to synchronize together, it ironically made the communities more fragile and only survived off of trends.Which you would think would cause the communities to grow bigger.
I don't only wish to fight for message boards, I wish to fight for the old internet to come back in a resurgence. Because it was the old internet that gave life to these forum boards and in turn, the forum boards gave life to the old internet. Although only a fool could dream of such an event
It sucked that I was born too late to experience the old internet and understand it. Although I could view it from my glass window. But don't take my word for everything, I am a fool who didn't get experience an event and is making an input into a time he doesn't understand.I hope you enjoyed my incoherent ramblings at least.
