Granted they’re not the growing and bustling places they used to be, but there are still both niche and “lifestyle” forums that are alive and stable. Other than this place, one of the latter is where I spend most of my online socializing time.

No thanks, people hop from centralized platform to centralized platform thinking things will be different.

Consolidated power, especially when fully captured by market forces, will always enshitify, the only out is federation.