>But why did forums die?

register, make a thread, 50% of the time it will get shut down for violating rules #7, #15 and #52.

and if you did stick around, there were cliques and resident dweebs with >9000 posts with join date in the 90's. get into an argument with one of those fucks, and you might very well get banned.

modern forums are completely impersonal. I've been on HN for 10+ years, and I don't recognize anyone by name.

I don't miss the old forums at all.