I miss traditional message boards. No karma, no sorting algorithms, you just get new topics on top and replies are sorted oldest to newest.
You can have forum threads that go on for decades, but Lemmy’s default sorting system quickly sweeps older content away. I’m aware you can mimic the forum format by selecting the “chat” option in a thread and sorting by old, and you can sort posts by “latest comment” which replicates the old-school forum experience pretty well, but nobody does it that way, so the community behaves in the manner facilitated by the default sorting algorithm that prioritizes new content over old but still relevant content.
I also notice that I don’t pay attention to usernames on Lemmy (or Reddit back when I was on it). They’re just disembodied thoughts floating through the ether. On message boards, I get to know specific users, their personalities and preferences and ups and downs. I notice when certain users don’t post for a while and miss them if they’re gone for too long.
EDIT: given this is my most upvoted post on here to date I’d say the answer is yes.
I like the anonymity, though.
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Not OP, but I think forums were separate entities, so you could choose a different username on each one and have disconnected identities.
On Reddit, or even here, you have the same identity for all content you follow. People can easily trace out your profile.
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I think the big problem/reason why people feel the need for anonymity is because of what I mention here. Basically, people always feel on pins and needles with regards to shitty moderation.
I actually think further than this, people in power are almost always too blood lusty and immediately jump to permanent bans all the time.
It results in chilling effects that create echo chambers.
Of course what you talk about doesn’t help as it serves to make people even more trigger happy as real bad faith threats exist and you can’t easily tell intent.
I feel like to have real conversations online, maybe a more ideal hypothetical platform would have any sort of legal binding to follow certain terms, they’d require being connected to a real id without storing said personal information in plain text, and would connect that to specific IDs to completely shut down (meaningfully) the botting, to have people actually talk.
People could then chat as themselves, or anonymously under a username, but there would never be confusion as to whether or not someone was real.
This is very half baked though and I already can think of tons of problems.
People suck. People especially suck when they get even a modicum of power.
You can still create for each topic a different account. One Lemmy account that is subscribed to game communites, another one for local news etc…
Yes, but who actually does that?
I honestly have two accounts, one for SFW content and another one on LemmyNSFW. But it’s still a bit annoying to switch accounts.
Sorry, I just saw your reply. I was addressing the thing you said about forums, where people identify frequent posters; their profile picture is big, there is often a signature, a big nickname, etc. I like that we (here on Lemmy and similar sites) do not often read the little nickname above. I’m sure no one or almost no one can say which other comments I have made without going to my profile. There’s nothing behind my words but my words: no reputation, no prejudice from an accounts’ aesthetic, etc. I mean, my grammar betrays me, and someone might remember me from a previous encounter. But yeah, like I said, I’m like a blob for most people, and that’s comfortable.
I was going to end the comment there, but there are so many reasons why I prefer to be a blob, a little text box. First, traumatic experience. Second, when there’s a reputation, it starts to weight on how people receive your messages and I hate that people misconstrue me (and I guess I’m easy to caricaturize). Third, no social drama, no social nothing. Peace… ᵃⁿᵈ ᵗʰᵒˢᵉ ᵃʳᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ᵐᵃⁱⁿ ʳᵉᵃˢᵒⁿˢ.