I'm not sure "they don't matter" is something I could get behind. We still have every reason to remember that there's (probably) a person on the other end, one we should extend common courtesy to, and with whom we might exchange perspective-changing ideas, even if rarely.

That said I agree the "reddit" format is the one I always liked best. It just makes more sense for people who want to discuss the same things, to group up online, rather than into arbitrary parasocial masses around a select few persons, as well as the people you know IRL and may or may not have any interest in actually interacting with.

Hi, bye.

Yeah the way you describe it makes it sound like we could build an AI forum where each user is the only one in there and all the rest are ai bots whose only purpose is to generate the content and interaction we're looking for.

I think Reddit is just the beta version.

I prefer it not be this way.

I kind of hate getting replies here and I can tell the person I'm talking to isn't paying attention to who in the thread they are talking to. It's like people aren't seeing each other as people.