I miss forums.
Not even because they were better websites.
Most of them were ugly as hell.
But they felt like places.
You would recognize usernames. People had signatures. There were inside jokes that made no sense unless you had been there for a while. Somebody would make a thread and it could stay alive for months.
You actually went somewhere online.
Now everything feels like one giant feed.
TikTok, Instagram, X, Reddit, YouTube. Different apps, same basic idea.
Scroll until something grabs you.
Forums felt slower.
If you cared about something, you went to the place where people who cared about that thing were hanging out.
And you usually had to participate for a while before anybody knew who you were.
I think I miss that part the most.
The internet used to feel like a bunch of little towns.
Now it feels like one massive shopping mall.
