[projektir]

> Overall it's just an issue of popularity bringing out the worst in people.

I don't really agree, it's the issue of aggregating everything relevant to a subject, which makes the popularity relevant.

BBS were not aggregated by subject. They're aggregated by the BBS itself. For a given game, there may be 10 BBS. That's how it was before. You'd go to the BBS with the community style you prefer. You have a choice.

Now, you're just stuck with one subreddit/Discord server/etc., which just reduces the quality of it all. And given the poor organizational ability of those services, it becomes entirely driven by a mix of popularity and posting speed.

[also no skin in the game for the BBS owner, as there is no BBS owner. No BBS competition]

It's the same with most "social apps", yes, because discussion shouldn't occur on "social apps", it should occur on private moderated spaces.