I miss forums. Even used to run one myself. And I think they will come back, because they are better able to support slower, more thoughtful discussions. But I

I miss forums. Even used to run one myself. And I think they will come back, because they are better able to support slower, more thoughtful discussions. But I also think there's a reason the pendulum swung away from them. For a social space, that aspect of permanence is a double-edged sword. It also means that your embarrassing moments are preserved for all posterity, and probably even Googleable. That creates some baseline anxiety in some people who are aware of that phenomenon, and I suspect that that is a part of the reason why flamewars were more common back in the day. But, perhaps more insidiously, that permanence can become an engine of gatekeeping. It was so frustrating to watch the old guard on the forum I read unwittingly chase away newcomers with their endless links to old discussions. They thought they were being helpful. What they were trying to say is, "Here's some content that might interest you." But what was being heard was, "We don't need to talk about this thing you want to talk about because we've talked about it 4 times already." And so a new generation of people naturally gravitated toward places where those sorts of things don't - can't - happen.