Agree with everything here, and I'll also add that spam was a major problem for the simpler forums. It takes a lot of effort to combat, (at least until Google'

Agree with everything here, and I'll also add that spam was a major problem for the simpler forums. It takes a lot of effort to combat, (at least until Google's recaptcha) and some forums stopped accepting new users from the public. Adding recaptcha requires a programmer, and not all forums have one. I joined one classic-style forum in the last 5 years and it required sending a email to the admin to add my account by hand. It also didn't have SSL...