One of my earlier, formative internet experiences (last 90s) was on a forum. It was a reply to one of my comments, from Douglas Adams. The internet used to be

One of my earlier, formative internet experiences (last 90s) was on a forum. It was a reply to one of my comments, from Douglas Adams. The internet used to be a vast number of places you could travel to, each populated by a small but generally friendly set of people. You could have a discussion with the group about shared interests surrounding a specific topic. Sure, there were trolls, but they were few and far between. Today's social media landscape is a handful of sites where everyone goes to discuss everything. As a result, it's much, much harder to have productive discussions that don't get derailed or out-and-out attacked by bad actors.