[PLenz]

It's a cycle. The internet started with usenet and specific interest newsgroups and niche forums a la phpbb. Then the wide open of social media. Now back to specific again. A generation from now it will shift again.

[ethanol-brain]

I have been using the internet since 1995, and I have yet to see the cycle. From where I sit, it has been more of just a steady trend toward compartmentalization and aggregation.

(Not to say that there aren't a large number of great projects off the main path.)

[dotancohen]

  > It's a cycle

Strava is for running, too.

Lrf, guvf vf n cha.

[EarlKing]

> Lrf, guvf vf n cha.

And here with the birth of broadband I thought we'd moved past the age of line noise.

[dotancohen]

  $ echo Lrf, guvf vf n cha. | rot13
  Yes, this is a pun.

[supriyo-biswas]

Network effects, monopolization, a lack of diverse payment models on the internet, and reduced interest in system administration have primarily lead to the centralization of communities on a few platforms, which has lead us to this problem.

If you could somehow solve 2, 3 and 4, I assume there'd be many thriving topical communities in parallel, just like the forums of yore that you speak of.