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call me nostalgic, but i refuse to let go of that internet. There are plenty of alternatives that dont get a multi billion dollar TV ad blitz, and theyre worth

call me nostalgic, but i refuse to let go of that internet. There are plenty of alternatives that dont get a multi billion dollar TV ad blitz, and theyre worth checking out https://freenode.net https://freenode.net for a classic IRC experience, free of charge. https://mastodon.social/about https://mastodon.social/about for a distributed open source twitter-like experience https://diasporafoundation.org/ https://diasporafoundation.org/ for an alternative to facebook that respects your privacy.

dijit 9y ago
I maintain to this day a personal IRC network. Many of us have been “together” for over a decade. In fact I just tried to advocate self-hosted communities at CCC. So I’m also stuck in the past and refuse to let the internet go. But I have two points I’d like to mention. 1) Forums are dead for almost all but the biggest communities that surround a product of some kind. Social forums are simply dead. 2) As an IRC-user mentioned at the CCC. Facebook is the new telephone number. It’s significantly easier to ask for a Facebook friend request than a phone number and that edge will keep Facebook relevant even if we saw a rise in self-hosted or segmented interest driven communities.
- pault 9y ago
  Spam is the reason Facebook is currently the easiest way to get in touch with someone. Otherwise you could just put your email address in a publicly searchable database. It seems like we need a service that provides the verification and permission based communication model of Facebook but without the public feeds, virtue signaling, and political garbage.
  - Goladus 9y ago
    Spam drove people to Facebook even in the early days. When Facebook first came out, spam filtering was far less effective than it is today. Also, for whatever reason, people trusted Facebook and would post private things there that they wouldn't post on pseudonymous forums.
  - rndmind 9y ago
    The phone is best way to get a hold of someone. Other than that, linkedin is more formal, but more easily searchable. Facebook is composed of spam, resposted memes from 4chan, and a ton of inactive accounts, IMHO.
- floren 9y ago
  > 1) Forums are dead for almost all but the biggest communities that surround a product of some kind. Social forums are simply dead. The Something Awful forums are still pretty lively. The community may not 'click' for everyone, but some of the smaller subforums especially are very welcoming and fun places (like Automotive Insanity, the subforum where people post about their car projects and project cars)
  - bluedino 9y ago
    SA is dead compared to even just a few years ago. Everyone got old and left.
- snaky 9y ago
  Forums are alive and well. Just not for pointless 'social interacting' and selfies. To give you some examples. Interested in electronics? EEVblog forums. Audio? DIYaudio.com and Vegalab forums. Mobile? XDA and 4pda forums. Mobile audio? Head-fi and Doctorhead forums. Mobile power? budgetlightforum and chongdiantou BBS. Yes, a big amount of them is Russian and Chinese. Yes, there is something to think about.
jasonkostempski 9y ago
A Hacker News IRC might be a fun thing to start.

dijit 9y ago

I maintain to this day a personal IRC network. Many of us have been “together” for over a decade. In fact I just tried to advocate self-hosted communities at CCC. So I’m also stuck in the past and refuse to let the internet go. But I have two points I’d like to mention. 1) Forums are dead for almost all but the biggest communities that surround a product of some kind. Social forums are simply dead. 2) As an IRC-user mentioned at the CCC. Facebook is the new telephone number. It’s significantly easier to ask for a Facebook friend request than a phone number and that edge will keep Facebook relevant even if we saw a rise in self-hosted or segmented interest driven communities.

pault 9y ago
Spam is the reason Facebook is currently the easiest way to get in touch with someone. Otherwise you could just put your email address in a publicly searchable database. It seems like we need a service that provides the verification and permission based communication model of Facebook but without the public feeds, virtue signaling, and political garbage.
- Goladus 9y ago
  Spam drove people to Facebook even in the early days. When Facebook first came out, spam filtering was far less effective than it is today. Also, for whatever reason, people trusted Facebook and would post private things there that they wouldn't post on pseudonymous forums.
- rndmind 9y ago
  The phone is best way to get a hold of someone. Other than that, linkedin is more formal, but more easily searchable. Facebook is composed of spam, resposted memes from 4chan, and a ton of inactive accounts, IMHO.
floren 9y ago
> 1) Forums are dead for almost all but the biggest communities that surround a product of some kind. Social forums are simply dead. The Something Awful forums are still pretty lively. The community may not 'click' for everyone, but some of the smaller subforums especially are very welcoming and fun places (like Automotive Insanity, the subforum where people post about their car projects and project cars)
- bluedino 9y ago
  SA is dead compared to even just a few years ago. Everyone got old and left.
snaky 9y ago
Forums are alive and well. Just not for pointless 'social interacting' and selfies. To give you some examples. Interested in electronics? EEVblog forums. Audio? DIYaudio.com and Vegalab forums. Mobile? XDA and 4pda forums. Mobile audio? Head-fi and Doctorhead forums. Mobile power? budgetlightforum and chongdiantou BBS. Yes, a big amount of them is Russian and Chinese. Yes, there is something to think about.

jasonkostempski 9y ago

A Hacker News IRC might be a fun thing to start.