4 ms·

> So now we have to live with those "forums" Which forums do you mean? Every community I was part of has moved to facebook groups, Reddit or Discord. PhpBB has

by the_af 3y ago

> So now we have to live with those "forums" Which forums do you mean? Every community I was part of has moved to facebook groups, Reddit or Discord. PhpBB has gone the way of the dodo (regrettably, since those were the "good old days" for me, since I never used usenet).

SirMaster 3y ago
Well it’s a lot of XenForo now. But I go on AVSForums a lot and Linus tech tips forum and [H]ardforum, etc.
TacticalCoder 3y ago
There are many forums for specific communities: specific car brands, sometimes even specific car models, watches, keyboards even (!), etc. I'm on forums like these and they're doing totally fine. And if anything with the recent Reddit SNAFU the last thing users there want is for some central authority in SV to decide what they're allowed to talk about.
- the_af 3y ago
  Ah, interesting. To be clear, I also meant for specific communities: like for specific hobbies or tabletop games, or niche interests. They've all abandoned forums and, regrettably, moved on to Facebook or Discord. I'll never understand why they choose Discord, a closed chat platform, for forum type discussions. At this point I feel like Quixote tilting at the wind mills.
  - Ringz 3y ago
    I don't understand that either. Discord feels like a hamster wheel connected to a turbocharger.
  - readingnews 3y ago
    I am not so sure they all went FB/Discord, some I use(d) for example: https://www.watchuseek.com/ https://www.watchuseek.com/ https://www.rolexforums.com/ https://www.rolexforums.com/ https://www.audioasylum.com/ https://www.audioasylum.com/ https://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/ https://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/ https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php (A simple machines forum, this guy has been here forever, and he wrote his entire online shop himself) https://www.civicx.com https://www.civicx.com There are a LOT of niche forums out there that are not FB/Discord, and keeping track of them is a pain. I do wish newsgroups were still a thing for hobbies.
    - Parker51 3y ago
      https://www.qrz.com/ https://www.qrz.com/
- flyinghamster 3y ago
  The trick is finding these, especially with today's crippled search engines. But indeed, it tends to be subject-specific forums rather than general-interest.
Sharlin 3y ago
And the two big reasons to move to Reddit were (a) single interface and login and (b) threaded conversations. Which is to say, Reddit (well, Slashdot really) reinvented the things that Usenet had had but which had been lost in the migration to traditional web-based forums.
- the_af 3y ago
  Cool! I didn't know threaded conversations were a concept from usenet. I do wonder though, why on earth are so many communities moving to facebook and Discord, the two platforms that are decidedly worse than either usenet or phpbb. Some have come to realize facebook was a mistake, but may be committing an even worse one by moving to Discord.
  - flyinghamster 3y ago
    At least there's competition, like Mastodon for the Twitter-like approach and Lemmy or Kbin for something more Reddit-like. I'm thinking these are our best way out if Usenet can't be rebooted.
  - throw0101b 3y ago
    > Cool! I didn't know threaded conversations were a concept from usenet. Usenet and e-mail. Both message formats supported referencing the message being replied to since the early days: * https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc822#section-4.6 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc822#section-4.6 * https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc850#section-2.2.6 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc850#section-2.2.6 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversation_threading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversation_threading
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - the_af 3y ago
      I wrote a lengthy reply and then deleted it because I realized that I too used threaded email conversations. I think I forgot about them because Gmail doesn't have them, and it's been ages since I used Eudora or Thunderbird. (Or text-only Pine, but I honestly cannot remember if it showed threads).
bluGill 3y ago
Facebook, reddit, discord. It doesn't matter, all of them are inferior to usenet in usability. Usenet fails in the easy to get started with, but once you figure out how to get on usenet (which I no longer know how to do!) it is a much better experience. Usenet has the concept of "I already read this", so you can have long discussions. All other forums when you get more than a few dozen posts it is hard to track what you have seen and so you don't go back to look for more discussion even if it would be insightful. Facebook often doesn't even show you interesting discussions if the discussion is interesting to you but not for the average person.
- the_af 3y ago
  Facebook is the worst of the lot. The UX of groups for niche interests is terrible: hard to find/follow conversations, some messages get randomly hidden or highlighted, you can never go back to where you were in a conversation. Yet, for some reason, years ago most niche communities I belonged to ditched perfectly serviceable phpbb forums and moved to Facebook. Now there's a second exodus to Discord, as braindead as the one before. And I truly don't understand Reddit to Discord. It has little or nothing to do with moderation or disagreement with Reddit policies, mind you. At least the ones I've seen, the reason is as vague as "wouldn't it be cool to have a Discord?". Why is never answered clearly.
- shagie 3y ago
  > but once you figure out how to get on usenet (which I no longer know how to do!) it is a much better experience. Get a reader and sign up on https://www.eternal-september.org https://www.eternal-september.org The days of open servers are gone, but fairly permissive authenticated servers exist.
  - throw0101b 3y ago
    For those that do not know the reference: > Eternal September or the September that never ended[1] is Usenet slang for a period beginning around 1993[2] when Internet service providers[2] began offering Usenet access to many new users. The flood of new users overwhelmed the existing culture for online forums and the ability to enforce existing norms. AOL followed with their Usenet gateway service in March 1994,[3] leading to a constant stream of new users. Hence, from the early Usenet point of view, the influx of new users in September 1993 never ended. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
ry4nf 3y ago
I hated to see that. One of the few forums that's still around from my youth is one of the original MMA forums that was almost like "Facebook for MMA". People like Dana White, Bas Rutten, Joe Rogan, Enson Inoue and many more posted there on a somewhat regular basis until the social media takeover. The forum is still around but barely active.
- noSyncCloud 3y ago
  Talking about Sherdog I presume?
  - ry4nf 3y ago
    I thought about Sherdog after I posted but mma.tv/mixedmartialarts.com aka "the underground" was what I was thinking about
flyinghamster 3y ago
I wouldn't say phpBB is dead, its latest release is from February of this year. On the other hand, unless you're already a participant on such a forum, you just might have trouble finding it in today's search hellscape.
- the_af 3y ago
  Maybe it's just my experience. Every phpbb community I was part of moved years away to Facebook, Reddit or (now) Discord. Some of the forums linger on, almost completely deserted by their former users :/
- Johnythree 3y ago
  My favorite phpBB forums staggered along for many years but eventually collapsed. The problem was the original maintainers had long sense expired, and each new phpBB release caused cascading bugs and became unmanageable. That and the increasing cost of running the servers, and the lack of backups and general maintenance. The loss of these forums was real tragedy. So many thousands of priceless contributions from the original guru's has now been lost forever.
xeromal 3y ago
Lots of tuner communities still use them. Here's a few I frequent a lot. https://forum.ih8mud.com/ https://forum.ih8mud.com/ https://www.stromtrooper.com/ https://www.stromtrooper.com/ https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ https://www.clublexus.com/forums/
wizofaus 3y ago
HN doesn't count?
- the_af 3y ago
  At least for me, HN is not one of the "old communities" I used to follow; they all predate it. Also, HN's custom forum software feels significantly different than phpbb and similar forums: no quote blocks, no different fonts and colors, no embedded images, etc.

by the_af 3y ago

SirMaster 3y ago

Well it’s a lot of XenForo now. But I go on AVSForums a lot and Linus tech tips forum and [H]ardforum, etc.

TacticalCoder 3y ago

There are many forums for specific communities: specific car brands, sometimes even specific car models, watches, keyboards even (!), etc. I'm on forums like these and they're doing totally fine. And if anything with the recent Reddit SNAFU the last thing users there want is for some central authority in SV to decide what they're allowed to talk about.

the_af 3y ago
Ah, interesting. To be clear, I also meant for specific communities: like for specific hobbies or tabletop games, or niche interests. They've all abandoned forums and, regrettably, moved on to Facebook or Discord. I'll never understand why they choose Discord, a closed chat platform, for forum type discussions. At this point I feel like Quixote tilting at the wind mills.
- Ringz 3y ago
  I don't understand that either. Discord feels like a hamster wheel connected to a turbocharger.
- readingnews 3y ago
  I am not so sure they all went FB/Discord, some I use(d) for example: https://www.watchuseek.com/ https://www.watchuseek.com/ https://www.rolexforums.com/ https://www.rolexforums.com/ https://www.audioasylum.com/ https://www.audioasylum.com/ https://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/ https://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/ https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php (A simple machines forum, this guy has been here forever, and he wrote his entire online shop himself) https://www.civicx.com https://www.civicx.com There are a LOT of niche forums out there that are not FB/Discord, and keeping track of them is a pain. I do wish newsgroups were still a thing for hobbies.
  - Parker51 3y ago
    https://www.qrz.com/ https://www.qrz.com/
flyinghamster 3y ago
The trick is finding these, especially with today's crippled search engines. But indeed, it tends to be subject-specific forums rather than general-interest.

Sharlin 3y ago

And the two big reasons to move to Reddit were (a) single interface and login and (b) threaded conversations. Which is to say, Reddit (well, Slashdot really) reinvented the things that Usenet had had but which had been lost in the migration to traditional web-based forums.

the_af 3y ago
Cool! I didn't know threaded conversations were a concept from usenet. I do wonder though, why on earth are so many communities moving to facebook and Discord, the two platforms that are decidedly worse than either usenet or phpbb. Some have come to realize facebook was a mistake, but may be committing an even worse one by moving to Discord.
- flyinghamster 3y ago
  At least there's competition, like Mastodon for the Twitter-like approach and Lemmy or Kbin for something more Reddit-like. I'm thinking these are our best way out if Usenet can't be rebooted.
- throw0101b 3y ago
  > Cool! I didn't know threaded conversations were a concept from usenet. Usenet and e-mail. Both message formats supported referencing the message being replied to since the early days: * https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc822#section-4.6 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc822#section-4.6 * https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc850#section-2.2.6 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc850#section-2.2.6 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversation_threading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversation_threading
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - the_af 3y ago
    I wrote a lengthy reply and then deleted it because I realized that I too used threaded email conversations. I think I forgot about them because Gmail doesn't have them, and it's been ages since I used Eudora or Thunderbird. (Or text-only Pine, but I honestly cannot remember if it showed threads).

bluGill 3y ago

Facebook, reddit, discord. It doesn't matter, all of them are inferior to usenet in usability. Usenet fails in the easy to get started with, but once you figure out how to get on usenet (which I no longer know how to do!) it is a much better experience. Usenet has the concept of "I already read this", so you can have long discussions. All other forums when you get more than a few dozen posts it is hard to track what you have seen and so you don't go back to look for more discussion even if it would be insightful. Facebook often doesn't even show you interesting discussions if the discussion is interesting to you but not for the average person.

the_af 3y ago
Facebook is the worst of the lot. The UX of groups for niche interests is terrible: hard to find/follow conversations, some messages get randomly hidden or highlighted, you can never go back to where you were in a conversation. Yet, for some reason, years ago most niche communities I belonged to ditched perfectly serviceable phpbb forums and moved to Facebook. Now there's a second exodus to Discord, as braindead as the one before. And I truly don't understand Reddit to Discord. It has little or nothing to do with moderation or disagreement with Reddit policies, mind you. At least the ones I've seen, the reason is as vague as "wouldn't it be cool to have a Discord?". Why is never answered clearly.
shagie 3y ago
> but once you figure out how to get on usenet (which I no longer know how to do!) it is a much better experience. Get a reader and sign up on https://www.eternal-september.org https://www.eternal-september.org The days of open servers are gone, but fairly permissive authenticated servers exist.
- throw0101b 3y ago
  For those that do not know the reference: > Eternal September or the September that never ended[1] is Usenet slang for a period beginning around 1993[2] when Internet service providers[2] began offering Usenet access to many new users. The flood of new users overwhelmed the existing culture for online forums and the ability to enforce existing norms. AOL followed with their Usenet gateway service in March 1994,[3] leading to a constant stream of new users. Hence, from the early Usenet point of view, the influx of new users in September 1993 never ended. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

ry4nf 3y ago

I hated to see that. One of the few forums that's still around from my youth is one of the original MMA forums that was almost like "Facebook for MMA". People like Dana White, Bas Rutten, Joe Rogan, Enson Inoue and many more posted there on a somewhat regular basis until the social media takeover. The forum is still around but barely active.

noSyncCloud 3y ago
Talking about Sherdog I presume?
- ry4nf 3y ago
  I thought about Sherdog after I posted but mma.tv/mixedmartialarts.com aka "the underground" was what I was thinking about

flyinghamster 3y ago

I wouldn't say phpBB is dead, its latest release is from February of this year. On the other hand, unless you're already a participant on such a forum, you just might have trouble finding it in today's search hellscape.

the_af 3y ago
Maybe it's just my experience. Every phpbb community I was part of moved years away to Facebook, Reddit or (now) Discord. Some of the forums linger on, almost completely deserted by their former users :/
Johnythree 3y ago
My favorite phpBB forums staggered along for many years but eventually collapsed. The problem was the original maintainers had long sense expired, and each new phpBB release caused cascading bugs and became unmanageable. That and the increasing cost of running the servers, and the lack of backups and general maintenance. The loss of these forums was real tragedy. So many thousands of priceless contributions from the original guru's has now been lost forever.

xeromal 3y ago

Lots of tuner communities still use them. Here's a few I frequent a lot. https://forum.ih8mud.com/ https://forum.ih8mud.com/ https://www.stromtrooper.com/ https://www.stromtrooper.com/ https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ https://www.clublexus.com/forums/

wizofaus 3y ago

HN doesn't count?

the_af 3y ago
At least for me, HN is not one of the "old communities" I used to follow; they all predate it. Also, HN's custom forum software feels significantly different than phpbb and similar forums: no quote blocks, no different fonts and colors, no embedded images, etc.