hello tildes,

i am searching for a bare-bones forum/message board. i'll describe what i need and perhaps someone can point me in the right direction:

must have the ability to

• create an account
• create topics with the ability to reply
• fully customizable front-end (html/css) so i can make it match my website
• either self-host or use a custom domain on ext hosting

unimportant but nice to have

• display images in posts via external urls
• different boards (categories?) to post into (would be nice but not vital)
• nested replies (or some visual way to see what you're replying to)

free would be ideal (dreams are nice) but probably wouldn't want to spend more than $5/month as this is a supplement to a website where i don't expect much traffic at all due to the nature of the project. no images/video/audio will be hosted ideally.

i'm ok with "hacker news" or "reddit-like" software but my backend knowledge if very limited. for instance, i looked into self-hosting lemmy but i don't understand how to setup docker. options like phpbb would be fine if i could strip away everything aside from the above-mentioned features.

i want it to be extremely simplistic in appearance and for the end-user (tildes is a great example of the simplistic end-user experience). tildes could be a cool option but i think getting it setup is a bit out of my skill-range.

can anyone offer any suggestions/guidence?

edited to emphasize important aspects and clarify things that are not vital but would be nice to have.

The active development of Tildes and the feedback/discussions about features and mechanisms had me thinking. Is the conscious design and moderation of forums for public discourse a manner of social engineering?

I know the connotation of social engineering is usually negative, as in manipulating people for politics. But it's a double edged sword.

Most recently I was reading this feedback on removing usernames from link topics and while reading the comments I was thinking of how meta this all is. It's meta-meta-cognition in that we (well, by far the actual developers) are designing the space within which we execute our discourse and thinking. To paraphrase the above example: user identification can bias one's own impulse reaction to content, either to a beneficial or detrimental end, so how do we want this?

The moderation-influenced scenario is a bit more tricky because it can become too top-heavy, as in one prominent example many of us came from recently... But I think with a balance of direction from the overlords (jk, there is also public input as mentioned) and the chaos of natural public discourse, you could obtain an efficient environment for the exchange of ideas.

I'm not sure what my stimulating question would be for you all, so just tell me what you think.

I assume most of the people that post in Tildes came from Reddit (or they used Reddit primarily). Does anyone else primarily post on something other than Reddit? As an example, I primarily post on Something Awful. I think what attracted me to Tildes is what initially repulsed me from Reddit. I absolutely hate the idea of my opinion being drowned out simply because it was downvoted. Tildes has a bit in common with Something Awful in that sense. Something Awful is a more 'traditional' format. Each post follows the other and there isn't any mechanic for a community to hide or collapse a post.

Additionally, it seems like the few punishments that occur here are a bit more open and transparent than Reddit. That is similar to SA, where they have something called a 'Lepers Colony' to see punishment reasons. Tildes appeals to me because even though it has a hint of Reddit, the discussions are a bit more focused just like SA.

If you do post on older message board, which ones do you post on, and why do you like it?

Like I mentioned I primarily post on Something Awful (Games and C-Spam subforums). I also used to post on GameFAQs and the resulting spinoff called LUElinks. I enjoyed each of these because they were a little bit more rough than other message boards, but they weren't a wild west like some of the anonymous options that existed.