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.
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.
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.
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:
Incredible
Blenderartists.org for blender news, learning, and sharing of addons and stuff
Gallifrey Base, sometimes 😌🤓
It seems that this might be useful to add to this pile of information:
https://meta.discourse.org/t/federation-support-for-discourse/90921
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.
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.
matrix isn’t a forum. it’s a chat.
Incorrect. Technically Matrix is a protocol, and a forum client can be made. You already have some PoC social media ones. It just so happens that most well known clients at this time and for instant messaging. But it can be much more.
that’s interesting… I guess a forum and a chat have a lot of similar attributes. The difference is in the presentation with forum being more static appearing. What would be the reason to deploy Matrix like that instead of using a purpose-build forum software? The most obvious would be not requiring a second account.
What’s PoC?
I go to mentalhealthforum.net
Retrogametalk and segaxtreme
I know this won’t interest most lemmy users, but the forums for most large american colligate sports programs are alive and well.
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.
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.
Easy there. “Remember when /b/ was good?” is a meme from /b/ itself. The answer even in 2010 was “/b/ was never good”.
My first serious romantic partner in the mid-2000s told me “the more I browse /b/, the more I understand you” and in retrospect I don’t know how I feel about that
Yeahhh… somewhat cringe in hindsight, but a core part of old internet.
