[historia_novae]

Yes, probably the saddest thing I read this week. Self-promotion on twatter and HN is different than forming friendship. The goold old days of fora was way better to make friends from the internet IMO. Nowadays everything seems to be a link aggregator which fundamentally change how people interact with each other.

Also it may be more an academic thing, but cold emailing is a good way to make contact. Not necessarily friends thought it can happen but at least it can make projects advance, with very little (public) noise.

[AlwaysRock]

> The goold old days

Okay. But those days are gone. So what do you expect OP and folks growing up today to do? Shy of time travel they cant live the childhood you did and experience the magical internet of the ~90's.

Maybe their version is just as good to them as yours was to you?

[psyc]

Those days are not gone. Forums mated with IRC and became Discord.

[AlwaysRock]

Uh I guess? Wasnt the point thought that companies are shaping the online experience more now than in the past? Discord may be less moderated than most (although the controversies section of their wiki page is longer than any other section) but that seems to be more of a bug than a feature. Eventually the big acquisition or IPO will come and then the moderation will follow.

[nanomonkey]

There are still plenty of decentralized (non-corporate owned) social platforms like Matrix, Scuttlebutt, Mastadon, Gemini to experiment with, set up for your own community or meet people and make friends online.