It was also raw as fuck. That allowed for some very honest interactions but also introduced a shitload of trash to filter through. Then the whole political influx came in a decade ago and fully ruined it. lemmy seems like a good middle way. no senseless karma farming but also some tools to moderate.
yeah look at all the wonderful things they created. ahead of its time? anonymous message boards existed way before them and freenet, as close as possible to true anonymity started way before.
It’s not an unreasonable request. If the shoe was on the other foot I’d want to be screening every American coming to our border to check if they were active on topics like annexation or shudder cyber truck enthusiasm.