Online forums, not quite gone, not quite forgotten

There’s an idea the old discussion forums, once a fixture on the web, fell out of favour because after a decade or two, people wanted a change. Social media was that change, and we all flocked there. But from the late nineties (though they’d been around earlier), through to maybe the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, online forums were the place to meet and interact with others. They weren’t always the most civil of places, like social media today, but it seemed like you didn’t need to be an influencer to be noticed. Plus you chose what to read, or not, no algorithm involved. Fast forward to today, and forums are not so common, though there’s still a few going that are also quite active. Boards.ie, a forum based in Ireland, is one example that comes to mind.