[Raion]

Ill withhold my thoughts because:

1. I've rarely used it and thus my opinion means jack shit

2. I wanna hear what others are saying and the arguments thus for/against.

[robespierre]

In Ye Olden Daze this was simply called Usenet, before G**gle applied the coup de grâce and drove away all but the most diehard to web fora.

[Raion]

Now keeping in mind I was born post-Soviet, I never got to really use to usenet and my impression of it is that like mailing lists it quickly becomes difficult to follow a conversation.

I would say that the Fediverse to me has a critical flaw in that blocking entire peering instances is the thing; you end up creating fragmentation whether you're blocking a peered instance for personal reasons, performance, because of racism or what-not. You quickly end up forming social enclaves and it prevents mass adoption from being practical.