What are we going to do about it?
Sorry for the Google Translate Link. An easy alternative is much appreciated.
Edit: thanks to @Xamrica@lemmy.dbzer0.com for this translation alternative: https://translate.kagi.com/translate/https://www.xataka.com/servicios/foros-internet-estan-desapareciendo-porque-ahora-todo-reddit-discord-eso-preocupante
Back in mid 00s I created a forum for fellow classmates to share notes, info on exams and whatever. It was active for a year or a bit more, then someone set up a Facebook page for our group and the forum died in about a month. I could not understand why people migrated so quickly, Facebook group was atrocious when it comes to search functions, any files, notes or anything you didn’t download immediatelly were lost to time never to be seen again. If the forum is still up I’m sure I’d still be able to easily download exam schedules and all notes from all the classes there, with Facebook it was a pain even a week after someone posted. There is something fundamentally wrong with society if an inferior product can sweep the board so easily. People do not care about quality or usefulness of anything, all that matters is marketing and trends.
You are right, but as I sit here and use Lemmy, I can’t help but think while being a perfectly functional forum, it lacks aesthetics. What I’m looking at is Windows 1997 High contrast text editor. It tickles my nostalgia, but I can see why Reddit has a broader appeal. People like gimmicks, as much as they like aesthetics and simplicity.
Yeah, while aesthetics is typically considered a side-effect of your choice of client, i think Lemmy should offer prettier aesthetics to choose from. In the menu:
You always gotta think about use lazy users too. Settings are great but you actually need to draw people into a level they want to customize. I’m almost there thanks for the heads up! I’m coming from the lemmy.world url. It’s not bad it’s just not good. It’s great for us older folks but I can see where it would create an age gap. The trend of people who enjoy windows 97 UI is declining.
check https://alexandrite.app/ and https://phtn.app/
There’s also https://vger.app/ for mobile.
People are lazy. Getting people to sign up for a forum has a much MUCH higher inertia than just clicking join in a group on a platform they already have an account for.
People will subsequently evidently just “deal” with it’s inadequacies.
Reddit has the same advantage, you have one account and subsequently have access to a billion and then some communities. Ditto for Discord versus self hosted solutions like Teamspeak.
Lemmy kind of adresses all of this, but actual forum software I think is still mostly the same as it was in the early to mid 2000’s when I used it. It’s demise is a shame but not a surprise.
The people who made phpBB didn’t, so far as I know, have teams of behavioural psychologists gaming out how best to sell us ads and waste infinite amounts of our time.
omg totally, I hate that people do that. I don’t see a way out without introducing digital literacy classes at schools