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> 4chan was very early, if not close to first of what we'd describe as a "forum" and persisted through the decades That feels untrue. 4chan was launched only i

> 4chan was very early, if not close to first of what we'd describe as a "forum" and persisted through the decades That feels untrue. 4chan was launched only in 2003. Forums are much older than that. Especially if you count forum-like things that aren't called forums, like usenet or bbs.

pimlottc 2y ago
CompuServe used the term “forums” going back at least to the late 1980s
- extraduder_ire 2y ago
  It's a natural term to use for it. Since about the time of the Romans.
dragonwriter 2y ago
> That feels untrue. 4chan was launched only in 2003. Forums are much older than that. Web forums are basically as old as the web; I have accounts that are older than 4chan on forums (what I believe is the oldest forum that I have an account on, which also has my oldest continuous forum account [though not my first forum account] launched in 1996 -- I didn't join until 2002.) Online forums, more generally, are older than the web, whether you are talking about email listservers, nntp groups, or CompuServe forums.
- ryoshu 2y ago
  Usenet was great until the spammers arrived.
  - tstrimple 2y ago
    I've still found a lot of use for it from a "free content" platform and haven't seen anything at all from the spammers. Maybe it's a matter of the indexers I use? What form does usenet spam take?