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Ask HN: What are some more authentic online forums?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some more authentic online forums?

#12

Post by scottlocklin »

There's quite a few I can think of, but most of them I'd rather not mention so the eye of Sauron passes them over.

Larger ones I don't mind mentioning:

I think bodybuilding.com is still what it was back in the day.

Sherdog is probably also still decent though I don't follow it.

The surviving /chans capture a lot of the spirit of old timey Usenet as well for better and worse.

If you're into nice wristwatches watchuseek is same as ever; amazing the energy that goes into such a niche thing.

Men's clothing/accessory forums are also quite active and good; askandyonclothes, styleforum and ... tho I haven't checked lately fedoralounge used to be good. These are kind of remarkable in that they, like the watch forums, could be monetized in various scumb bag ways, but somehow remain good communities oriented around consumer goods.

I think lot of energy still goes into old school email lists for special interests as well. Though I don't follow it as I should, the J lists are extremely high bandwidth/quality. IMO these are vastly better than platform things on discord, reddit, discord, as they're always backed up and uncensorable. You can get kicked out, but you'll still be able to read most of them.

Re: Ask HN: What are some more authentic online forums?

#15

Post by adingus »

hprotagonist wrote: post #8

1. find a weird and absurd hobby, nerd out into it hardcore, and then go to the off-topic board for that hobby's shitty old phpBB forum run out of some dude's basement. 2. Freenode is still alive and well. 3. Fark, SomethingAwful, etc. are still more or less in good health.

I came here to recommend somethingawful. Lowtax is a gift to the internet with his commitment to keep the board going and not sell out... even while he is in poor health.

Re: Ask HN: What are some more authentic online forums?

#18

Post by ClintEhrlich »

scottlocklin wrote: post #12

There's quite a few I can think of, but most of them I'd rather not mention so the eye of Sauron passes them over. Larger ones I don't mind mentioning: I think bodybuilding.com is still what it was back in the day. Sherdog is probably also still decent though I don't follow it. The surviving /chans capture a lot of the spirit of old timey Usenet as well for better and worse. If you're into nice wristwatches watchusee…

Sherdog has suffered a lot from losing traffic to Reddit. The main forum still has enough users that it superficially seems similar to how it was 10+ years ago, but the subforums are dying.

F12, the grappling forum, used to be one of my favorite places on the internet. It barely has new content anymore. There has, for reasons I don't fully understand, been a mass exodus to r/BJJ.

I can't overstate the loss of community that occurred as a result. On reddit, the fact that usernames aren't prominent and there are no avatars makes it impossible to build "characters" in your mind. People are friendly, but they are perpetual strangers.

Previously, I thought the upvoting and downvoting structure of Reddit was great. But, when applied to a hobby I love, the results were soulless and depressing. Opinions seem to be tailored to the crowd in a way they never were on the F12 forum.

A lot of that may be that Reddit attracts younger people who are newer to the sport. Whatever the reason, it's sad to see a great forum whither away.

Don't take online communities for granted. They seem immortal until they die.

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