A nice thing about earlier forums (email chains, vBulletin), is that there was a defined order to the replies, unlike Hacker News, Reddit, or others, where each

A nice thing about earlier forums (email chains, vBulletin), is that there was a defined order to the replies, unlike Hacker News, Reddit, or others, where each comment thread exists as its own thing, unconnected to the comments around it (except those it directly replies to). It's like having a thousand forum threads all running simultaneously on the same page. My brain doesn't handle that well. For anyone seeking an older-style forum with similar interests to Hacker News, check out the Hardware & Software or Developers sub-forums on https://knockout.chat/ https://knockout.chat/ .