Ask HN: Do any discussion boards that aren't Facebook/Reddit still exist? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do any discussion boards that aren't Facebook/Reddit still exist?

46 pointsslugiscool9974 comments

Obviously HN is one, but I'm sure there are other independent forums with compelling content that still exist. Where do you spend your time online?

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2 music / modular / synth communities that both underwent recent name changes to be more in line with current sensibilities:

https://gearspace.com (used to be: gearslutz)

https://modwiggler.com (used to be: muffwiggler)

Ah, that's a shame. Those were some of the last holdouts of pre-PC world before things got ridiculously uptight and sterile

I seem to remember gearslutz coming up in searches all the time. Can’t say I’ve ever seen the new name come up. Maybe it’s just me for some reason, or maybe they basically killed their SEO.

go to your search engine and type "[interest/hobby] forum" and you'll find a selection of sufficiently active vbulletin forums, communities, and groups. Random examples -

https://www.rvforum.net/

https://www.woodworkingtalk.com/

https://www.benzworld.org/forums/

etc...

Lemmy is a pretty nice federated reddit alternative

https://lemmy.ml/

https://github.com/LemmyNet

"I used to recommend Lemmy very strongly, thought the people who develop it were nice folks interested in making the world better too.

However, recent discussions with the developers has changed my mind completely.

I am very suspicious about their motivations now."

https://mstdn.social/@feditips/106835057054633379?

"I kind of like #lemmy, but I'm bothered by the fact it is done by a tankie who deflects human-rights abuse as soon as it's done by an authoritarian regime he believes to be communist or anti-united-states.

To mass murder done by tankies he response with, "Imao sounds like we got the fuckin high score then u fuckin lib."

How is it possible that no one is bothered by that?"

https://social.linux.pizza/@syster/104501160324001706

Lemmy creator was banned from r/socialism for posting neo nazi literature. https://raddle.me/f/chapotraphouse/113374/say-no-thx-to-lemm...

https://forums.somethingawful.com/

Something Awful still has tons of users.

https://www.resetera.com/

Along with ResetEra.

I'm especially worried about the number of people seeking medical advice in Facebook groups using their real names.

What are you worried about?

Privacy issues; that should be clear to you, throwaway ;)

A lot of phpbb boards were retired due to security concerns. They were rarely updated and often didn’t use https. Systems like that are easy targets for comment spam scripts as they are uniform and have broad reach. They don’t monetize well, as user-generated content can be unappealing to advertisers and tends to be categorically blacklisted. Overall they were and are more of a liability than asset to many sites. Still, I hope they stay a vibrant part of the web. Discourse is the go-to platform for new forums IMHO.

Discourse is closer to IRC than forums IMHO.

Interesting perspective. I see it as a forum as each post has a url and topics are threaded. How does it look like IRC to you?

For one, it looks like it. Posts are hard to find, not indexed by google, topics are mixed in conversation etc. Overall i find that discord has an unworkable model, it doesn't scale when too many users join user. It's like IRC + history + notifications.

I think we’re mixing Discourse and Discord. Agreed on all fronts on Discord, it’s basically IRC with a teamspeak server.

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/

If you're into rock climbing, mountaineering, walking, etc. Discussion can get a bit "robust" but there are some super-helpful people on the UKC forums.

Also sections for cycling, photography, skiing, etc.

I'm not sure what software they run: probably fairly custom. The platform had a big refurbishment a year or so ago.

There's all kinds car forums that are still around from the 90's that have maintained a community for 20+ years and are the authoritative source of repair info for many classic models. It makes you weep for the endless amount of expertise and congregated knowledge that is now being locked away in these social media walled gardens and private chat apps like Discord.

For the swedes, flashback.

I actually know lawyers who read flashback for a sort of crowd sourced case info. You just have to wade through the casual racism.

https://www.crossdressers.com/forums/ are still around, and still providing a good resource for CDs and nascent trans women.

I’m currently working on just this. The concept allows you to search a combination of Wikipedia terms to find people at that intersection. Eg. Blockchain/JavaScript, Fermentation/Kombucha, Aquaponics/Blueberries, Electric Bicycle/Solar, etc.

Currently it’s set up much like HN, with ability to submit things at an intersection for others to find.

I’m also considering creating a game world map based off the entirety of Wikipedia. Then once you find a niche intersection you can drop into the world at the corresponding coordinates and chat with people nearby (searching the same or similar niches).

Check out our forum! 58 million posts. https://www.city-data.com/forum/

https://talk.newagtalk.com is where farmers hang out on the web.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/ and https://www.videohelp.com/

They're not general interest entertainment forums, but there's a lot of specialist knowledge about analog to digital video conversion.

YOSPOS is the place where the cool guys hang out, and where scrubs are left out. Let's go to YOSPOS, it's p. chill there.

I mostly only lurk, but https://www.vogons.org/

Mostly niche stuff, and for me it’s been places I visit while I’m interested in a topic, but then stop visiting once I’m done.

The johnbridge.com tile forum was an immensely useful resource when I was tiling my kitchen floor.

The tdpri.com forum (Tele Home Depot in particular) was what inspired me to build a guitar, and was a huge help while I was doing the project.

I’m personally happy that the forum I used to frequent is gone. Forums don’t like to remove old posts and it feels like a privacy win to scrub years of old posts. Even when you’re posting with anonymous names, there will come a time when all your anonymous accounts will be unmasked using AI fingerprinting of some sort.

https://postmill.xyz/

You can use it to join an existing community or build your own.

It is lightweight, easy to use, does not require java script, ip logs are removed automatically, has a inbuilt wiki, great moderation tools,...ah and of course it is foss.

https://www.toyota-4runner.org

And don't forget YotaTech Forums for those older 'yotas!

edit: and now that I've switched teams, I'll plug NPORA (nissan pathfinder off road association).

This! Great resource for DIY and self repairs.

I have spent time on this website - https://www.alltypeofproducts.com/buy-facebook-event-attende... I got lots of Social Media services here.

Thousands and thousands of them still exist covering every topic under the sun and more. I frequent a few but would rather not have the masses descend on them. Unless you mean platforms that host a wide variety of topics... then a few, but not nearly as many.

4chan, xda developers, stackoverflow

lainchan

https://forums.golfwrx.com/

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/

I'm mostly in forums.spacebattles.com and alternatehistory.net

Talking about media and novels and history, while writing our own amateur takes. Some pretty talented writing came out there, like Worm (superhero serial) and The Games We Play. Quite fun.

There's a forum for pretty much every type of car (Maxima.org, e90post, etc.).

Similar current thread with other examples: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28387249

To me, it feels like a lot of good old message boards have died off because:

* Many communities migrated to social media.

* Search Engines (for some reason) seem to have quit ranking discussion boards high in search results.

Kiramoji is a recent anonymous one, but it's more like a general message board: https://kiramoji.ga

https://chemistscorner.com/cosmeticsciencetalk/

For cosmetic formulators

There are some hobby and sport-specific ones out there, Slowtwitch for Triathletes and Teton Gravity Research for skiers/mountain bikers. Both still pretty active!

My go to spot when working on my Honda motorcycle: https://www.hondashadow.net/

https://www.rcgroups.com/ is really nice if you're into RC

RC in this context stands for Remote Control vehicles which run the gamut from toy RC cars, to model jet engine airplanes with an 8ft wingspan.

https://tortoiseforum.org for turtle/tortoise owners (we have 3).

http://www.friendface.co.uk

"A great new site for meeting people!"

http://vi-control.net for music production and composition

For owners of Toyota Tacomas:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/

On that theme, most of the boards I participate in are focused on just one topic. https://www.rodbuilding.org/

https://cryptopanic.com/

This is an odd question. There are tons of active discussion boards that can be found with trivial effort. Other replies have mentioned forums for specific auto makes and models, and you'll find they get spun up quite quickly when a new model comes out, and attract a lot of traffic. I don't think anyone has mentioned Steam discussion boards yet. Heck, Facebook is a discussion board in many respects.

The title explicitly mentions excluding Facebook

So it does, reading comprehension fail on my part.

https://www.avsforum.com/

Tbh, I thought this was going to be about the Colorado Avalanche.

But to the point of the OP, HFBoards.com is a hockey forum and is still very active.

https://www.rc10talk.com/

Every single car brand has several board, some popular makes have their own dedicated very popular boards.

https://4chan.org

4chan is still around...

Stackoverflow, twitter and discord are my top places where I spend my time online

The Royal Manticoran Navy forums and RPGNet are the two I spend the most time on.

very active https://www.phantasytour.com/bands/phish/threads

Edmunds forum for cars is very popular

plenty. I have been frequenting pbnation.com since about 2006 which is a paintball community.

I am active on tapatalk.

Metafilter, which is a custom ColdFusion-based thing (and very old).

Apnea Board is still running phpBB and has an elaborate page explaining how HTTPS support isn't really necessary.

I've long thought that if I were to set up a new forum I'd use Discourse. It's good in the few places I've used it. (NTP Pool, I think).

Physorg

Habr

communities.win

something awful is still around, so is metafilter. structurally unspammable because of the paywall

https://lobste.rs/

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