The old internet was less corporate and more we, thats what we want back, not old UIs and Technologies.

We don’t want the UI we want the lack of corporate advertising that’s clogged the whole thing

It’s more about the fact that you had several community hubs to enjoy mutual interest rather than viral clout chasing… But I’m showing my age by being crochety

Not really. Forums were terrible ux-wise even then, we just didn’t have anything else back then. And on the flip side irc aged really well in my opinion, there’s only so many ways you can display chat-type content. And I still miss fun things like having “/me” for 3rd person messages :)