"Drugs are great for forums."

October 10, 2024 9:33 AM

Here are the Internet forums that are still alive and kicking and full of information and interesting people.

[yes we're on there, noted without comment. via]

posted by jessamyn (75 comments total)

Something Awful is great for posting about stuff that is banned on Metafilter, such as my own projects.
posted by ryanrs at 9:47 AM on October 10 [15 favorites]

Something Awful is great

No.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:53 AM on October 10 [8 favorites]

Wow what a great list! I want a search index with just these sites.

The most glaring ommission for me is BikeForums.
posted by ropeladder at 9:53 AM on October 10 [2 favorites]

No mention of the Ravelry forums?
posted by praemunire at 9:57 AM on October 10 [15 favorites]

Can't believe they missed a chance to do a "Metafilter:" joke.
posted by axiom at 10:01 AM on October 10 [2 favorites]

MetaFilter: a chance to do a "Metafilter:" joke
posted by mbrubeck at 10:04 AM on October 10 [54 favorites]

Bookmarking and clinging to this list like a liferaft as the AI slop increasingly threatens complete takeover.
posted by naju at 10:05 AM on October 10 [11 favorites]

It's worth nothing that the author has a public email if you feel that your fave sites aren't getting the recognition that you think they deserve on this random list of web forums. My favorite non-MeFi one is the Learned League forums but they're only for members so they're not on this list. One of my favorite things to ask people who spend any serious amount of time, especially at MeFI meetups, is where else they hang out online.

stuff that is banned on Metafilter

Feel free to DM me about whatever you're talking about.
posted by jessamyn at 10:06 AM on October 10 [8 favorites]

My favorite non-mefi spot is represented:

Lines (aka https://llllllll.co) focuses a lot on synthesizers.
posted by naju at 10:09 AM on October 10 [5 favorites]

To be fair, they kind of did a Metafilter: Sex Stuff joke.
posted by Ashenmote at 10:10 AM on October 10 [3 favorites]

I like how the poster has two sections for "Hyper-Niche Activities," Useful and Questionable.
posted by doctornemo at 10:16 AM on October 10 [4 favorites]

My other corner of the internet is also represented on the list! Daily Drinking Thread!
posted by toddforbid at 10:17 AM on October 10 [1 favorite]

In the unlikely event you happen to like Acorn computers, stardot.org.uk is the most helpful place on earth. The people on it are knowledgeable and genuinely helpful/generous. As one of the very few Acorn BBC Micro owners in Canada, it is a delightful place.

(The forum gets its name from the *. command that gives you the disk directory in the BBC Micro's OS)
posted by scruss at 10:23 AM on October 10 [4 favorites]

since the bodybuilding.com forums were mentioned i think it is mandatory that someone post a link to the dumbest boy alive
posted by logicpunk at 10:25 AM on October 10 [6 favorites]

1. There are parts of SA that are amazing.

2. Undoubtedly an unpopular opinion, but the benefit of internet forums being small and niche is the smallness, anything large enough to get attention seems marked for bot/bought.
posted by sibboleth at 10:31 AM on October 10 [7 favorites]

Feel free to DM me about whatever you're talking about.

I mean you can't post a thread about your own projects on Metafilter. Just arms-length links to other people's stuff. That's why I don't post here.

SA is a place you can go post about your garden, or your computer project, or your cat. It's really great for that!
posted by ryanrs at 10:37 AM on October 10 [9 favorites]

So, Projects?
posted by nickmark at 10:41 AM on October 10 [12 favorites]

P.S. I'm not trying to argue for MF changes here! I'm just pointing out how SA is fundamentally different, which is pretty on-topic for this thread.

I'm bringing it up because a lot of people remember SA as some cesspool, but it really is much better since we bullied lowtax off the site. (some cesspool remains)

So, Projects?
I've never really checked it out. What't the most active Project thread right now?
posted by ryanrs at 10:44 AM on October 10 [10 favorites]

My favorite forum (other than this one) began life as a fan forum for the Memphis indie rock band The Grifters 25+ years ago, has moved locations, changed formats, and changed its name (to reflect that it's not specifically about that band anymore). There are still a dozen or so of us aging Gen X indie rock nerds on there making dumb jokes and bragging on our kids. It's a source of continuity for me.

I suspect I'm not the only one still lingering in a little microforum.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:45 AM on October 10 [5 favorites]

Lines (aka https://llllllll.co) focuses a lot on synthesizers.

(20 characters of that's 8 Ls!)

They did manage to misspell KVR though.
posted by Foosnark at 10:47 AM on October 10 [3 favorites]

So Metafilter doesn't get a description and I think we are the only one. So famous we don't need one? Indescribable? Late addition? The lack of description means no exploration of the fact that Metafilter is really two forums in one: the front page/fanfare/projects/music and Ask.

If you want to build a teardrop camping trailer tnttt.com, the Teardrop 'n' Tiny Travel Trailer forum is definitive.
posted by Mitheral at 10:47 AM on October 10 [3 favorites]

during the CFL season I always have a browser tab open for Morning Big Blue, the online home of Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans. It's a nice (tho extremely partisan) counterpart to the more general CFL fandom on Reddit.
posted by Sauce Trough at 10:52 AM on October 10 [1 favorite]

Sad to see my favorite forum on SkyscraperPage didn't get a mention. But if you like to learn about urban development and construction projects from around the world, it always seems to be up to date with what's going on.
posted by msbutah at 10:56 AM on October 10 [4 favorites]

This is a fun idea but the categories considered skew strongly to cis white het male
posted by rene_billingsworth at 10:57 AM on October 10 [8 favorites]

Amtrak Unlimited for Amtrak discussion.

For all kinds of train stuff, including Amtrak, railroad.net is also very active.
posted by JanetLand at 11:07 AM on October 10 [1 favorite]

This is a fun idea but the categories considered skew strongly to cis white het male

Was pretty surprised given the broad framing ("Here are the Internet forums that are still alive and kicking and full of information and interesting people") to find that it's basically just stuff this guy is into lol. Which is fine and all but yeah, unless you're basically this dude, it's probably not going to find you your new internet home.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:08 AM on October 10 [4 favorites]

Another dominant-in-its-niche forum: scubaboard has an active community and a lot of resources for divers.
posted by tylermoody at 11:22 AM on October 10 [2 favorites]

This is really cool and reminds me of going to a bookstore with a rich selection of niche magazines. Buying and reading a magazine about a topic I had no pre-existing interest in was a reliably fascinating way to pass a few hours.
posted by brainwane at 11:23 AM on October 10 [4 favorites]

I mean you can't post a thread about your own projects on Metafilter. Just arms-length links to other people's stuff. That's why I don't post here.

I might be wrong, but if I'm remembering correctly I think we relaxed this rule a LOT in the last few years as long as it's not a for profit project or crowdfunding or whatever.

MeFi isn't the social media monetization platform it used to be.

In any case I'm all in favor of fun, not for profit self posts right to the front page for things that are interesting and don't really warrant their own project post as an ongoing project or project announcement or whatever.

Or crossposting to both is fine with me, too. *shrug* I don't know how any of this works any more!
posted by loquacious at 11:29 AM on October 10 [5 favorites]

So Metafilter doesn't get a description and I think we are the only one. So famous we don't need one? Indescribable? Late addition?

Late addition, I think it is. (I saw this some time yesterday or the day before, and I'm nearly certain MeFi wasn't yet on there.)
posted by nobody at 11:35 AM on October 10 [1 favorite]

Was surprised that erowid.org wasn't in the drug category.

Haven't been there in a long time, and maybe it's not a "forum" per se, but seems like an omission.
posted by Windopaene at 11:41 AM on October 10 [7 favorites]

I would say that erowid is not a forum per se. It has been done very dirty by Google, though, so it’s good to give it a shout out.
posted by atoxyl at 11:54 AM on October 10 [5 favorites]

Just spent the past 30 minutes here at work on the egullet form, reading Anthony Bourdain's posts from the mid aughts. Damn, I miss that guy so much.
posted by sundrop at 11:59 AM on October 10 [2 favorites]

What't the most active Project thread right now?

I think of Projects as more of an incubator for potential MeFi threads (i.e. there's a "post to MeFi" button from there) but yes, I agree SA is a better kind of place than it used to be.

I don't know how any of this works any more!

You and me both, friend.
posted by jessamyn at 12:03 PM on October 10 [7 favorites]

I miss The Hideous Jabbering Head of Abraham Lincoln.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 12:13 PM on October 10 [1 favorite]

Ski Talk and Teton Gravity Research seem to be the best North American focused, English language forums for skiing.

Coasterbuzz is a place to talk about roller coasters and amusement parks more gnerally.
posted by mmascolino at 12:52 PM on October 10 [3 favorites]

Was pretty surprised given the broad framing ("Here are the Internet forums that are still alive and kicking and full of information and interesting people") to find that it's basically just stuff this guy is into lol. Which is fine and all but yeah, unless you're basically this dude, it's probably not going to find you your new internet home.

niches have always been where forum culture thrives--while i hear you that i wish it were easier to find your people online, i'd much rather have this kind of article be written to what the author knows.
posted by Why Is The World In Love Again? at 1:03 PM on October 10 [5 favorites]

Went to look for tea forums, saw them correctly classified under "drugs."

There are some beautiful photo threads at forum.rocktumblinghobby.com, and some discussions on lapidary arts and jewelry-making that are pretty good.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 1:06 PM on October 10 [1 favorite]

Ooooo we are OTHER
posted by tiny frying pan at 1:30 PM on October 10 [2 favorites]

That's othering, right? We're being othered!

Anyway, unsurprisingly, there are lots of forums around all things Linux. I spend a decent chunk of time on one and have learned a lot. I also hang out on the forum for my moblle OS of choice (Ubuntu Touch). Another place where I can be found is the forums at BookCrossing.com. Not as busy as they used to be but definitely alive.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:50 PM on October 10

Something Awful is great

I'm biased, because I'm an admin there, but it actually is.
posted by Sebmojo at 1:52 PM on October 10 [10 favorites]

I just like its approach to creating things and being funny. one little example, we started a flash fiction thread in 2012 that's still running and has produced nearly twelve million words of fiction.
posted by Sebmojo at 2:06 PM on October 10 [3 favorites]

Any fellow mefites on Reef2Reef? It’s a phenomenal forum for people who keep saltwater aquariums. Super active and lots of very knowledgeable people. Active moderation, too!
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 2:22 PM on October 10

There's also AtariAge, chock full of decades of esoteric homebrew and technical and historic Atari info, which was recently purchased by the shambling corpse of Atari, which is pretty cool in its current incarnation but eventually will sell out to three raccoon lawyers in a raccoon suit
posted by credulous at 2:55 PM on October 10 [4 favorites]

Wait, a forum can and would be purchased by a company? Wow, never knew that.
posted by tiny frying pan at 3:29 PM on October 10

I mean you can't post a thread about your own projects on Metafilter. Just arms-length links to other people's stuff. That's why I don't post here.

I might be wrong, but if I'm remembering correctly I think we relaxed this rule a LOT in the last few years as long as it's not a for profit project or crowdfunding or whatever.

From the "What are self-links? Are self-links ever okay on any part of the site?" FAQ item:

We've lifted the long-time prohibition on friend-linking, i.e. making MetaFilter posts about work that's not your own but which is by someone you have a friendship with or personal connection to. Any such posts still need to be fundamentally good MetaFilter posts in their own right, and to not be posted with promotional or "this will help my friend out" intent. In short, it needs to be something that you unambiguously would have chosen to post even if you didn't know that person at all. See this MetaTalk thread for more detail.

And here's the guidance re: linking to crowdfunding campaigns. "Can I post a fundraiser, or a petition for a worthy cause? With caution....."
posted by brainwane at 3:29 PM on October 10 [4 favorites]

I really should make a stupid huge Grifters post someday. If you are an indie rock nerd of a certain age and you loved lo-fi, The Grifters are a huge gift. GbV are lo-fi Beatles, Pavement are lo-fi SoCal rock, and The Grifters are the lo-fi Rolling Stones.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:11 PM on October 10 [9 favorites]

Can't believe they missed pprune.org - the Profession Pilots Rumour Network.
posted by happyinmotion at 4:31 PM on October 10 [3 favorites]

For High Sierra / Sierra Mountain hiking, you can go to high sierra topix
posted by glaucon at 4:54 PM on October 10 [1 favorite]

Seconding AtariAge, that place is terrific
posted by JHarris at 5:37 PM on October 10 [1 favorite]

DirtyOldTown, please make that post. I love GBV and Pavement, so...
posted by limeonaire at 6:08 PM on October 10 [4 favorites]

Mandolin Cafe was one of my landing points when I learnt Mandolin in the early 2000s. Its companion, the mailing list Comando, was an essential learning tool. Amazing how much I learnt through text based communication. Is a video better than a well crafted sentence? I'd say not. Commando was never the same after it moved to Facebook. Just another social page.
posted by BrStekker at 10:25 PM on October 10

Was pretty surprised given the broad framing ("Here are the Internet forums that are still alive and kicking and full of information and interesting people") to find that it's basically just stuff this guy is into lol. Which is fine and all but yeah, unless you're basically this dude, it's probably not going to find you your new internet home.

As he says up top:

This post is by no means supposed to be complete and will be updated whenever I find more good forums.

It’s the streetlight effect, pretty much. You can only make a list from things you’re aware of.
posted by zamboni at 10:55 PM on October 10 [7 favorites]

Something Awful is great.

Just stay away from CSPAM.
posted by Comstar at 11:05 PM on October 10 [1 favorite]

It’s the streetlight effect, pretty much. You can only make a list from things you’re aware of.

It's a long-standing issue with the web. Great things die before they find their audience. People don't share what they love enough. Social media de-prioritizes posts with links in them. AI glurge takes focus away from good sites. Google helps some, but not nearly enough, and less and less over time. It's the kind of thing Metafilter was founded to try to remedy, and it's my favorite thing about it.
posted by JHarris at 1:09 AM on October 11 [3 favorites]

very glad to see the inclusion of the shmups forum

which behooves me to point out that if you like touhou project shmups, specifically, shrinemaiden is still going, and i still frequent it

i like social media actually but i loathe how discord has largely supplanted forumposting. on a forum, the conversation can be at a more relaxed pace, but more importantly, i can go back and search for some thread from 2007 and read it all over again. makes you feel like a wizard blowing the dust off an ancient tome but it's an argument about how many days are in a week
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 4:28 AM on October 11 [8 favorites]

I'm too old, I STILL don't understand Discord.
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:14 AM on October 11 [1 favorite]

It's IRC with inline images, and scroll-back retained on-server.
posted by Rhomboid at 6:33 AM on October 11 [9 favorites]

Yeah uhhhh
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:50 AM on October 11

It's IRC with inline images, and scroll-back retained on-server.

Too old for Discord, too young for IRC, I am forced to walk the wastelands of IRL
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:15 AM on October 11 [14 favorites]

DDial anyone?
posted by Reverend John at 11:14 AM on October 11

melodeon.net and concertina.net for your squeezy needs
posted by doiheartwentyone at 12:03 PM on October 11 [3 favorites]

Nothin' there about Mobileread.com, the ebook reader hardware/software forum. Kindle, Calibre, Kobo and more.
posted by lhauser at 3:15 PM on October 11 [4 favorites]

I ctrl-Fed for tiling and was happy to see the John Bridge forums there. Really a hub of professional expertise, or it was about 10 years ago anyway...
posted by slidell at 11:39 PM on October 11

The forum: https://forums.spacebattles.com/forums/original-fiction.48/ is sort of a nursery coral reef for a lot of web serial fiction that gets rereleased on dedicated webserial sites like royalroad.com and scribblehub.com.

Examples:

https://www.scribblehub.com/read/154400-stray-cat-strut/chapter/154405/

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/71275/diary-of-a-teenaged-mimic/chapter/1273368/day-one

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/93930/sublife-crisis-life-is-just-a-phase/chapter/1805075/chapter-1

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/35958/fluff/chapter/555495/prologue-anxiety
posted by sebastienbailard at 3:06 AM on October 12 [2 favorites]

> DDial anyone?

Definitely not a forum, much more a proto-IRC. I was co-sysop on two Boston-area nodes (2112 & 5150, I can't remember the Bill Basham series #s).

Regardless: Drugs?

Who's askin'. send me a /p
posted by not_on_display at 11:56 PM on October 13

Oh this is a solidly good list. Thanks!
posted by rmd1023 at 5:09 AM on October 16

It looks like Boing Boing is killing their forum/bbs as of this Friday, and moving some remnants of its functionality to -- of all places -- a paywalled Substack. I don't think they belong on this list anymore.
posted by nobody at 5:03 PM on October 28 [3 favorites]

That's awful! BB has fallen so far from the Cory Doctorow/Xeni Jardin days. It's now so full of ads that they even changed the tagline to "A Directory of Mostly Wonderful Things."

What is Jardin doing these days? I never hear about her any more.
posted by JHarris at 11:53 AM on October 29

What is Jardin doing these days? I never hear about her any more.

Last i heard, she'd turned into a massive TERF and become very weird and reactionary.
posted by adrienneleigh at 1:49 PM on October 29

I looked up Jardin and saw she is currently concentrating on recovering from breast cancer.
posted by brainwane at 2:02 PM on October 29 [1 favorite]

Last i heard, she'd turned into a massive TERF and become very weird and reactionary.

This rang a faint bell for me, now that you mentioned it, but I couldn't find much of anything after some searching around, so I wonder if we might both be thinking of someone else?

The closest I could find was her getting some not terribly heavy flak for posting a Putin-in-makeup meme in 2017 (since the image relies on transmisogyny for its anti-Putin punch), and I saw references to some accusations about deadnaming Chelsea Manning, but those apparently turned out to be mistaken (since the article in question had been published before Manning had transitioned).

I also found a "how to talk about Caitlyn Jenner" explainer she'd written in 2015 that's a little iffy and flatfooted in spots but I think is trying to come from the right place. (It tells journalists they absolutely need to use people's chosen name and chosen pronouns, but to my eye the whole thing has at least a faint whiff of "isn't this all new and strange" about it, and there's a paragraph defining "sex" vs "gender" that seems to take "biological sex" at face value more than I would be inclined to.)
posted by nobody at 6:04 PM on October 29

Oh, no, i'm definitely not thinking of someone else. I'll try to dig up the stuff i know about later.
posted by adrienneleigh at 6:35 PM on October 29 [2 favorites]

Ah, that's a shame. I enjoyed her posts on BB in the old days. The world just keeps getting worse.
posted by JHarris at 2:26 AM on October 31 [1 favorite]

All I know about Xeni Jardin is this cringe exchange, vibe is ultra-centrist ig?
posted by coolname at 1:07 AM on November 1 [1 favorite]