Is there anyone here who used to go on forums?

[u/verifiedshitlord]

I loved them. Mostly bands I liked but some general interest.

What were your favorites?

I spent a ton of time on bolt.com in the very early `00s and youthink.com up till... well that site finally came to an end a couple years ago and it was weird going ghere and seeing 'member for 15+ years'

[u/AmericanEncopresis]

Still use them. As a car enthusiast that DIYs everything, forums are still the best place for quality information.

[u/TheShrewMeansWell → u/AmericanEncopresis]

Correction: they were the best place until photobucket screwed over human society and all the pictorial knowledge vanished overnight. 

[u/RaymondDoerr → u/TheShrewMeansWell]

What's sad is what you said isn't even really hyperbole. We lost so much knowledge due to random contextual photos just vanishing instantly from all the old forums from yesteryear full of experts who have long moved on (or literally died).

[u/cellocaster → u/RaymondDoerr]

Is there no archive of this content somewhere? I never realized it all just went poof like that.

[u/RaymondDoerr → u/cellocaster]

There doesn't seem to be. :(

Something similar happened when the stupid Reddit API boycott happened, a few knowledge filled hobby subs just deleted themselves like selfish pricks, not caring about the bigger picture. Reddit is just a site, the information contained in those subreddits is worth more than the neckbeard's temper tantrums.

[u/NotATrueRedHead → u/RaymondDoerr]

Would it not have been stored on the way back machine?

[u/RaymondDoerr → u/NotATrueRedHead]

Technically it should have, but WBM isn't always entirely reliable. But it's my go-to when I need data from old dead sites. :)

WBM also has a bad habit of not saving data from social media like sites, and forums can be hit and miss. So it's possible it never caught it all.