Internet forums that were based on phpBB and other popular scripts were one of the best parts of the internet that Reddit and Facebook shamelessly killed with the applause of the netizens. Centralization of those forums was a huge regression and it felt like we went to a point that was worse than Web 1.0. I feel like Lemmy is a return of that forum culture that made the internet great.

Man this takes me back... I also remember the early days of the internet, browsing it on my dad's computer. I miss these dumb times.

You nailed just about everything that I've been enjoying about Lemmy, too!

To me, it's definitely reminiscent of reddit circa 2011-2012. There aren't any bots yet, so discussions feel more grounded; and it has a similar air of wonder to it, like people are still excited for both what the community is and what it can be.

...Except for the sorting. Sorting by Subscribed or Local feel reddit-ish, with the former being a self-curated feed and the latter being a broader discovery feed of whatever going on in your chosen instance. Sorting by All, though, feels a bit like stepping back to my old high-school 4chan days, but with less sharpies in buttholes.

I miss IRC!

This is my first time feeling part of an online community, it's amazing!

Is there anything here in the lemmiverse that prevents bot activity?

Yeah, ever since I first arrived on kbin, I’ve felt like a breeze is passing through me. It took me a while to realize, but then it hit me: it’s because I’m not enraging Redditors every day by just opening my mouth.

We did it Fediverse!

I'm a few years younger, but my sentiments are the same. I became a denizen of the Internet towards the end of the golden era of forums.
Due to scepticism, I didn't join Reddit until fairly late (~2018).

It didn't quite feel the same, but it did scratch the itch - but over the last few years it did feel like it was changing into something else. Quality content was getting buried under a sea of bot-generated reposts, and the sense of community kind died off. I ended up becoming quite the lurker towards the end.

Being here has awoken that old forum user in me, and while I may not be great at generating posts, it has made me want to reply and comment to stuff again.

Yes, it does feel a bit like that!

I first experienced the "world wide web" in 1995. I'm not saying it's exactly like that, but in some way kbin reminds me of earlier simpler times on the web. I've only been on here for two days.

Best way I can describe it: really feels like the start of something.

I'm much younger so I never really got to use these smaller forums, I grew up with a centralised and corporate internet where everyone used the same handful of websites. And then began the enshittification. All the sites I used started getting worse with every update so I stopped using them one by one, with the most recent one being reddit. Moving to the fediverse made me realise just how little I was actually enjoying those sites. I wasn't browsing them for content or for discussion, I was browsing them because I was addicted. Uninstalling the apps and deleting my accounts has done wonders for my mental health, and the smaller community here is so much nicer and more welcoming than the toxic ocean that is social media.

Right? Being on kbin makes me feel like a teenager hanging out on forums again, it's nice

It is great again! Mastodon was cool but lemmy is epic!