When I was a kid, around the early internet era I'm assuming everyone had similar experiences of the social internet. Specifically forums, built around a particular topic, or just literally chat forums where you'd create an account and interact with the same people regularly. (Bonus points if you could create a cool looking "sig") those people were always popular.
Facebook obviously killed forums off, but I'm spending a lot more time on the same forums, and interacting with the same people over and over again. Which I've come to the conclusion is actually a fairly good defense against Bots as you have a general idea of someone's normal behaviour.
Heck even Facebook, what originally killed off forums, just doesn't seem to have much use anymore. Most posting is in groups, which are essentially just forums.
Are we finally seeing the overdue devolution of the internet back into specific communities? This is great IMO by the way as places like X will always be common areas but places like this are great refuges. As long as intro threads don't make a comeback. Those things were always terrible.
How much time do people spend on single interest forums these days?
Of course forums are making a comeback. When Dom or Antonio chastise me here it is for good reason and I listen to the reasons why and am able to question if I find there to be reason to. On Reddit or other social media I'm being blanket banned from areas I wouldn't go to by people who won't justify their actions.
I'm not the worst Internet user and am seasoned enough to not foul up by accident but there are plenty of people still exploring who their online personas are and they need to experience embarrassment and humiliation in order to be the best them.
Forums, and good moderators, are a tried and tested method of allowing that to happen and you can joke without it seeming like you've committed a unforgivable crime.
Interesting idea I never considered. The moderated board structure forces you to adapt and grow into group of users. Maybe there's another forum you'll fit in with better, but being a lone wolf doesn't work unless you only want to lurk.
Social media must be the opposite extreme. Everyone can be their most badass narcissist self and eventually get praised and "affirmed" by someone somewhere in the world for it.
Most tech places or github projects.etc all say 'Have a problem chat with me on pisschord.
Forums are a indispensible source of info. Reddit is nice too. Unfortunately.. discord is where knowledge goes into a blackhole and lost.
And that's where it's all pushed now.
What I've seen is everyone has their own Discord server. Which I guess is kinda like a forum (probably a bit more like IRC since it requires a separate application).
no, not everyone. not everyone wants to waste their time on a tranny grooming chat platform.
That I can confirm, then again if you go hunting in old code project they still use IRC rather than discord, but everyone else seems to move to discord and not forums.
reddit sucks for casual discussion. and most forums allow for more specific discussions without fear of being bumped down by that upvote system, and most don't have the retarded post upvote function at all.
I stumbled on Agora Road forums and joined them recently. It's for 'Vaporwave' discussion on the face of it, but the essence of the community seems to be fairly redpilled zoomies all harking for a past that they weren't a part of (hence the retro schtick). Made me want to jump in the mix.
I can't seem to get back into the ol' habits of forum checking and posting that used to come so naturally though.
I've noticed this too.
...I miss ps3hax... that was a great place for softmodding...
The nice thing about forums was/is that most weren’t up/downvote machines. I’ve come to loathe the mechanic.
People can cite factual evidence for an argument and be downvoted because they just don’t agree with it. Others can express a puffed up opinion and get upvotes by the hundreds. It is telling people that opinions are superior to facts.
Forums allow for discussion even with disagreements. Neither side is automatically judged by the number of votes they have. They stand on the merit of the words they say and not on votes.
If rational you mean whatever CNN says then yeah forums are definitely good for that.
Which forums do you recommend?
I don't recommend any.
The outdoor nature forum. You go outside and become one with the creator just don't go into any mysterious elevators in the woods or go up weird staircases that don't belong.