I remember the days when I used to browse the internet for hours, looking for information, tips, and discussions about my favorite video games. I was a regular visitor of sites like soulcalibur.com, tekkenzaibatsu.com, shoryuken.com, vfdc.com, and 8wayrun.com. These were not just websites, they were communities. They were places where I could interact with other passionate gamers, share my opinions, learn new strategies, and make friends. They were also treasure troves of data, where I could find everything from frame data to combo videos to tournament results.
But then something changed. The internet became more corporatized, more centralized, more controlled. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit took over the online discourse. They offered convenience, accessibility, and popularity. They also offered surveillance, censorship, and manipulation. They turned us into products, selling our data and attention to advertisers and influencers. They diluted the quality and diversity of content, favoring clickbait, memes, and viral videos over in-depth analysis and meaningful conversations.
As a result, many of the old BBS forums died or faded into obscurity. Some of them simply vanished without a trace, taking with them years of valuable information and history. Others became ghost towns, with only a handful of loyal users keeping them alive. A few managed to survive and adapt, but they are far from their former glory.
I feel nostalgic and sad about this. I miss the old internet, the one that was more free, more creative, more democratic. The one that was more human. I wonder if there is a way to revive it, or at least preserve it. I wonder if there are others who feel the same way.
