4 ms·

BBSes and forums have existed for literally longer than the internet

by estimator7292 11mo ago

themafia 11mo ago
Were they global or local? I made that distinction intentionally.
- throwaway81523 11mo ago
  Usenet was US-centric but somewhat global and certainly not local. Even dialup BBS's were sometimes nationwide despite long distance phone charges. I wasn't into the BBS thing though.
- reaperducer 11mo ago
  Were they global or local? I made that distinction intentionally. Either or both, depending on the SYSOP's resources. I ran a BBS that did store-and-forward between the U.S. and Europe. The ones with global connections could take a day to a week to forward messages, but that turned out to be a feature. We went outside in the real world instead of staying online arguing with strangers.
- yencabulator 10mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet
pinnochio 11mo ago
The demographics of who was online before the internet went mainstream matter a lot, here. It wasn't exactly a representative slice of the general population.
- rchaud 11mo ago
  Forums were still going strong a decade after the Internet went mainstream. They only started to fade after smartphones took off and many forums took years to introduce mobile themes. For sports teams however, forums never faded, there tens of millions of users on team-specific soccer forums for example.
  - pinnochio 11mo ago
    That's a good point. I think a lot of forums were less vulnerable for a number of reasons. They typically don't have a large audience (not all, but most), which makes them less of a target. They're also organized around niche interests that don't intersect much with politics and cultural issues, off-topic forums aside. And they're probably more heavily moderated than social media and blog comments. I think the general point stands when considering large-scale platforms.
    - blep-arsh 11mo ago
      Forums also didn't have personalized content recommendation engines... usually, I think
- rixed 11mo ago
  The demographics have nothing to do with that, the economic incentive is what changed when it becomes mainstream.
  - yetihehe 11mo ago
    > The demographics have nothing to do with that, [..] changed when it becomes mainstream. So it's not unreasonable to say that when demographics of forums was changed, the economic incentive appeared? So it actually depends on demographics?

BBSes and forums have existed for literally longer than the internet

themafia 11mo ago

Were they global or local? I made that distinction intentionally.

throwaway81523 11mo ago
Usenet was US-centric but somewhat global and certainly not local. Even dialup BBS's were sometimes nationwide despite long distance phone charges. I wasn't into the BBS thing though.
reaperducer 11mo ago
Were they global or local? I made that distinction intentionally. Either or both, depending on the SYSOP's resources. I ran a BBS that did store-and-forward between the U.S. and Europe. The ones with global connections could take a day to a week to forward messages, but that turned out to be a feature. We went outside in the real world instead of staying online arguing with strangers.
yencabulator 10mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet

pinnochio 11mo ago

The demographics of who was online before the internet went mainstream matter a lot, here. It wasn't exactly a representative slice of the general population.

rchaud 11mo ago
Forums were still going strong a decade after the Internet went mainstream. They only started to fade after smartphones took off and many forums took years to introduce mobile themes. For sports teams however, forums never faded, there tens of millions of users on team-specific soccer forums for example.
- pinnochio 11mo ago
  That's a good point. I think a lot of forums were less vulnerable for a number of reasons. They typically don't have a large audience (not all, but most), which makes them less of a target. They're also organized around niche interests that don't intersect much with politics and cultural issues, off-topic forums aside. And they're probably more heavily moderated than social media and blog comments. I think the general point stands when considering large-scale platforms.
  - blep-arsh 11mo ago
    Forums also didn't have personalized content recommendation engines... usually, I think
rixed 11mo ago
The demographics have nothing to do with that, the economic incentive is what changed when it becomes mainstream.
- yetihehe 11mo ago
  > The demographics have nothing to do with that, [..] changed when it becomes mainstream. So it's not unreasonable to say that when demographics of forums was changed, the economic incentive appeared? So it actually depends on demographics?