What were forums like "Last Gen"?

I really didn't start checking out forums until I got broadband in '05, before that I had dial up and just read reviews and kept it simple. I never joined discussions on forums until I joined Giant Bomb last year.
 
I was just curious. Have you noticed a change in the forum culture from last gen to this gen? Or is it the same old internet?

i would say it's the same old internet. it didn't seem like anything changed really, same kind of things being discussed.

probably more mature discussion

Neogaf says hi. And you could always go back quite a ways in Neogaf's threads page, to check it out yourself.

" Neogaf says hi. And you could always go back quite a ways in Neogaf's threads page, to check it out yourself. "

I don't know, maybe we have DIFFERENT websites, some went under, some were created recently. Well, there is a saturation of gaming sites though, yes. But forums, ignoring the changing topics, haven't changed that much. At least I only see two types of forums, laid back and Nazi strict.

I've been on the net since 1996, and I used to chat about videogames in Geocities HTML chat & PC gaming IRC channels.  Overall internet discussion has changed very little. 
 
I feel like years ago on the net people were slightly more individual minded.  These days people tend to want to think alike to fit in.

" I've been on the net since 1996, and I used to chat about videogames in Geocities HTML chat & PC gaming IRC channels.  Overall internet discussion has changed very little.   I feel like years ago on the net people were slightly more individual minded.  These days people tend to want to think alike to fit in. "

The forums had more sex and offensive, racist remarks. Old internet was a bad bad place

Wow, so the more the user base overall, the more sheep we have. Interesting.

Picture responses were all the rage. I can barely remember pre-lolcat internet. Dancing bananas and such. 
We were damn cavemen. Not like now.

Lithium Gamespot forum days say hello, just had to mention it.