Wholeheartedly agree. Maybe it is just nostalgy, but there was something special in these communities that Facebook Groups and Subreddits just don't have it. I

Wholeheartedly agree. Maybe it is just nostalgy, but there was something special in these communities that Facebook Groups and Subreddits just don't have it. I was part (in pt-BR): "I thought it was ice cream but it was beans" and "I like coke without gas". It is something about signaling your identity online that is less pretentious, it takes itself less seriously than what you see today on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. It also wasn't as vicious as the informal forums like 4Chan and some subreddits. These take themselves very seriously in conforming to the "let's not take ourselves too seriously" culture. It is hard to determine if it was the product or the current overall internet culture at the time that was responsible for this more healthy (IMO) environment. But having Orkut in my college years certainly made be a happier person.