Pretty much this too, especially now with things like "verified" users making revenue off of getting big posts... such a feature that, regardless of intention, will result in attempts to farm engagement in any way possible.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... any system that rewards engagement with money will be the death of the game or community that implements it. It's why most crypto focused games fail miserably, because it ends up becoming a way to farm currency rather than a game people play to have fun. It's why every forum with revenue sharing becomes a hellhole, since everyone's trying to post in every topic for the chance their ads will show up.
It's why Twitter, Medium, YouTube, Quora and so many others are awful now. Well one reason anyway.
And it's because when money is involved, your community or product becomes attractive to two groups you really don't want to see around:
1. Grifters/sociopaths that see making a quick buck as the only thing that matters in life, and are happy to flood the internet with garbage for 'easy' money. Like uh, half of those YouTube commentary channels now.
2. Extremely desperate people from low income areas where the pennies from ad revenue let them live like a king. They're not being malicious, but knowing about the topic being discussed is still treated as less important than saying ANYTHING for the revenue.
This dynamic is why AI slop has overrun YouTube, and why Elsagate was a problem about 10 years ago. The only way to prevent it is to make the community unattractive from a monetary perspective. It's why paid mods annoy/worry me, because the minute money enters the picture, modding becomes attractive to people who see it as a paycheck. The community goes from sharing and collaboration to being all about vicious competition, menial/rote work and attention grabbing.
I wouldn't say I "prefer" it necessarily. I'm fond of them but I always felt like they have the significant drawback of being a little too insular and can be intimidating to join as a lot of forums are very established and it can be difficult for newer members to really want to join. That being said, I have a lot of fondness for the "old" internet, before things like "monetization" and "engagement" were a thing.
Forums can definitely be insular unfortunately. I try to avoid that with Wario Forums though.
Some forums are hit or miss, but this one is special. It's not toxic and it's just genuinely fun.
It's pretty ironic how wholesome this place is since it's about a greedy bastard who is an antithesis of Mario, steals treasure and thrashes anything that gets in his way.
I think it's because of the activity level. It's big enough to have an interesting discussion, but small enough that someone being a toxic asshole will get kicked out quickly.
That and you don't want to drive others away when you're a fan of a series as niche as this one. If you're a Mario or Sonic fan that acts like a jerk, there are still enough other fans of the series that you could still find a friend group/community. If you're a Wario or DK fan that acts like a jerk, well your options get a lot more limited.
Probably also helps that the series hasn't hit any civil war like situations yet, and the community seems to enjoy it overall. Series like Paper Mario and Pokemon are basically a battleground between groups of fans with different often unreconcilable tastes. A new game in those series will get torn to shreds by half the fanbase, while a new Wario game is a cause for celebration over here.
