I’ve noticed a similar trend in a very different area. In various strategic games there has IMO been a major drop in quality of discussion and content thanks to the shift from “discuss strategy on old-style forums and blogs” to “discuss strategy on group chats (Skype/Discord/Slack) and Reddit”.
The former was much better at creating “permanent information” that could easily be linked and referred to; the latter probably has a higher volume of messages sent, but information is much more ephemeral and tends to be lost if you weren’t in the right place at the right time. It’s a lot harder to refer to “that influential Discord conversation a few weeks ago” than it is to link to a forum thread!
I’ve noticed a similar trend in a very different area. In various strategic games there has IMO been a major drop in quality of discussion and content thanks to the shift from “discuss strategy on old-style forums and blogs” to “discuss strategy on group chats (Skype/Discord/Slack) and Reddit”.
The former was much better at creating “permanent information” that could easily be linked and referred to; the latter probably has a higher volume of messages sent, but information is much more ephemeral and tends to be lost if you weren’t in the right place at the right time. It’s a lot harder to refer to “that influential Discord conversation a few weeks ago” than it is to link to a forum thread!