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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?

#21

Ugh same. I went out asking if anyone had pointers to a decent comics forum the other month (I make them and miss having somewhere to hang out with other people who do) and all I got were offers to people’s Discords, which feel like the exact opposite of what I want.

What do you hate about discord, too chatty and ephemeral?

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

#24

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…

> 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.

You've piqued my interest. What are they?

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

#25

  Mechanical Keyboards - https://geekhack.org
  Watches - https://forums.watchuseek.com/
  Role Playing (Video) Games - https://rpgcodex.net/forums
  Minecraft - https://www.minecraftforum.net/forums
  Linux - https://www.linuxquestions.org/
  Apple/Mac - https://forums.macrumors.com/
  Biking - https://www.bikeforums.net  & 
           https://forum.bikeradar.com/
Honestly, just pick one of your hobbies and go down the google rabbit hole. Many forums still survive today for archival purposes and most hobbies have very active independent forums.

--

I'll admit I fell into the Reddit hole in the early 2010s and while I think it has some value and I have discovered some cool communities I don't think I ever would have known about otherwise, I do miss the "pre-reddit" internet with more independent communities.

Lots of small groups seem to be migrating to Facebook as well - which really sucks because the facebook groups interface sucks as a traditional discussion forum.

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

#26
https://www.phantasytour.com is one of my favorites. Phish in particular has a very vibrant community, if you enjoy their music you can find lots of other people who are passionate about them on just about any social network. For people who are easily offended there is also a forum on phish.net that prefers to avoid hostile conversations. Phantasy Tour has a lot of obscene discussions that most people would find offensive but is tolerated on this forum.

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

#28
I could be wrong, but I'd posit that if there were a good place for high quality, genuine, and useful online forums out there, HN is one of the last places they would advertise their presence. There very likely are such forums out there, but I'm sure they don't want the internet showing up at their door tomorrow morning. They probably created their little slice of heaven just so that they do not have to deal with the great unwashed masses and a lot of the inanity and incivility that comes with them.

A corollary to that, of course, is that most of the answers we'd get to this question on HN, are likely not the sort of sites for which we are searching. :(

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

#29
I love this question. The information density and longevity of old forums is hard to replicate on Reddit, Discord, or Facebook groups.

I’ve been spending a lot of time over at https://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/index.php recently. It’s THE forum for modular synthesis in all forms and for me it really scratches the hacker/musician/tinkerer itch.

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