[kingofclams]

I think the biggest issue is the majority of internet users don't want to join small communities, just one website or app that has all their friends and family. Aside from this, the cost of making a big (the main goal of every social network is go big or go home) social network is increasing as "big" gets bigger and safety requirements get harder to meet.

[lax0]

Thanks to the platforms solving for that side of things, the niches happen within the larger platforms now, like “health insta,” “cryptotwitter,” “yogatok.”

I really do miss the obscure forums of the early 2000s though. The more intimate connections with an anon don’t happen as often (anecdotally, for me) in these subgroups of the big networks.

[rchaud]

Unfortunately, these channels always have ulterior motives because of the social network's ability to create stars, and have them cash in via influencer deals or other benefits of online fame.

[emptyparadise]

Did people really want one big website or were they railroaded into it by a handful of big corporations that stood to benefit from it?

[dwd]

Early on, people (in the US) signed up to companies like Compuserve or AOL which were walled gardens much like Facebook with a "there be dragons" type warning if you chose to venture out into the "real" Internet.

At this point communities sprung up, and were (if lucky) found and hand-indexed by Yahoo or they banded together via web-links.

We then got communities of communities beginning with GeoCities and then MySpace.

It wasn't until Facebook that everyone's personal page looked identical to everyone else's, and surprisingly everyone seemed to like that.

At some point, maybe we'll go back to rolling own own communities, but I doubt it. Security considerations and the constant attacks by scripts/botnets, not to mention data loss and privacy breach legislation, have made the Internet very unfriendly to non-corporates: Ttoo much work and stress.

As far as corporates railroading us: Government legislation is the biggest bar to entry and only necessary because corporates forced everyone to use real identities: where back in the good old days "On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog".

[rchaud]

Lots of medium-size websites had active comments sections back in the day. Increase in trolling, harassment and spambot comments were too much for the sites themselves to moderate.

Lots of sites began to encourage users to take the conversation to Facebook, which they felt would at least be free of "ChEap J0rdAn$, pr_ada bags" type comments.

Little did they know. The comments sections are why a lot of people visited the site in the first place. Once the comments migrated to Facebook, so did the site's audience.

[qPM9l3XJrF]

Desire for friends & family doesn't explain the popularity of twitter, reddit, or youtube.