what forums are out there that people actually go to, besides Lemmy?
what forums are out there that people actually go to, besides Lemmy?
I see a lot of people saying online that "forums are dying off because of discord and reddit"
yet other people reply: "Well, I'm still using my forum/IRC."
So I have to ask, what forums that are decently big still exist? Only one I can think of is Nomutantsallowed for fallout related content.
The Android rom ones like xda forums are active.
This is definitely not what you’re looking for but college sports forums are active if you want to read the dumbest shit ever.
I’m from Louisiana so I’ll pick on my own team and link to to Tiger Droppings:
https://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/lsu-sports/
The recipe posts are actually good. It’s basically a forum for insane people who get mad about LSU gymnastics recruiting but then post an alligator sauce picante recipe that’s better than anything you’ve ever put in your mouth.
Here’s the food/drink topic section:
https://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/food-and-drink/
It’s insane (compliment) and also insane (derogatory).
A jambalaya v.7.3 ratio spreadsheet exists:
Spacebattles is still alive.
Nexusmods "forums" and pages still have some social activity.
TBH it’s pretty barren. I noticed that even comment sections are drying up.
TBH it’s pretty barren. I noticed that even comment sections are drying up.
You mean across many websites don't you?
I definitely see a lot of websites with a comment box that it is just a wasteland lol.
I am sometimes like, jeez why even bother to include a comment box 🤣
I assume they are just harvesting email addresses unless a very small site
I love how Whirlpool has stuck to it's guns with regards to staying text only.
It survived a world of phpbb, avatars, and animated GIFS and is now surviving a world of social media and "engagement". It's like Usenet with moderation and no binaries.
Helps that it's fast as blazes too.
The EndeavourOS forum to give support (I use base Arch, but they're close enough), the Lutris forums, and Blenderartists. Stackoverflow and similar services, and various issue trackers, if you count those.
tildes seems pretty active
spacebattles as well
and the dwarf fortress forum, too
The Dwarf Fortress forum is most likely full of big bearded dwarves. Also the Elder Scrolls lore community is my magical hangout, Warhammer too.
I know this won't interest most lemmy users, but the forums for most large american colligate sports programs are alive and well.
Larger open-source projects tend to have forums. Here's a few off the top of my head:
Openstreetmap also has some forums. The main one being community.openstreetmap.org
The only two that I ever still make use of are XDA for custom firmwares and other Android related shit. And Pokecommunity for the ROM hacking / decompilation stuff.
There are so many niche forums.
Here's one I found a while ago when I was looking at repairing an old electric fan I found: Antique Fan Collector's Forum.
In the way that people would always add "reddit" to their searches, try just adding "forum".
mumsnet. 10 million active users.
What is it
British forum for mums to share parenting tips. Different demographic to most other social media.
TERF forum
pipeline to fascism
It's a place where you can ask questions that need an answer along the lines of "all men are bastards and need to be kicked to the curb immediately, can't ever change, and no woman has ever done anything wrong".
- https://budgetlightforum.com/ flashlights et cetera
- so many automotive forums
- https://eevblog.com/forum electronics engineering
- https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/ audio, lots of diy
- https://www.finishing.com/ - metal anodising/plating/finishing. This incredible forum has been running since before the internet, originally a BBS.
- https://www.automaticwasher.org/ washing machines and dishwashers
- https://elektrotanya.com/ electronics repair
Isn't Reddit or Lemmy pretty much just a structured forum?
(early) reddit was the answer to the question "what if anyone could have their own phpbb instance without having to host it?" Then along came Lemmy asking "what if anyone could have their own reddit instance and have to host it?"
lol!
Blenderartists.org for blender news, learning, and sharing of addons and stuff
This varies a lot by individual, but I have a Newgrounds account and I post to the forums that are there too!
I hope Newgrounds implements activity pub
Special interest forums still hold.
For me, the Royal Enfield motorbike forums are exceptionally good, and that's largely down to the admin. There's also a Series 2 Land Rover forum that has a unique collection of people with a phenomenal combined knowledge about that car.
I've hosted a few in my time - since the early 90s and Fidonet when BBSs were the thing. But things change. Facebook killed of a whole bunch way before Reddit and Lemmy just because that's where people were already, and it was easier for them to feel involved. Facebook is impossible to search, though, so the post history of a forum that was so useful has gone entirely.
It's sad, but things change. What's constant is people's desire to socialise and discuss topics they are interested in. I'm kind of curious what that will be next.
Car forums are still somewhat active. There's usually one per car make or chassis. For example I use zilvia.net for S chassis stuff and miata.net for Miata stuff which are both active.
https://tildes.net/ is still quite active and while the interface is similar to old reddit the focus is more on discussions than sharing links.
People still post to lobsters
Shared by @Obsidian@lemmy.one on the other thread
https://aftermath.site/best-active-forums-internet-today?ueid=6310597850b065b278e2b143b21b73b5
Over the years, forums did not really get smaller, so much as the rest of the internet just got bigger.
I regularly visit https://vogons.org/ to talk about retro computers.
www.knockout.chat
Tacomaworld, there is another Toyota forum but the name eludes me at this moment. Vwvortex is still around i think. My guild from a MUD i play on occasion still has a forum, as does the MUD,
Usually something hyper specific. This was a few years ago but I found a very bustling community forum for appliance repair. I posted a question on how to fix my oven and got very detailed answers and technical info involving the circuit board and heating element and troubleshooting steps. Unfortunately the general consensus on there is that for a lot of appliances, the board needs replaced which may or may not be available, and if it is, costs damn near what a new appliance does. Which is obviously done on purpose to drive sales.
The other one I know is my friend will participate on one for modding Toyota Yaris cars.
Bodybuilding / fitness forums are still pretty active.
All of these tend to have subreddit or Lemmy equivalents however.
All the forums I used to go to on any regular basis are dying out or dead - NotebookReview, DSLReports, etc.
I still stop by Linus Tech Tips forum and GBATemp and Overclock.net and ServeTheHome on rare occasions.
SomethingAwful is still very active!
4chan is as well, but it’s been shit since 2009 (inb4 /b/ was never good)
Remember when /b/ was good??
No, because it never was.
Kids confused it with good because it was the equivalent of running around an abandoned building throwing dog shit and broken glass at each other while spraying paint on the walls, because no adults told them not to. But when you tire of that, it's just an empty husk full of dog shit and glass.
It seems that this might be useful to add to this pile of information:
https://meta.discourse.org/t/federation-support-for-discourse/90921
Gallifrey Base, sometimes 😌🤓
I used to use RPG.net a lot. They have pretty strict moderation, which keeps the place from turning into some kinds of shit holes. But you also can't tell someone they're a fool, or all Republicans are traitors. Takes some getting used to, but is probably worth it.
cs rin.ru and ltt foums
I only have a Spanish one in my sight (it is like a reborn, I haven't even signed in yet, I had an account for the previous website) called foros dz.
I also have some other Spanish forums bookmarked, gaming related but I think they are just dead.
If you're into headphones and related encoutrement, head-fi.org is still thriving.
Retrogametalk and segaxtreme
I go to mentalhealthforum.net
A1k.org for all things regarding Amiga Computers
There are some good Matrix community, on matrix.org as well as individually run homeservers (federated).
is there a matrix client for Android? last I checked there was like, one, and it wasn't very good. whereas there's like 14 different Lemmy apps, many of which are fabulous.
FluffyChat is pretty good these days https://matrix.org/ecosystem/clients/
I am not a big fan pf matrix but I think SchlidiChat was the one I used most successfully on android.
From what I have seen a main issue with Matrix is that the protocol can be implemented in bits and pieces. Which is perfectly fair but it leads to an inconsistent user experience. The default web clients you first use to try it out will be using strong encryption settings by default but then a lot of the mobile or native desktop clients don't support encryption. So it's difficult to get going finding cross platform apps that have all the desired functionality consistently between them.
In terms of the apps, I don't think comparing matrix to lemmy is exactly fair for this reason.
Element X is quite good now (note the X, not the classic 'Element'). Fluffychat's good too but missing some features.
To me, some NSFW forums, like F95 and LoversLabs
https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/
Excellent forums. I have been a member for five years and it has been fantastic.
The Gear Page is very active as are sister sites like strat forums, my les paul etc
Talk photography
Fred Miranda photography forums
Av forums
Watchuseek
What HiFi
I used to live on the winamp forums, but I haven't for a long time and it's pretty dead now.
Techlore forums and privacy guide
Gbatemp is one.
There are a few cannabis related ones, though activity is here or there on one or two. UK420, THCTalk, ICMag, GrowCity, etc.
- love2d forums: https://love2d.org/forums/
- luanti forums: https://www.luanti.org/get-involved/
- joplin forums: https://discourse.joplinapp.org/
- All these prior links are very specific to one piece of software. So as you see, they all seem very focused and it depends on your interest in them.
- ramble https://ramble.pw/
- cant be really called a forum, but it is a link aggregator on tech-news https://news.ycombinator.com/news