It was easier in the old days, back when forums were niche communities rather than... Reddit. You got to know everyone you posted with because there were only so many of you and everyone had some sort of graphic signature at the ends of their posts so you'd quickly learn to tell people apart. You weren't so worried about opsec because you were mostly talking about anime buddy icons or something inane like that. Eventually the conversations would move to AIM and Skype, and there would always be weird interpersonal drama mixed into the forum posts as a result.

I just don't really know where you find that anymore. I miss the old internet, though.