Zach Weinersmith@mschfr I think the thing that's really impossible is you need to mostly exclude money. One of my Grand Theories is that corps took a long time to realize there was money to be made online, and then figure out how to get it. So there was this liminal period when people were just there to chat and share, no relentless branding or slot-machine-inspired algorithms.
Dubi is here 
@ZachWeinersmith @mschfr definitely money is part of it (hence mastodon), but part of it is also sheer size. 90s forums were manageable and moderatable in a way that current ones simply are not - but small size is the opposite of what money wants, so we got a push for more people in fewer spaces.