Internet forums are disappearing because now it's all Reddit and Discord. And that's worrying.
Posted by BoJackHorseMan53@reddit | RedditAlternatives | View on Reddit | 165 comments
SoggyGrayDuck@reddit
I don't understand any of the social medias like discord or even x. I don't understand why I want to be smushed into the middle of a conversation and once I leave I'll be lost trying to return. Screw that, reddit does it perfectly and no other platforms copy it well.
ThePunisher556@reddit
Reddit is evil. Not just the company, but the system is terribly designed and almost unchanged from 2005 concept. Unpaid, volunteer moderators deside who can speak and who can't, who manage 10 other sites at the same time, also tend to be filthy losers since all they do on their free time is moderate. Echo chambers naturally emerge. Upvote, downvote, karma is a 2005 era of naive filtering. All it does is make critical or opposing views not visible, hiding truth from the echo chambers. Pretty far away from being perfect platorm of sharing opinions.
SoggyGrayDuck@reddit
I found reddit around 2012 (ridiculously photogenic guy that then made the news cemented the deal for me but I had been on the platform for a while by then) and loved it back then. You could actually say what you wanted without getting banned, you might get downvoted to hell but it wouldn't impact your ability to post or anything like that. They gave the mods too much power shortly after that.
feldoneq2wire@reddit
> reddit does it perfectly
You sure about that?
SoggyGrayDuck@reddit
Other than shit moderation yes
AtheistAgnostic@reddit
Lemmy
esotologist@reddit
Discord allows instant gratification when it comes to asking questions to a community. While being crappily made it also has way more features than a lot of the alternatives too tbh
Ryno4ever16@reddit
I don't follow how Discord is crappily made. Maybe if you're viewing it as some kind of forum/social media replacement. When Discord came out, it completely changed the game of VOIP applications for PC. It was miles better than any of the alternatives (Teamspeak, Voice, Mumble).
Like it has problems, but compared to other similar applications, it's just better. More features, easier to use, broad appeal.
VeeDubBug@reddit
Exactly why my old gaming crew all have Discord. It might take a bit to find communities themselves to join, but as far as a chat software that had pretty good call quality, a way to share your screen, and just BS with friends, it was far more enjoyable to use than Skype was.
topselection@reddit
Aside from hating chat in general since using ICQ back in 2002, I hate Discord because it uses that creepy email sharing for login. I had created an account in 2015 and forgot about it. In 2018 I built a new computer. In 2019, someone convinced me to join their Discord, and when I went to sign up, I was already logged in!
It took me a while to figure out how they did that. It was like running into someone you met 10 years ago at a bar, and you're like "Oh... uh... yeh, hi, I think I remember you, what was you're name again?" but they somehow know your home address, your credit card number and its PIN.
brakeb@reddit
Why maintain your own Forum, when a reddit will do?
nipple_salad_69@reddit
this is the human equivalent of a dog being scared of their own shadow lol
topselection@reddit
Man, you're like a cow who doesn't question all the free food and healthcare those friendly humans give you.
esotologist@reddit
Eww that's awful :(
It's a security nightmare for a ton of reasons tbh I try not to install it on new systems until I have to :(
I suggest using the web version and always logging out if you must.
topselection@reddit
That's the thing. I made the account via the website on my old machine and then like five years later when I went back to the website on a completely new machine built from scratch, I was logged in. I think it's because they share logins with Google. I'm still not entirely sure. I call it voodoo tech.
I refuse to install a website even on my phone unless it's something like Uber or Lyft. It has to get to the point to where the world literally forces me to do it.
Hgrueber6x6@reddit
Except reddit moderation is completely fucked because of politics which spoils an otherwise good platform.
Asyncrosaurus@reddit
Moderation is the exact same as it was when everyone was on forums, except now the admins add or remove mods based on business decisions and not community needs.
Perfect_Cost_8847@reddit
Forums were tens of thousands of users. Maybe hundreds. Subreddits are tens of millions, and those forums are barren. The power and scope these moderators have is orders of magnitude larger, and they’re backed up by the owners of the site which impose rules across all communities at the same time. You’re probably right that moderators were always degenerates, but now they’ve been legitimacy and unprecedented control over a major internet comms hub.
Perfect_Cost_8847@reddit
Yeah it’s almost weird how few major competitors have done competent nested comments. Facebook does a milquetoast version of it. Lemmy does it but the community is repulsive to normal people. To put on my tinfoil hat, I think nested comments which the community vote on are much harder to monetise. Facebook and X are able to surface the content to the top which make them the most money. I’m hopeful that Digg nails their reemergence.
RampantAndroid@reddit
Discord allows you to create threads now - it even prompts you to as it starts to recognize a pattern of message -> reply -> reply etc.
It’s also very easy to create multiple rooms for different topics.
It’s not a 1:1 replacement or, frankly, a satisfying replacement for a good old forum…but if you want to talk to someone right now it will work. And discord servers are free so you can easily create one for your community right now. Just…your community better politically align with Discord’s politics or they ban the server and everyone in it.
scoshi@reddit
Because it's no longer about the conversation. It's about eyeball time and the number of ads they can feed.
Salnder12@reddit
To me the internet was forums, they were the only place I could talk about things like action figures and horror movies. I miss places like moviemaniacs.net and the spawn.com forums, their was such a sense of community there. Now all we have is reddit, where small niche subs are dead but general ones are so flooded any niche posts are lost in the shuffle.
I hate it
ArcKnives@reddit
I had this same thought today. Really miss those boards. I was on moviemaniacs.net for a long time.
CaptainRelyk@reddit
And a lot of the subreddits have power tripping mods in charge
Bertrum@reddit
Reddit only rewards the most mainstream or generic communities and rewards the most forgettable or uninteresting posts that are just office humour memes and jokes
AtheistAgnostic@reddit
Lemmy
Equivalent-Stuff-347@reddit
The small, niche subs are far from dead
Salnder12@reddit
Oh I meant in my hobby sphere. I'm sure theirs plenty of niche subs out there that are thriving just not for me
Equivalent-Stuff-347@reddit
Specifically the hobby sphere on Reddit is pretty active, but I guess it depends on the hobby?
Salnder12@reddit
Action figures, which they're alot of them out their but it's usually people like me looking seeing theirs little activity and then going back to the main reddits
Substantial-Advance5@reddit
Discord is a good name for it because the post flow is a disorganized mess! Thousands of posts in a string and it's more difficult to navigate than it is worth. I also dislike how many of these Discord mods go into the old forums and try "recruiting" new members combined with the often convoluted and draconian rules the mods put in place where they ban anybody over obscure and murky infractions.
Blueberry_Inept@reddit
It’s awful. I found my love of web development through tinkering with CSS on invision boards and now all the forums I know of are gone.
TezzaNZ@reddit
I used to run a forum. Through the years I found the increasing number of bots, hackers and spammers made it a nightmare to administer. So I retired it. It just became too much work.
Agreeable-Fall5999@reddit
Same, maintaining forums was a lot of trouble vs 3 clicks to start a fb group or subreddit.
FlirtyFluffyFox@reddit
My last two big forums were killed by spam bots and a MAGA becoming a supermod and then banning the other mods and bullying the admin into promoting hidngtirnfd his friends before removing anti-harassment rules and driving out half the users.
sizarieldor@reddit
Discord is awful because it does not get indexed by search engines, so the information there is much harder to reach
ZestycloseAbility425@reddit
why would anyone ever want discord to be indexed by search engines? thats a privacy nightmare
amartincolby@reddit
Because a lot of Discords are not just people chatting; they are important cultural artifacts that disappear, taking human history with them.
sizarieldor@reddit
I agree, but that's not the poit. People are asking for and receiving technical advice on discord and it cannot be easily found afterwards.
KStryke_gamer001@reddit
Yeah, but discord doesn't have the layer of anonymity that reddit has. Further it's used more like messaging app, with stuff that people expect to be private. Convenience cannot come at the cost of privacy.
Tystros@reddit
Discord is exactly as anonymous as reddit
GBJI@reddit
For other users, it might look like it is, but from a security standpoint, it certainly is not an service you can use anonymously. Have you tried registering an account anonymously on Discord ? It's impossible.
You can't even register without providing a phone number anymore !
https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/6181726888215-How-to-Verify-Your-Discord-Account
Worried-Geologist-41@reddit
Who doesn't have a burner phone yet?
Bulletorpedo@reddit
In some countries you can’t get a phone number without identification.
Effective_Path_5798@reddit
So that means it's awful?
Bertrum@reddit
Also the UI is awful and irritating and searching for specific posts from a certain date is impossible. And they bombard you with new updates and changes that act like borderline malware
The_World_Wonders_34@reddit
You can also lose access to your entire Discord Library, every server you're in, every conversation you've had, if Discord gets skittish and decides that a server you join 3 years ago and forgot about had people doing something sketchy in a chat you may not even have had access to, or someone reports you for being underage and the AI they have handling things isn't smart enough to figure out that you're not.
The same kind of goes with reddit. Although I think in most cases when an account gets banned it's existing comments stay? I'm not sure. But yeah, in any case a nice thing about the decentralized internet of old was that your presence existed and discrete chunks so even if one piece of something went down, most of the footprint was still there
Hunter0fGunmen@reddit
Yesterday I was trying to log into my discord on my other phone, but my password wasn’t matching even though I had my password saved(iOS/apple). I was unable to reset my password without using a two factor authorization, one that I wasn’t able to use without my password… I uninstalled Discord
PatchyWhiskers@reddit
It doesn’t need to be indexed but it does need to provide a better internal search function
AdreKiseque@reddit
Is Reddit not a forum site itself?
JTO_reddit@reddit
The powers that be don't want us having any sort of connection with each other. First, it was about separating us physically via digital addition. Then, once we were comfortable online, they siloed us in our digital spaces. Now, they just flood those digital spaces with bots, distancing us from each other even further. This full-circle moment of "don't trust what you read on the internet" implies we should return to building IRL communities, unless that's what they are counting on. It's likely chessmate either way sadly...
BoJackHorseMan53@reddit (OP)
We should go back to interacting irl
tristand666@reddit
You may be too young to remember Newsgroups...
BoJackHorseMan53@reddit (OP)
I use it, but not as a social media platform lol
phoebe_vv@reddit
we need old forums back so bad. painfully nostalgic for them.
BoJackHorseMan53@reddit (OP)
Which ones were you using?
According_Cup606@reddit
member when internet was fun ?
Right_Ostrich4015@reddit
Because Reddit is trash. Fuck u/spez
amusingvillain@reddit
it's a double edge sword imo.
I can't remember the last time I was on an internet community forum.
On one hand, reddit offers centralisation which I actually like. I have one place where I can enter, hop around different subs and by nature I connect with different circles depending on what I'm into at the given moment.
I tried Lemmy for a bit, but felt something was incredible off about it. It was so "raw", in a sense that I have to get used to the idea of a "non aggregated"/"no algo" feed. I can admit that it felt that I was having an "algo cold turkey". I think that is the very thing that is impending the adoption rate for it. Same goes for mastodon.
There has to be a balance somewhere.
ThisWillPass@reddit
Gross
Crashman09@reddit
For me, what makes Lemmy not work, is that I can't just hop around, as you said with reddit.
I don't want to make several accounts. I barely want to make a single account.
Perhaps if there was a way to have a single account that could be used on multiple servers it wouldn't be an issue, but as it was last I tried using it, it wasn't user friendly. I'm certain that is what keeps its adoption rate low.
ArcturusRoot@reddit
What do you mean you can't "hop around" on lemmy?
It's entirely federated. If a community exists on another instance, you can still join unless it's locked down yo that instance.
niomosy@reddit
The federation was a mess last I checked. Content would show up eventually, but it wasn't great.
BlazeAlt@reddit
You probably checked a while ago, federation has improved greatly, now the top 20 instances (and even beyond) have all of the content all the time
niomosy@reddit
I'll maybe take a look at Mbin. That or just see what happens with the new Digg.
YukarinVal@reddit
Another one you might be interested in if you value multireddits is piefed.
It took me since the reddit APIpocalypse til this year to click with the threadiverse. It has come a long way since then, but yeah I admit it still have some rough patches.
Not that different than when I joined reddit NGL
IMO it's only a bigger problem for newer reddit it's that's been served cleansed boring current reddit
Pamasich@reddit
But that's the entire point of Lemmy, or rather the fediverse. Instead of walled gardens where any website's content can only be accessed from that website, the fediverse allows you with a single account to access all the content federated with the network, regardless which website it belongs to.
There shouldn't be a reason to create an account on every instance, that defeats the entire point.
Are you sure the instance you chose didn't just default to the local (your instance only) feed? There's a toggle between them, and some instances default to the local feed, while some default to the global one.
YukarinVal@reddit
I never used or relied in reddit's algorithm. To me browsing /r/all seems anathema. So moving to lemmy / threadiverse isn't that hard since I'm already self curating like on Reddit.
I just don't understand how people just do not curate their own experience other than relying on predatory algorithms.
Pamasich@reddit
How is that different from Reddit? That doesn't have any more of an algorithm than Lemmy does. And what do you mean with "non aggregated"?
LordMimsyPorpington@reddit
Reddit offering a centralized hub for forums on any topic imaginable was what killed the old Internet forums. That's why it has sucked to see u/Spez trying his hardest to kill this place.
lostmyaccountpt@reddit
What's scary it's when reddit decides to start blocking access to certain subreddits behind a paywall and all alternatives are dead
glassnumbers@reddit
discord rules!
BoJackHorseMan53@reddit (OP)
Yes, too many rules on some servers.
Kappapeachie@reddit
I love how people on this thread are acting like reddit doesn't have the same exact problems others have. Look, I respect reddit but combined with the overwhelming male presence, weird smug culture, and god awful nesting style I sometimes want to depart this place and stick to neocities. But what about all the women subs or other solutions like blocking? A bandaid for a massive gaping hole. It makes me wish forums were still a thing where gatekeeping bad people was easy as shutting the door.
Reddit has provided what people crave from forums but as a consequence lead to the total destabilization of older, smaller ones now mercy to time. Sucks it came down to this but that's the internet for you.
Putrid-Comfort1665@reddit
What's more concerning is knowing the underwriter of policy for Reddit served under Steven Hadley.
Ivorysilkgreen@reddit
I can't remember the last time I was on an internet forum, I forgot they existed.
One immediate disadvantage of everything being so centralised is for example, if you no longer want to use reddit for personal reasons, you are cut off from everything. It's putting all eggs in one basket. Convenient, until all the eggs break.
BoJackHorseMan53@reddit (OP)
Solution is lemmy!
Crashman09@reddit
Not really.
It's barely usable on its most popular instances, but more niche things like specific games, or books, or whatever are non existent.
Lemmy needs a larger userbase to actually be worth it. And it's not getting that userbase without being user friendly.
BoJackHorseMan53@reddit (OP)
Lsmmy is user friendly, just download Voyager on mobile and use photon on desktop. It can't get more users if people like us don't join.
Crashman09@reddit
Right, but the niche things I actively use Reddit for aren't active or existant on Lemmy.
I can't justify making an account for something that I won't be using.
Over 60 percent of my Reddit usage is in niche communities, of which aren't alive on Lemmy, and the other 40 that Lemmy actually has isn't enough to pull me to a whole other platform.
Like, I like the concept of Lemmy, but in practice, it needs more for it to be usable for me
YukarinVal@reddit
You could help build the communities you're found wanting.
Crashman09@reddit
I would, but these days I have so little time, even for reddit with its already established communities, I really don't have the time to make an instance and be the sole contributor until something picks up. I don't want to be responsible for moderation either.
YukarinVal@reddit
Understandable. Similar to me, just that I'm actively reducing reddit consumption altogether
There's no telling when I'm getting banned from reddit for wrongthink
I just latch onto the communities already there that are still small and try to contribute
Meloku171@reddit
That's why forums were more general in topics: if you wanted to talk about a specific game you would go to your local Videogames forum, request an [Insert Game Here] subforum and, if the demand actually existed, you would have your wish granted, but even on the more popular ones you would barely scratch the 100s of users. On Reddit, you just go ahead and create it, and users all around the world might come or might not, and even on the most niche topics you get a couple of hundreds of active users. Also, the moment the admin stopped caring about the forums they were lost to time.
Centralization was the big thing that allowed Reddit to thrive. Old forums, as great as they still are, were no match.
apokrif1@reddit
Or if you are banned of if the site is hacked.
AurasphereApp@reddit
Use Sphere.is! Brand new, reddit alternative.
BoJackHorseMan53@reddit (OP)
Lemmy has won the race. If we're going to have multiple alternatives, at least they should be federated otherwise users will be spread too thin and no one will use them because of lack of users.
AurasphereApp@reddit
Is it really about 'winning a race,' though? It’s a service, not a competition. From what I can tell, Lemmy’s most active instance has around 43,895 users, with usage spread across multiple servers. Each instance has its own styling and rules, which seems to create a fragmented experience. Doesn’t that contribute to the very problem being discussed—scattered and divided communities? Also, with federation, wouldn’t there still be a form of central governance, just distributed differently?
I'm not sure Lemmy is the solution you're looking for, given the constraints in your comment.
BoJackHorseMan53@reddit (OP)
With federation, there is no central governance. That's the beauty of it.
bakub@reddit
Internet forums are disappearing because now it's all Reddit and Discord. And that's worrying.
Xerio_the_Herio@reddit
Discord is still like the old IRC... it won't get mass appeal until they make it more friendly. Right now, it's very niche and dedicated to specific topics. Plus you kinda have to know how to use it. Same prob IRC had. If you knew nothing about it, you couldn't just dl and try it out. Rddt is fine, for the most part, just that you're at the whim of the mods and what mood they're in on any given day.
BoJackHorseMan53@reddit (OP)
Maybe Discord wants to keep it that way?
SillyLiving@reddit
is it so difficult to start a new forum?
BoJackHorseMan53@reddit (OP)
It's easy. You can just install lemmy on a server and you have your own reddit.
YukarinVal@reddit
Pretty sure /r/headphones hates the fact that head-fi.org is still alive and kicking
BoJackHorseMan53@reddit (OP)
That's why we need lemmy
topselection@reddit
Is there an ELI5 for Lemmy anywhere? Their landing page is full of razzle-dazzle that makes it sound like a data and webhosting service.
YukarinVal@reddit
Here's a IMO good onboarding post for lemmy.
https://lemmy.zip/post/43
Lemmy like most fediverse things are for the most part too nerdy facing IMO. Probably that's what a lot of users want as gatekeeping from my impressions and guesstimate.
BoJackHorseMan53@reddit (OP)
Go to lemmy.world and make an account. If you like the new reddit ui, go to p.lemmy.world, if you like the old reddit, go to old.lemmy.world. Download Voyager on mobile.
topselection@reddit
So, the best I can gather is that it's like forum software that people can put on a webhosting service or run from their home computer, but on top of that, it's interconnected with other forums using the same software so if someone logs into the forum you've set up, they automatically are logged into all other forums using that software?
One-Whole-Jellyfish@reddit
This is my exact understanding of it all. I’m very confused why they decided to not lead with that and instead choose to say it’s a Reddit replacement. The whole project is scattered due to being so young and that’s its only real issue
threelonmusketeers@reddit
Not quite. You are not logged into all websites using that software, but you can interact with (post and comment) all the content from all the other websites, since they share content with each other.
Feel free to ask if you have other questions!
Electronic-Phone1732@reddit
Especially since forums can add support for its protocol, so then people on lemmy can interact with the forum. Check nodebb, they did this.
acreakingstaircase@reddit
Isn’t a forum basically reddit but with 10 subreddits?
TheOneTrueJazzMan@reddit
No, the comment format is drastically different + there is no comment voting system like on reddit
BoJackHorseMan53@reddit (OP)
True. That's why we need forums to get connected to each other via activitypub. Then all the forums will be connected and we will have the benefit of decentralised forums which can all be viewed in one place similar to reddit. Lemmy does that.
Pamasich@reddit
NodeBB has activitypub support.
lazyplayboy@reddit
And facebook groups, obviously
croutherian@reddit
What's concerning is discord is not public and the chat history will eventually get lost forever.
JBWentworth_@reddit
That’s a plus in my book.
ranixon@reddit
It isn't in always. One of the good thing forums (and Reddit) is that is someone asked for a problem and it has a solution, you can find it in search engines. In Discord is impossible, even worse if it is something more pld, because find it in discord would be almost impossible.
Ok_Construction_8136@reddit
Another plus I found is that when games and hobbies are primarily discussed on Discord you end up with a very gated community. Take Paradox games, for example, I used to play them years back and most of the good players limited their discussions to Discord which meant that unless you were willing and able to find specific, decentralised servers you wouldn’t really be able to fine out what the the best strategy at the time was and things like that
croutherian@reddit
Exactly
Draedark@reddit
Forums have been disappearing for a while now (years), due to Discord imo.
Meanwhile: BBS boards and RogerWIlco have left the chat.
earthwormjimwow@reddit
Nah, it's lack of permanence that killed forums, which companies like Photobucket rudely informed people of, by killing millions of forum posts overnight that had necessary images hosted by Photobucket.
A lot of community forums have also been killed by the often sole owner of the forum, deciding they're done with that forum and don't want to pass on the keys to someone else.
If you'll notice, the thriving social media platforms all have self-hosting options for most content, giving a sense of permanence. As long as the centralized, giant platform is around, your content is around.
I can go back and find all of my old Reddit posts, or discord chats, but I can't do them same on one of the BMW forums I used to practically live on, that was killed by the crazy owner who actually had the only keys to the server.
QuevedoDeMalVino@reddit
I have seen a fantastic metalworking forum, metalaficion, disappear because of owner paranoia. Very sad.
Also, Bose professional forum due to the company’s decision not to invest in keeping it anymore.
Luckily archives of both exist but a static archive is less useful than a live forum and even when a closed forum is cloned and a live one takes on (e.g. prosoundcommunity.com), many (or most) former members are lost, taking the forum back years that may never be recovered.
I think Internet forums are good. They counter concentration in huge dominant platforms and often have an authentic, artisan feeling that is not going to be found on the large social media we get. The hard part of course is to convince enough people of going to forums. Huge platforms have mastered the reduction of friction, and we people are naturally lazy. Or, to be perhaps more just, we tend to preserve our energy.
apokrif1@reddit
Due to Facebook too IMHO.
ranixon@reddit
Yes, that's when everything started. At least Reddit is indexed in search engines, Discord and Facebook aren't
Aimhere2k@reddit
The various attempts at replacing Reddit, sadly, are not indexed by Google as comprehensively as Reddit itself. Which is why, when you search for something on Google, the results from Reddit are conveniently grouped together, while those from, say, Lemmy, might be scattered throughout the rest of the results pages.
Lemmy (and the Fediverse in general) won't really take off until they come up with some serious SEO for Google's crawler.
threelonmusketeers@reddit
There are tools like FediSearch which can be built on top of existing search engines and make searching the fediverse easier.
simon_the_detective@reddit
Maybe there's hope with AI search. Maybe we can tell the AI to search for stuff from sources that has less reach, but appears to hit the high points or is written by people who appear to know what they are talkinga about. I don't know... Probably any AI search that's run by Google or Microsoft will inevitably fall into a monetization hole and tend toward the more popular.
brakeb@reddit
Lol, "fediverse" are so anti-google and Anti-SEO they won't want their 'content' indexed by evil Google, and probably so when the 1st Amendment is repealed, what they said can't be used to send them to an El Salvadorian prison
RedMattis@reddit
I doubt Google really wants that either since that type of service makes Google itself easier to replace.
European initiatives as well as those from other regions might have different interests though, especially if Reddit leadership goes full xhitter on us.
simon_the_detective@reddit
Slashdot and a site I bet few remember, Kuro5in, were great back in the day and provided much of what Reddit does today.
Slashdot is still around, and you sometimes get a link to an interesting discussion there, but it's not what it once was.
There were waves of Social Media sites that came and went before a few dominated the scene, FriendFeed, MySpace, Orkut...
It's all churn, churn, churn. Everybody wants the new hotness. Software is like that too... It's sad.
ShaveTheTurtles@reddit
Haven't heard rogerwilco in decades!
Draedark@reddit
That was the oldest one I could think of off the top.of my head.
I am not a fan of Discord. It is just IRC woth extra steps. But to he fair, I do not really miss having to juggle multiple VOIP programs. TeamSpeak, Mumble, Roger Wilco Skype, IRC, etc...
Ghoztt@reddit
Teamspeak, Ventrillo, AIM, ICQ, Messenger, IRC...
Aimhere2k@reddit
IRC is still around. But it's a shadow of its former self.
Hungry_Freaks_Daddy@reddit
The old internet I grew up on was like entire worlds of untamed wilderness and it will never be that way again. I wish I had been born a lot earlier or a lot later
brakeb@reddit
Because phpBB forums are a nightmare to maintain, easy to hack and dump, and many people no longer have the time or patience to deal with 'communities'.
They still exist out there, they are just in walled gardens and don't advertise...
Be the solution, start an internet forum
threelonmusketeers@reddit
And when you do, use NodeBB so it can connect to the rest of the fediverse.
Xaphnir@reddit
And both have atrocious moderation, and both are very aggressive in going after ban evasion.
I fucking hate this dystopia.
Erocdotusa@reddit
I miss aintitcool. One of my first internet forums for movie talk
jmalez1@reddit
many controlled by a few,
black_pepper@reddit
Is the author stuck in 2015?
Forums are long dead or inactive. Some of the old holdouts are still around though like automotive forums for example. Its a ghost town though.
boulderaa@reddit
Luckily for combat sports there are still Sherdog forums and they are better than Reddit.
JBWentworth_@reddit
FlyerTalk is about the only forum I frequent that is still going strong, but it’s extremely niche.
mvb827@reddit
Other options still exist, but they’ve been losing popularity for many years now because platforms like facebook, Reddit and twitter streamlined their services to make them appealing and easy to use for the masses.
cyrilio@reddit
True, but there are still niche groups with their own forums outside the major Social Media Networks. As mod of r/drugs I'm actually increasing bonds with onne of the major other drug forums; BlueLight.org. We believe that cross polinating will be benificial for all parties.
MrWeirdoFace@reddit
While I'm not entirely sold. I've started exploring alternatives like Lemmy, but I recently came to the conclusion that I've had a enough of the corporately controlled internet experience. I've moved away from prominent social media. While I still have a facebook account, I just use facebook messenger (no timeline, no junk) to talk to my family. I've started "taking back" my control by switching entirely to firefox for now (that could change), using ublock filter's to hide certain types of videos on youtube, with the aid of AI, for example I don't see youtube shorts anymore) and turning spaces like current reddit into hobby resources using reddit enhancement suite, and content by keywords and subreddits. Basically I'm curating my own internet atm, and I'm just getting started. It won't stop those forums from disappearing, but I can at the very least get rid of the toxicity running rampant.
martindent@reddit
Plebbit is gonna bring them back again. It's inevitable
MJSpice@reddit
I remember having this conversation around 5 years ago with someone. Guess nothing has changed it being done about it...
Jumpy_Lavishness_533@reddit
I'm thankful for growing up with the internet. Forums were so awesome, and I got so many memories and friendships on them.
MattDH94@reddit
I came to Reddit from Facepunch…miss that forum.
earthwormjimwow@reddit
What killed forums was people realizing fragile they can be. One day that forum you spent two decades of your life on is up, cultivating relationships and knowledge, the next day it's gone or severely crippled.
Photobucket single-handedly killed millions of forum posts across the internet, destroying decades of knowledge and guides. Further, a lot of forums operate at the pleasure of one individual, which people may not realize. That individual can at any time change their mind about the forum, and decide to delete everything.
Fundamentally, forums are not as permanent as people thought, people now days do not devote anywhere near the same amount of effort into creating quality content on them because of this fragility, as such forums have slowly been dying out.
Prohawins@reddit
Boycott Reddit and move to lemmy.
Shigglyboo@reddit
it's really a shame. I used to be on several for years. people knew each other. no getting banned because you argued with someone else on another forum. or because you dared to like a comment.
Meloku171@reddit
I remember my small corner of the internet, it was an early 2000s Rhythm Games forum (not that one). To celebrate the admin's birthday we banned a random user for shits and giggles. It was another time...
reightb@reddit
So it was you...
DefamedPrawn@reddit
I miss IRC and Usenet.
Yes, they both still exist, but they're not the same. They're both so barren.
UnflinchingSugartits@reddit
Seems like Microblogging is killing forums to me. I don't understand what ppl like about it. Forums are simpler
Hyperion1144@reddit
When do the Digg Beta invites start going out?
FREE-AOL-CDS@reddit
There are still niches carved out around the Internet . Go find them!
AnonEMouse@reddit
I refuse to use Discord. It's a privacy and security nightmare and nothing pisses me off when software relies on Discord as their primary support channel.
Delicious_Ease2595@reddit
There are modern rich forums platforms as Discourse, companies and sites have the problem of selecting centralized social media than hosting their own forum.
SweetGM@reddit
Gamefaqs boards are pretty active still I think?
jeremycb29@reddit
I mean it’s not like the message boards disappeared. It’s just no one goes to them anymore.
SojuSeed@reddit
I used to be fairly active on a forum on a porn site. Even modded it for a while. When Trump first rose to power the conservatives on there, of which there were many, exploded with their MAGAt propaganda and “alternative” news sources. It got so bad the admin had to break off and create a politics-only forum so the madness would stop leaking into other threads. Keep in mind, this forum has existed since the 90s and it was only when conservatives went batshit the that prompted the change.
Unfortunately, the damage had already been done and so many people had already left to get away from the noise. Last time I poked my head in there it was mostly the same handful of people screaming at each other on post after post. Who knows what it looks like now.
Cheeseboarder@reddit
Wow. That really speaks to how destructive the maga virus is.
MichaelTen@reddit
Minimum royalty laws should exist (i.e. shared advertising dollars with all those who post any content).
plaidington@reddit
I ran one of the biggest state based horse forums and it got killed by Facebook. This happened 15 years ago.
dwerg85@reddit
Yup, I can still hop on some old forums that are basically dead yet still find the info on them that I need. Reddit might be that for another while, but discord is just useless for me.
esotologist@reddit
Really? I've found the opposite the last few years since reddit started dying out
l8yters@reddit
They aren't sop much disappearing as already dead. The only people left are the people who probably spent too much time on them in the first place.
abdallha-smith@reddit
Reddit and all the big aggregators killed internet