My experience with the Fediverse has only been through Mastodon, through which I struggled to find a community I really gelled with. Either it was supper overwhelming with meme posts or NSFW, or it was too chill to the point of nothing. Or, it was hyperfocused like FOSS/Linux and became uninteresting after awhile. May try again, but I think I will explore the other fedisites like Plemora or Calckey to see if I like it better.
I love the pace of a forum. I grew up primarily with GameFAQS and some lucid dreaming forum, and honestly it was very formative in teaching me how to write and use critical thinking skills, as well as how to respond to a variety of temperaments. I stopped participating in online forums awhile ago, and while I loved Reddit as a resource, I never felt inspired to participate. In the same way, there are an incredible number of forums dedicated to a certain topic, and are extremely valuable, it would be annoying to make an account for all the things I am interested in.
I like what lemmy is becoming. Glad to find system that makes interacting with people enjoyable.
For sure the main appeal with Twitter was the direct communication with celebrities and other notable people, or at least some fascimile of interaction. It did a lot to close the gap between the famous and their fans/denouncers.
Reddit had some cool AMAs, but otherwise it was just regular people dedicated to their interests and passionate about sharing it.
What really disgusted me was how easily a few people could hijack a sub and make it their business platform to sell products.
It is important to have spaces that are completely insulated from advertisement and all the facets of capitalism.