tl;dr: The author reminisces about early web forums (WWWBoard, phpBB, vBulletin, UBB) and their history, from CERN's 1994 WIT software to BBCode's origins and unexpected modern use in the Godot game engine. They argue forums lost to social media largely due to novelty-chasing and scaling issues, not because social platforms are actually better—engagement algorithms and "context collapse" have made things worse. The piece suggests smaller, community-focused forums may offer what people actually want from online interaction, versus the hollow reach of mass social networks.