i started using the internet in the late 2000’s and still remember when you search for something most of the times it would return with a forum post … now its just random websites … if you ever need real and concise answer you have to add site:reddit.com at every search and since discord or twitter are not crawlable by these search crawlers they are not mentioned . Where did all those forums went…are there still active forums ?
Am I not on one right now?
Isn’t lemmy basically that, but with modern technology? PHPBB was a nightmare for a sysadmin.
not organised well tho
These forums never were well organized.
What was/is wrong with PhpBB?
It’s right there in the name: PHP
Seriously though maintaining a PHP server is a security nightmare and you have to be constantly updating if you don’t want to be hacked. Just not worth it when there’s better options out there
The software was so bad that if you didn’t keep up with emergency security fixes for even a week, the forum would instantly be taken over by someone. Being hacked was the natural state of that software.
Not quite there yet, but I think Lemmy has the potential to be the best of both. Something you could host without a major company involved, but also attached to a wider community. It isn’t getting the critical mass just yet.
Also, yeah, like a lot of PHP apps at the time, phpBB had some boneheaded decisions. Like “plugins” that didn’t use any kind of API hooks, and instead relied on patching the code directly.
something is needed to be done to bring lemmy to the wider audience else this will also become one of those niche forum sites with the same 1 or 2k people
Lemmy would have to fix federation first, until then it’s just modern forum software.
Discord is pretty much the worst thing that happened to readily available information on the internet (when it comes to games and tech in general at least). No, I don’t wanna join your very specific niche server and use a search function worse than any forum back in the days had in hope to find the information I want.
Also Google got way worse, but that‘s no secret.
I agree. I don’t use Discord at all. Chat rooms always suck for questions/support.
That‘s not even all. The process now is something like:
Search on Google: no answer -> search on Google with Reddit.com appended: no answer -> search on Google with Reddit and Discord Server appended: click through 3 expired invitation links -> finally find a working one: scroll through pages and pages of memes and rule34 content to find the answer you wanted
I want my searchable forums and bulletin boards back ffs.
you can search specific channels on discord. if you’re seeing memes and r34 while searching for something in a hub server for a game or something then you’re not searching correctly. or the thing you’re trying to find info on is so niche and poorly organized they have 1 channel.
People falling back behind closed or private barriers for guaranteed human to human interaction and information as AI rises is more and more likely in the future … IMO.
Search Google-> 5 YouTube videos pinned to the top
Search Google with Reddit appended -> deleted comments in a thread 5 years old not even about my specific problem
Search duck duck go -> numerous highly detailed websites that may or may not be related to my specific problem
The number of those comments that are deleted sure went up a couple of months ago. I wonder what happened 🤔
They got better with threads but not that popular. Still, I prefer forums over Discord.
Two months ago I started using Kagi as a Google alternative. It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes not having to wade through a list of sponsored links first and actually getting the results I want.
$10 a month seems a lot for a search engine, but maybe it’s just because I’ve gotten used to all of them being free.
So far i think the $5 tier would be the one i would need.
I am on kagi’s free trial right now actually. Honestly i thought i searched more than i have so far. I have been on the 100 search trial for like 3-4 days now and have only used like 11 or 12 searches. I never paid attention to how much i searched before. The great thing is that they accept crypto now.
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“Join our discord”.
No I don’t think I will. I don’t want to chat. I want to RTFM.
I love Discord for gaming with friends. I don’t mind some programs using it for releasing things. Like I play Session(skateboarding sim) a decent amount. It’s usually used for people throwing up custom maps and mods.
But anytime people talk about going to a discord to really discuss things and keep up with them, I’m just gonna move on.
Discord is just not suitable for any group larger than a WoW guild. I don’t understand why anyone would ever think it’s a good idea for software/mod projects. Anything that needs to be searched should not be on discord
Discord is like using SMS to run something like Stack Overflow. When subreddits were moving off Reddit (which is good), some were talking about moving to Discord and I could not understand why anyone would think that was a comparable migration option.
Bing might actually be better than Google. Scary stuff
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Similar reason why people take photos with their phone rather than a point and shoot camera, anyone can do it and it doesn’t require extra work to setup.
People hosted their own forums as there was no viable alternative, and you didn’t care about legal liabilities, data governance, right to be forgotten, DDoS protection etc.
Most people (not all) will choose the easy option of an existing service. Of which the value for that service is to lock you in and spend all your time there.
Saying that I’m still active on multiple forums, but they’ve been around for years, and it’s definitely an older nerdier demographic.
Holy cow late 2000s…man it’s too bad you missed the 90’s. There were TONS of forums and real communities built around hobbies, interests, fandoms, etc. I really really miss them. I had real actual friends online. I blame facebook reddit et al for their demise. These huge websites are like the wal marts of the internet destroying small communities.
They’re definitely still around. A lot of vehicles have specific forums that are very active.
not fully
i remember when google ingested the newsgroup archive and spit it back out as deja news… it was a tech support gold mine
I main 4chan. It is alive and kicking, as far a garbage bin full of maggots is alive and kicking.
There are the alternatives too!
Dead Internet Theory for all the bots out there reading this.
All of those things do happen but to say they’re the only thing happening…
Never heard of this before but it’s fascinating. I think I found my next religion.
Not sure I believe this has already happened, but I certainly believe we’re headed in that direction
BTW, search term is ‘site:reddit.com’ not ‘site.reddit.com’
yes typing error
When I started, you’d go to the relevant usenet group and typically found worldwide experts in whatever.
Alas, times change.
Depends on the subject, though they are definitely nowhere near as popular nor used anywhere near as much as in the past. Niche groups can probably be found, but I wouldn’t know too much about where to look since I usually don’t go to them.
Closest I go to is Steam Underground and that is just for certain files.
