The unavoidable and serious problem with Maiotaku

I think I made my first post in like 2013 or something. It's been a long road on this website. I've seen drama, wackyness, and all manner of things on this site. I've met my wife on this site. But the state Maiotaku is in now? Nowhere even close to what it was a decade ago. It's almost like a shadow of it's former self, a monument that has been withered away to an eroded form that is only a fraction of its former self. What caused this decay? For a big part, technology. The rise of reddit. the rise of discord and other social media that work on mobile changed how many in Gen Z interacted with the world. Take for instance, discord. A lot of gen Z users are members of many different discord groups. They grew up communicating in a different way than millennials. Instead of topics arranged in forums, they prefer a group chat that is just a steady stream of information of random people talking. There is never a "topic". There's memes. There's emojis. There's instant replies. Take for instance, Anime Soul Discord. That's where all the new blood is, not here. Then you have reddit/twitter. A person makes a topic and can get social validation through likes and agreement online from randos. Then you have facebook where you do the same thing, but with people you know. There are also to other reasons. The biggest ones are: -No app support (gen z and future generations are primarily mobile) -rampant bots scare people away I guess I'm just old fashioned. Discord channels with this continuous stream of random, inconsequential thoughts don't appeal to me. Twitter/Reddit just feels like a cesspool of angry people. Facebook you cant do anything because your family is on there. Forum website formats such as this are a product of my generation, and sadly, I think it may die with my generation. Here, I've had so many memories. So many thoughts posted. I can look up every single one of them since 2013 if I wanted to and see how much I have changed over the years. That's precious to me, and it doesn't exist anymore outside of forums. The future generations prefer fragmented, short-term content spread across multiple feeds. The atrophy of information doesn't matter to many in Gen Z and Alpha because that's how they grew up consuming content. nothing is perminent. Now I kind of get how I felt such a disconnect with the offline social environments of the generation before me. Hah, look at me talking like an old man. Well, I'll just stick around here posting at my leisure because having my posts liked by people I know in my community is still a good feeling, even if that community gets smaller and smaller. Thanks everyone for just posting.

I haven't been here as long as you @arc, but I don't remember this place feeling so... dead. It's been so completely lifeless this year that it makes me wonder, what's the point in checking in when nothing is happening or has happened for days, weeks, months.

Thank YOU for posting Arc-Senpai, you've truly been here for quite a minute. I know I'm still the 'newer' person on a technicality, because I had to leave for two years when I first arrived sometime in 2020-22 (for reasons) and came back in 23, but it was a lovely experience when I came back, some users here were more active. I just hope that those who aren't online here anymore are having a good life. And who knows? Maybe, one day when I have the means to travel and do things with my family. I can fill up this space even more frequently about the details of my life, heck! I'd see if we can rally the measly number of people left here on a fun trip or something lol. Idk...I'll post fun lifetimes someday sksksk.

The bot spam doesn't help. Just feeling nostalgic to forums in general. Old school forums are really a relic of the past. I'm surpised MO is still alive. I do prefer these old school forums, though. I guess Mo is on its last legs.