It's pretty obvious that old-fashioned text forums are going away. They are already full of bots, and AI is going to make them completely worthless. The only way to interact will be with verified other humans, which means the end of anonymity and a Chinese-style internet with real name verification required to post anything. This also means stray outside the guardrails they set, you are permanently banned for life because your real identity is connected to your posts. No alts, no ban evasion, nothing. Facebook already requires real names, and the last time I tried to use Paypal, a service I had an account with since 2000, it blocked me and stated, "upload a picture of you holding your ID". Well, that was the end of my Paypal account. Youtube is next, and Google close behind, since a Youtube account is pretty much a Google account.
It's pretty obvious that old-fashioned text forums are going away. They are already full of bots, and AI is going to make them completely worthless. The only way to interact will be with verified other humans, which means the end of anonymity and a Chinese-style internet with real name verification required to post anything. This also means stray outside the guardrails they set, you are permanently banned for life because your real identity is connected to your posts. No alts, no ban evasion, nothing. Facebook already requires real names, and the last time I tried to use Paypal, a service I had an account with since 2000, it blocked me and stated, "upload a picture of you holding your ID". Well, that was the end of my Paypal account. Youtube is next, and Google close behind, since a Youtube account is pretty much a Google account.
Really? I only keep up with a couple forums but I haven't noticed any bots or AI, still just a bunch of old guys shooting the shit.