Nostalgia for the old web

[Everlong]

Man, little forums like this just don't really exist any more. It's crazy to think of what the internet used to be like compared to now. We had WWE-Club, which was constantly active. We preserved that community for a little bit on here. But the rise of social media and places like Reddit basically destroyed the vast majority of web forums like this.

Just ain't the same any more. I'm sure part of it is growing up, but the internet just isn't as interesting as it once was. Anyone else with me on this?

[AkydefGoldberg]

I never thought about the wider implications social sites had on these humble places of discussion but it makes me think to another forum I used to frequent regularly.

This was around 2005 when I started to post as it was a student forum to research and ask questions about prospective universities. But it also had other forum categories, such as sports, that I would post in.

I still drop into the forum here and there but I was struck by how little engagement there was on the sports pages (even the Manchester United thread, which considering the team's fall from the top since 2013, was pretty quiet) with significantly less posting. The other sections around study seem busy but not much else.

I started using Twitter extensively from 2010 onwards so perhaps, like you said, that and others became the place to be.

It's sad because forums played a massive role in communicating with people far and wide for a number of different things.