It is different. But you also need to recogize the ways in which it uses the same impulses to keep you coming back. You want to see who responded to your post, so you can respond to them, and on and on. If you're honest, you're often logging on without any particular goal, just to see what's being said, and consume what's on offer. While it isn't driven by an algorithm, it's still habit forming. I mean for Christ's sakes, we even have a "like" button next to every post.
Is it as bad as facebook and twitter, in terms of how it operates? Absolutely not. Are there still some troubling aspects of the vbulletin-style webforum to be conscious of while you use it? Definitely yes.
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"The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
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