I think it's due to the popularity contest that has taken over our communication mediums. Everything is based upon likes, stars, upvotes/downvotes, retweets, and shares. This social influence leads to herd behavior and conformity.
I too greatly miss the tight communities I used to participate in across IRC, chat rooms, and topic-specific forums where people simply voiced their opinions and had discussions. They still exist in pockets but the communities are much smaller today. If people were out of line, they were kicked out. If they continued, they were banned. Discussion manipulation was generally limited to bumping forum threads to the top. Today a malicious actor just needs a small bot network to complete control opinion on upvote-based discussion platforms.
I think it's due to the popularity contest that has taken over our communication mediums. Everything is based upon likes, stars, upvotes/downvotes, retweets, and shares. This social influence leads to herd behavior and conformity.
I too greatly miss the tight communities I used to participate in across IRC, chat rooms, and topic-specific forums where people simply voiced their opinions and had discussions. They still exist in pockets but the communities are much smaller today. If people were out of line, they were kicked out. If they continued, they were banned. Discussion manipulation was generally limited to bumping forum threads to the top. Today a malicious actor just needs a small bot network to complete control opinion on upvote-based discussion platforms.