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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?

#31

Post by tetraca »

catacombs wrote: post #24
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…

> 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?

Unfortunately, you can't just simply tell anyone, because that's how most enjoyable places get ruined.

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

#32

Post by scottlocklin »

ClintEhrlich wrote: post #18
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 communi…

Thanks for the update; I no longer roll and don't follow the sport very much, but it makes me sad to hear that all-devouring reddit is eating Sherdog.

I suspect the future of forums is going to be stuff which is kicked off of platforms. For example: right wing people kicked out of reddit, or nude enthusiast types formerly of Tumblr or whatever. There's probably a r/bodybuilding reddit, but I bet it's tame and lame compared to the forum.

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

#34

Post by seattle_spring »

jvagner wrote: post #5

I'm particularly perplexed by [location] sub-reddits. No one uses the FAQs, search, or Yelp. Everyone wants to post a daily request for a good place for a drink, and a good hike, for just about every city on the planet. The annoyances in those threads seem to keep other participants away. It'd be nice to have a forum, message board, etc for people who are willing to try one tick more than the masses.

The Seattle subreddits are so bad about this. There's one with ~200k subscribers that is basically only sunset pictures and requests for good food. There's another one with ~100k subscribers with slightly better submissions, but every comment thread has the same 10 people brigading from a THIRD Seattle sub that focuses on alt-right politics.

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

#35

Post by kgwxd »

I got into Atari 2600 homebrew a few years ago. I haven't made anything playable yet, but the community is my favorite of all time. Even though the community is pretty small, the AtariAge forums[1] are very active. Also, there's a twice-weekly, hours-long live show[2] dedicated to playing 2600 homebrew games, and the developers of the featured games are often in the chat. It's on twitch, which obviously isn't obscure, but the channel itself is.

[1] https://atariage.com/forums/forum/50-atari-2600-programming/

[2] https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew (will be live an hour from now)

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

#36

Post by IronWolve »

ClintEhrlich wrote: post #18
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 communi…

Groupthink in popular tech forums is horrible, if someone experiences an issue, the rest of the people reply "I Dont have that issue", and minimize the person's interaction. Too much absolutism in tech being pushed, you can do the same thing multiple ways, depending on the scenario, people need to think in degrees not binary reactions.

I've been on forums for a few decades, and the interaction has gone to downright militant in responses as fact. I've seen so many truths about tech that simply isnt remotely true, but a big tech company says it, so their fanboi's repeat is as fact.

Common knowledge for an enthusiast vs production is another issue. The proper way of doing something might not be the way an end power user uses it, and their usage scenario can lead to all kinds of issues. So downvoting is way too common to exclude/discredit these people.

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

#38

Post by marczellm »

https://what.thedailywtf.com is a place for IT / software people to rant. If you're into rants. I find it fun.

https://forums.musicplayer.com is a place for musicians, songwriters, mixing, mastering etc. I only visit the keyboardist section, Keyboard Corner. It is an exceptionally civil place, the people are cool, helpful and professional. Some outstanding experts frequent the forum.

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

#40

Post by ClintEhrlich »

scottlocklin wrote: post #32
ClintEhrlich wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 communi…

Thanks for the update; I no longer roll and don't follow the sport very much, but it makes me sad to hear that all-devouring reddit is eating Sherdog. I suspect the future of forums is going to be stuff which is kicked off of platforms. For example: right wing people kicked out of reddit, or nude enthusiast types formerly of Tumblr or whatever. There's probably a r/bodybuilding reddit, but I bet it's tame and lame co…

Thanks for giving me an excuse to discuss Sherdog on HN!

They're the two places I hang out most.

Somehow, I suspect the intersection of their user bases is pretty tiny...

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