I have been recently reminiscing with some friends about the internet back when instead of massive websites that held everything, there were small forums with specialized focus. You could get to know the people in the forums over time. It was so much better than the shit that exists today.

I would love to join forums made by these projects. I don’t care if I have to have a bunch of accounts. Individual forums and RSS feeds are awesome. Since moving to RSS I have drastically reduced my mindless scrolling.

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Ah yes phpBB those were the days. Wait, no they weren't. They sucked. Old forum software was one of the worst computing experiences I remember.

Want to download a custom Android ROM? Hope you like reading through this 120 page thread one page at a time. Oh and each message will be surrounded by a metric mile of profile pictures and signature.

RSS was pretty great though, I'll give you that.

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 7 points 2 weeks ago

rss is still everywhere.

[–] conicalscientist@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Flat forums weren't just for downloading Android ROMs. Forums were meant for linear one-to-one discussion. All the eye bleed can be disabled anyways. I haven't looked at avatars or signatures in decades.

Besides has there been a better solution? People were still using XDA forums last I checked. Which has been several years so I don't know. XDA evolved around dedicated individuals who kept a top post updated with relevant info. So the problem was kind of solved after a while.

[–] 01011@monero.town 2 points 1 week ago

Forums and irc channels is a much better combo than twitter and discord.