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
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.