Forums also have seasons.
One tech forum I used to frequent had the single best community spirit I’ve ever had the pleasure of participating in. And I go back to the days of the text based dialup (i.e. pre Internet) BBS sites when software like FidoNet, RBBS, and Synchronet BBS hosting was the state of the art.
This particular forum achieved an exceptional camaraderie with virtually zero moderation. I’ve never seen anything online that approached its level of common courtesy and social grace. Everyone, with the inevitable few exceptions, parked their egos at the door during the discussions. It was a truly good place to hang, share acquired wisdom, learn, and debate.
I gradually drifted out of it as my career and personal life shifted away from computer technology even though I still maintained my membership. However, the last time I dropped by after a few years hiatus, I was surprised to see the place felt like a ghost town. The regular cadre of about a hundred or so very active members, and maybe twice as many occasional contributors, had largely evaporated. And the topic board activity and the depth of the discussions on them reflected that.
There were a few names I still recognized from the halcyon years. But even they weren’t as active anymore - and the newer generation members seemed to be less interested in long form online discussions and more into short tweet type posts. Which doesn’t lend itself that well to in depth technical discussions.
Sad to see how it’s faded away to what it is now. But so it goes. As one person put it:
Online communities tend to be like summer romances. But sometimes those summer romances were the best ones of all.
Yeah. Sounds about right.
