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Unpopular take: Yahoo Groups was actually better than Discord for long form discussion

I know everyone loves Discord now with the voice chat and instant messaging. But last week I was digging through some old backups and found a Yahoo Group I ran back in 2001 about vintage synthesizers. You could post a thread on Monday and people would reply with detailed, thoughtful responses all week long. Nobody felt pressured to respond in 5 seconds. I miss that pace. The discussion felt deeper. Discord is like drinking from a firehose. Anyone else remember a group that actually worked better as an email list?

3 comments

3 Comments

ross.william11d ago

Wait, didn't your buddy lose his whole Yahoo group to a spam takeover back in '08?

sandraf8411d ago

That whole "post a thread on Monday and people would reply all week" thing really hit home. I actually ran a classic car restoration group on Yahoo back in the day and the pace let you really think through your answers. Someone would ask about rebuilding a carburetor and you'd get three or four different approaches over the course of a week, each one tested by someone who actually did it. Discord moves too fast for that kind of shared experience. One tip if you ever want to recreate that vibe, set up a simple email group or forum on something like Groups.io and just commit to checking it once a day instead of constant notifications.

perez.christopher11d ago

And that slower pace meant the answers had more weight too. Someone would post a follow-up a week later saying they tried the method and it worked, which you just don't get on Discord before the chat scrolls away.