3 ms·

Any particular niche sites that you have in mind and could recommend to others?

jasonjayr 7y ago
Isn't this antithesis to the issue at hand? These niche places are great exactly because they're hard to find, and the community there grows organically. I'm on HN now because slashdot was flailing years ago, and a friend I knew IRL mentioned it ....
- giaour 7y ago
  Most of the niche sites I've seen aren't great because they're exclusive but because they're built around a specific interest. Anybody can join, but if they don't share that interest, they'll get bored and leave.
almost_usual 7y ago
I frequent a truck forum that hasn’t changed in years. I’d imagine there are other forums that exist for your special interests. I tend to meet a lot of nice and helpful people there. I probably spend less than five minutes a day on traditional social media which feels toxic in comparison.
xvedejas 7y ago
My friends host a RocketChat instance with maybe 20 or 30 active users. It's invite-only though, so I can't really recommend it in particular online. But these places exist, and you could consider spawning one and growing it to your preferred size. Our "treehouse" has been pretty great for hanging out and reminds me of the days when IRC was more of a thing.
giaour 7y ago
Ravelry is a lovely social network for knitters, crotchers, and spinners. It's a relatively small site, but it's a model for how social networks should work. Because it's built around a shared interest that people spend money on, the site can sell ad slots instead of relying on real-time bidding based ad networks.
- AnimalMuppet 7y ago
  Ravelry just had a controversy over banning patterns that had Trump's face on them as white-supremacist content.
  - giaour 7y ago
    Nevertheless, the site is well-built and their monetization strategy is non-invasive.
agoodthrowaway 7y ago
I am into motorcycles and so there are plenty of forums for that. In the Bay Area we have 2 active forums. A problem is that Facebook has eroded it a bit. I also mountain bike and there are also forums for that. One of my favorites is a garage forum for people who deck out their garages. Cool to see concepts people come up with for garage workshops. All those sites seem supported through ads related to the specific topic.
ticmasta 7y ago
HA! - I don't think you intended to make this joke but if you did, Kudos! If we give the HN hug to enough niche sites, maybe they'll pick up their SEO game, improve the ranking and start optimizing for the big ad dollars :)
openfuture 7y ago
What are you interested in? Find a niche community around that.

Isn't this antithesis to the issue at hand? These niche places are great exactly because they're hard to find, and the community there grows organically. I'm on HN now because slashdot was flailing years ago, and a friend I knew IRL mentioned it ....

giaour 7y ago
Most of the niche sites I've seen aren't great because they're exclusive but because they're built around a specific interest. Anybody can join, but if they don't share that interest, they'll get bored and leave.

almost_usual 7y ago

I frequent a truck forum that hasn’t changed in years. I’d imagine there are other forums that exist for your special interests. I tend to meet a lot of nice and helpful people there. I probably spend less than five minutes a day on traditional social media which feels toxic in comparison.

xvedejas 7y ago

My friends host a RocketChat instance with maybe 20 or 30 active users. It's invite-only though, so I can't really recommend it in particular online. But these places exist, and you could consider spawning one and growing it to your preferred size. Our "treehouse" has been pretty great for hanging out and reminds me of the days when IRC was more of a thing.

giaour 7y ago

Ravelry is a lovely social network for knitters, crotchers, and spinners. It's a relatively small site, but it's a model for how social networks should work. Because it's built around a shared interest that people spend money on, the site can sell ad slots instead of relying on real-time bidding based ad networks.

AnimalMuppet 7y ago
Ravelry just had a controversy over banning patterns that had Trump's face on them as white-supremacist content.
- giaour 7y ago
  Nevertheless, the site is well-built and their monetization strategy is non-invasive.

agoodthrowaway 7y ago

I am into motorcycles and so there are plenty of forums for that. In the Bay Area we have 2 active forums. A problem is that Facebook has eroded it a bit. I also mountain bike and there are also forums for that. One of my favorites is a garage forum for people who deck out their garages. Cool to see concepts people come up with for garage workshops. All those sites seem supported through ads related to the specific topic.

ticmasta 7y ago

HA! - I don't think you intended to make this joke but if you did, Kudos! If we give the HN hug to enough niche sites, maybe they'll pick up their SEO game, improve the ranking and start optimizing for the big ad dollars :)

openfuture 7y ago

What are you interested in? Find a niche community around that.