CromulentPoint@alien.topBtoCars@gearhead.town•Car forums seem dead, the alternatives aren't really the same, where is everyone?English
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10 months agoLet’s not downplay the role of giant conglomeration companies like VerticalScope coming in and buying all of the car forums ~10 years ago. Most forums started as passion projects and when the owners understandably wanted to be compensated for the work they put into their successful project, The Man came in, bought them out and then pissed all over it, leveraging user knowledge to (overly) monetize the forum with too much shitty advertising.
Yes, social media absorbed a lot of the user base, but corporatization of forums in general are the real villain.
Sidestepping the NPC concept a bit, I just lament that the road is a less colorful place than it used to be. It’s just much less interesting and it affects everyone’s options. My daily driver is grey because I literally couldn’t find one in another color.