i started using the internet in the late 2000's and still remember when you search for something most of the times it would return with a forum post ... now its just random websites ... if you ever need real and concise answer you have to add site:reddit.com at every search and since discord or twitter are not crawlable by these search crawlers they are not mentioned . Where did all those forums went...are there still active forums ?
Gaia Online is still alive, believe it or not. www.gaiaonline.com
the more niche avatar forums haven't survived though. I miss them a lot :(