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What are some traditional internet forums that you still use?
I'm trying to go beyond Reddit and Tildes when it comes to some particular interests. I dislike Federated websites due to their usability issues, but I also get the impression that they try to replicate or improve on Twitter. I never used or cared for Twitter in the first place.
I found TrekBBS which looks great, but I was wondering about similar forums for my other interests, such as science fiction literature, classic movies, etc.
So I am curious to know about everyone's favorite old-school forums that are still active and cool!
The websites are not required to be actually old, as long as they work similarly to traditional internet forums.
MetaFilter is one of the last great generalist community blogs, founded in 1999 and still kicking.
Subsites include Ask MetaFilter for community Q&A, FanFare for discussing movies and TV, and Projects for sharing personal projects; there's also a Best-of blog for highlights from around the site.
Wow I went down a hole on MetaFilter last night. It gave me this wonderful sense of nostalgia for the early internet. I ended up paying the $5 registration fee—thank you for sharing this!
Glad to have you! Message me your username and I can add you as a contact and share some helpful tools.
I am also a big fan of MetaFilter. I think Ask MetaFilter is one of the best things on the entire internet.
Some random notes - the jokey "he needs mouse bites to live" House joke script is, I believe, a MeFi original. There was a thread about emotional labour that made the rounds years ago as well that got the site some attention. I also occasionally use the MeFi terms "eponysterical" (when a person's username matches up with something they have posted) and "crouton-petting" (when you humanize inanimate objects) and forget they aren't common outside the site...
John Scalzi and Adam Savage have also made occasional appearances! I'm sure there are other notable members as well.
GameFAQs is still alive and kicking, as is FARK.
Electronics - repair, test equipment and such: the EEVBlog forums.
For the (many) issues with my van: Promaster Forum.
Ars Technica has a forum that covers a variety of topics/interests. It has a heavy focus on science and tech.
While I primarily go to r/anime for episode discussions, I'll check /a/, MyAnimeList (MAL), or sometimes Anilist.
And for Nintendo stuff: https://www.nintendolife.com/forums
Edit: I also use Wanikani's forum and Bunpro's for Japanese learning stuff.
I've been looking for an alternative to /r/anime (specifically the reddit part of that as I think the community is generally fine if limited by the platform itself) but haven't found anything that quite feels right to me yet. At least MAL's forum is fairly active at a glance, the ones for Anime News Network and Anilist doesn't seem to have nearly as much going on.
Yeah, unfortunately MAL and /a/ are the only real forum-like alternatives. Many people use BlueSky or Twitter to discuss shows, but that's not the format I'm looking for.
Bogleheads for financial and personal consumer advice, plus investing news.
It's full of older (50+) folks, so you tend to get very different responses. Usually it's civil since straight up politics and medical advice is banned.
They also have a very nice wiki explaining the Boglehead investment philosophy.
Speaking of traditional, I’m really curious if any Tildes users are or have ever been members of The WELL.
Decades ago, but now I eschew real name forums.
Vehicle and travel forums!
Ih8mud for the Land Cruiser enthusiast.
Advrider and 'the hubb' (horizons unlimited) for motorcycle travel.
I also enjoy AudioScienceReview - stereo/audio enthusiasts.
Yeah, vehicles usually have active and very specific forums. Searching for random car info, they're more likely to come up than Reddit, even.
A couple I've come in contact with, due to car ownership, but haven't participated in myself, are Fit Freak (Honda Fit) and CivicX (10th generation Civics).
There’s a good old school gaming forum at Quarter to Three: https://forum.quartertothree.com/
Bay Area Rider Forum - BARF
It's full of crotchety old timers with a surly sense of humor.
https://forums.somethingawful.com/
Something for everyone. $10 to join. Definitely living in a digital museum experience.
I registered in 2005 (holy shit, it's been 20 years), and I'm kind of surprised that it's still a pretty good forum. I expected it to be fully cooked after everything went down a few years ago with Lowtax but it seemed to come out the other side of it as a better place, and I've found myself frequenting it again recently after nearly a decade of generally avoiding it due to the various dramas and severe dropoff in activity after the Helldump2k diaspora sent a lot of the posting superstars to Weird Twitter and Lowtax lost his mind.
But Jeffrey (of YOSPOS, who I believe is the mod that bought it) seems to have a good handle on it as the current owner. The activity is a fraction of what it used to be in the aughts, but it's generally been higher quality and less noise. I really enjoyed my time there during the 6-ish or so years I was much more active and it's nice to see it's come back around to being a good forum again.
oh snap this looks really good. I might have to lurk for a while to see if i will register but this reminds me of the good ol days on forums for sure.
I've been a goon for about 20 years now and still poke my head in from time to time. But it's been a while since I was at all active.
Still a lot of my fondest internet memories are from this place.
I check out macrumors.com with some frequency. I'm fixing to dive back into usenet I think, there's a web interface at eternal-september.org, and comp.* might still be active I'm told, I haven't had time to follow up.
I've seen some mentioned that I frequent already, so I'll only include what hasn't been:
https://paizo.com/community/forums
For anyone interested in pathfinder (first and second editions), starfinder, and other associated things.
Another is Arch Linux forums (although many linux distributions have their own forums):
https://bbs.archlinux.org/
If you are Dutch and interested in technology, the Gathering of Tweakers is very much alive and kicking.
The only thing I can't stand more than people intolerant of other people's cultures, is the Dutch
For sports I would recommend:
RealGM for NBA
HFBoards for ice hockey
Both are decently sized and have their share of users who contribute nice original things. These old school, phpbb style boards suffer from a bit of bloat on mobile, and the usual issue of trolls (every comment complaining in their threads is a bump!), but overall they’re good.
Thanks so much for pointing out HFBoards. I'm very tired of /r/hockey on reddit. This looks active and engaging.
Garden.org is a pleasant one. The forums are great if you have any interest in plants/gardening and they send out a nice newletter every week or two
RailUK for train stuff and Blue Room for lighting stuff
I don't use it (though I've been meaning to look into it more and did register an account years ago), but Space Battles is pretty good for geek culture. I mainly know it for fan fiction, but I remember someone linked a thread about an in-depth reread of Naruto for analysis purposes. I feel like that gives you an idea of its culture. Downside, it's pretty massive and seems like it'd be easy to get lost among the countless users and posts.
One more site worth mentioning: ComicFury. I haven't really used it in a long while, but it's a webcomic site and has a pretty active forum. Obviously it mostly centers around webcomics, so if you're into reading or making webcomics it's worth checking out!
And also apparently if you like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, judging by the volume of comics for it these days.Oh…ComicFury is still alive? That warms my heart.
The owner, Kyo helped run another forum that was very dear to me that is long dead now. I wonder if that site would scratch that nostalgia itch I have.
I run a tiny community that is like traditional forums. The software it runs on is open source (though obscure), but this particular instance is invite only. DM me if anyone wants an invitation. There is no specific focus or subject to the community.
I mostly only lurk there, but Cloudy Nights for amateur astronomers (https://www.cloudynights.com). Another that I check regularly, but I am not a member of is Typedrawers (https://typedrawers.com/) for type designers.
I use Unraid for my home server and I use their forum all the time. It’s so much better than the subreddit when it comes to depth of answers and helpfulness.
NASASpaceFlight and physicsforums
Did you see this recent post on HackerNews about physicsforums (and dead internet theory)?
I use
Shroomery
And
Detectorprospector
Shroomery has got to be one of the longest running continuously active forums on the Internet, as does the DMT Nexus.
When I was trying to be a little stricter about my personal Reddit ban (for now, Reddit still contains more readily available hyperspecific information about a wider array of subjects than anywhere else on the Internet) I was delighted to see those forums still active.
In you're into photography, the forum of the FOSS community : https://discuss.pixls.us
I keep an eye on two forums with a focus on Australian content, namely Whirlpool (technology/IT discussion spreading out into some more general sections over the years) and Netrider (primarily motorcycling related topics). Both have managed to keep a decent amount of activity despite the fall of forums as a whole, and unlike facebook/discord both have produced a lot of searchable useful information over their time (which is how I came across these sites). I think the web design of Whirlpool is also worth noting, as it has to my relief resisted the calls for flashy features and kept to usable minimalism over what is now decades.
I use Probrewer for work related stuff.
I use Tweakers which is a Dutch tech website with a forum which has a big general discussion part.
I'm a mod at Pianotell, a forum for anyone interested in piano playing/tuning/collecting. All levels welcome. Compared to Reddit (or even Tildes) it's really a community--you can have extended conversations with other piano beginners/experts/enthusiasts. Quarterly recitals are a great way to perform for an audience without much pressure and a great way to get encouraging and useful feedback.
The site's userbase primarily comes from the biggest forum for Piano, pianoworld.com. Pianoworld was bought a few years ago by VerticalScope, a company known for running traditional forums to the ground by maximizing ad revenue and minimizing maintenance. A lot of users from pianoworld migrated to pianotell about a year ago. Pianotell, run by piano amateur, is friendly, free, and decidedly non-corporate.
I check ResetEra sometimes, it's the gaming forum that spun off from NeoGAF years ago. They post the latest info there, and it's a chill and casual place and it feels super active, it almost feels like a Discord in that sense, but it's a forum. I'm surprised no one mentioned it yet!