Sarah ManavisVerified account

on a forum i frequented in the mid-late 00s editing porn pictures to no longer be porn became such a prevalent meme they had to pretty harshly crack down on it, and in fact if i remember rightly one of the earliest youtube memes was a video to that effect. plus ca change!!!

i enjoyed this anecdote

i sometimes think forums were one of the greatest losses in internet subculture when they became subsumed by soc med fash factories

i actually agree with this tbh. like, i like the double edged sword of making being ""online"" more accessible to norms, but i also think there were really good (ofc also really bad) communities that developed that are more watered down because of social media

the thing is yer st*rmf*onts et al still exist now but their members have so many more places to lurk in and pollute whereas special interest forums have largely died out except places like mumsnet which have just... become their own thing.

also a lot of special interest forums are now just havens of bad shit themselves. I like MMA, and the old forum for that (sherdog) is still going but now everyone has MAGA in their profile, criticise women for fighting and call Conor McGregor a soy boy beta-cuck