What are we going to do about it?
Sorry for the Google Translate Link. An easy alternative is much appreciated.
Edit: thanks to @[email protected] for this translation alternative: https://translate.kagi.com/translate/https://www.xataka.com/servicios/foros-internet-estan-desapareciendo-porque-ahora-todo-reddit-discord-eso-preocupante
Something I was hopeful for but seems to have died is lemmyBB. A phpBB-style front-end to Lemmy. I’d like the accessibility of being able to use an existing account that federation brings but the forum-style approach that phpBB has.
Mostly though I’ve been disappointed in the teens and twenty-somethings. They seem to have, in distressingly large numbers, just opted to go along with whatever they’re encouraged to use by large platform holders. There doesn’t seem to be an appetite to create communities and define spaces that they control. Perhaps that’s just me getting old though…
NodeBB implements ActivityPub [email protected]
I think a lot of them have never known that it was possible, and things up until recently where at least tolerable. But as interest rates stay up of zero and things continue to degrade eventually more and more people will leave. The people with the most technical skills are going first and the cool people will follow and then they average people follow the cool people
Agree. It’s easy to feel disheartened by the lack of action. It’s easy to say get out and do ABC, however since smartphones and apps it’s been so easy to just hop on and scroll/consume. Plus the monetisation of content creation has captured a whole generation looking to build a career (fuelled by more apps to help them). Sharing and creating is big money now. It’s not just about saying hey look I did this just incase anyone else wanted to try it, and share there thoughts on the matter. I have concerns that even if forums popped up in a new shape they would just get scalped by those looking to repackage and sell the info.
What do you think Lemmy is missing that phpBB had aside from strong user communities built over years where many of the users knew each other IRL?
Being designed around persistent topics rather than the ephemeral post model and more visible user customisation (more prominent avatars, signatures, that sort of thing).
Being designed around persistent topics rather than the ephemeral post model
Hmmm, you’re probably on to something there. I think Lemmy could do that but no one cares to set it up.
and more visible user customisation (more prominent avatars, signatures, that sort of thing).
I’m honestly not sure this is a bad thing. Dear God, remember how threads would get blown out by hyper-configurations? Sig blocks that were 20,000 pixels long and endless GIF spam? Not sure I’m in a hurry to get back to that!
One of my favorite forums has been around since 1999 and is currently running on XenoForo which is very phpBB-esque. Anytime I get a nostalgia hankering I drop in for a few minutes. It’s not always as good as you may remember. :)
XenoForo
Just looked it up. $60/mo is the “starter” price!? Are forums normally so expensive to run?
XenoForo is a bit spendy but they’re providing the software, hosting and data storage. IIRC the forum I’m talking about is on the “Business” plan due to how busy it is.
I’m honestly not sure this is a bad thing. Dear God, remember how threads would get blown out by hyper-configurations? Sig blocks that were 20,000 pixels long and endless GIF spam? Not sure I’m in a hurry to get back to that!
Honestly, no, none of the forums I ever used allowed that sort of things for, well, for obvious reasons!
Anyway, my reasoning for this is to help make it easier to mentally anchor a given interaction to a user. On things like Lemmy and Reddit I feel like it’s a constant sea of random usernames - there’s no persistence or community. I could well have spoken to the same person multiple times but I don’t notice because they’re so anonymous.
there’s no persistence or community.
That’s it right there, that’s what you are missing. The older forum communities were small enough that you could keep track of whose who, something that isn’t possible when the user counts are in the tens of thousands to tens of millions. I think a lot of us olds would like to go back to that but its impossible; our monkey brains can’t handle communities of that size.
Forums are where I learned literally everything about technology I know now. Every hack, jailbreak, method of bypassing something, building, literally anything I’ve done around my tech hobbies. Pi hole, emulation in the late 90s, how to use Photoshop, how to run Linux from a USB, everything I’ve learned from forums. I’m sad to think that me joining certain discords help deliver the death knell to the concept of forums.
Sorry for the Google Translate Link. An easy alternative is much appreciated.
Firefox can translate websites locally now.
I honestly don’t think Internet forum will ever loose itself. You will always always have small amount of people who will migrate to smaller forums for whatever topic or subject that they are interested in. Yes it might seem like discord and Reddit might appear to be the major forums of today’s modern age of communication under the title of forums.
People will always migrate and do whatever means to obtain freedom of speech. If Reddit and discord, well Reddit that I actually know of continue to perm ban or ban because of a word that our overlords aka moderators ban, because they are drunk with power and micromanage their sub Reddit then it’ll die. It will take time but forums like Lemmy and IRC (I know this ages me.) which still exist today, will never die. People just are not aware that other forums exist. They just have to do a little research or stumble upon it by accident which is how I found Lemmy. I was familiar with the term fediverse, but just never really looked into it.
So there’s hope. Humans are peculiar and interesting. We are highly intelligent, and I will always lean on the fact that we are tenacious and we never lack in ingenuity. They can never control our creativity and imagination. If something tries to monopolizes and put us in a box, there’s always a rebel creating a door for some of us to escape.
“Now”? Try 10 years ago, at the very least.
Me when I’m fucking banned from some Linux .org forum for no reason (did not read or make a post or even login)
ermmmmm contact the web admins 🤓 how about no?
Forums are extremely unfriendly and need a complete redesign if they hope people will use them
Every forum i joined for my hobbies are always been full of shills in disguise.
…and Facebook Groups.
A lot of people simply don’t realize that a lot of traditional community, especially more niche are moving to Facebook. There’s no even Reddit alternative for them.
From fried chicken cooking, big tree photography, McDonalds toys collector, to local history archiver.
It’s harder to convince them here, unless there are Facebook Group alternative for fediverse.
I proudly still use a super specialised old school online forum and it works great for those purposes.
I hope someone is archiving that data. Lots of great small communities with great info/help.
it’s worrying because all that knowledge will be lost instead of living somewhere in a forum indexed by a search engine.
But in the same time, I see more people fleeing from traditional search engines to AI … I don’t know where we’re heading at
What do you think is the reason why not a lot more people are joining the fediverse?
I think there are more reasons, but the most prominent ones are
- the fediverse is not that aggressively publicized
- if by any luck your average bob joins, he’ll be confused because a) the UI/UX is less appealing b) he doesn’t know where to go and what’s the difference between Mastodon, Pixelfed, Lemmy etc.
the fediverse is not that aggressively publicized
For sure.
doesn’t know where to go and what’s the difference between Mastodon, Pixelfed, Lemmy etc.
They also know the difference between Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit. Why shouldn’t they get it here?
No idea, but I tried inviting some my friends which are not tech-aficionados — they couldn’t understand it.
I’d love to see more money thrown on Ads for promoting the fediverse on YouTube, Twitch and all other platforms and get this shit more viral, but I don’t understand why it’s not happening.
but I don’t understand why it’s not happening.
Because there is not much money to make in the process. I think we need to lobby politicians to step in.
Little awareness
Don’t forget random Telegram groups!
most of them, but alot of them for niche subjects are still there. theres one i go to where people were banned from reddit (tons of accounts used for linking, OF and advert) basiclaly they are reporting thier experiences the same way here as right there. medical forums is still alive though, as are "joining the military"ones.
What can we do? What can we do about Meta and Xitter? Just try to show people that there’s another side where the grass actually is greener and invite them to join.
Are you pretending that nothing has ever been tried? The Fediverse, that’s what is being done about it. That’s why most of us are here. Also, why narrow it down to Reddit and Discord? Articles like these are garbage because it’s very tone deaf.
Likes and Upvotes have long, long existed before. They started on forums, it was just the dawning of MySpace and Facebook and Reddit are what popularized them and made it standard.
Fucking hell, Forums also still exist, they just aren’t getting activity. I hate this fucking article now.
Are you pretending that nothing has ever been tried? The Fediverse, that’s what is being done about it. That’s why most of us are here.
Yes, we are here. But how do we get the rest of the population over? We are still more complicated to use in comparison to centralized networks. That’s why most people are hesitant to join. This and exposure, of course.
Also, why narrow it down to Reddit and Discord?
I have heard from many people, and also from many YouTube influencers, that they add “reddit” to the end of their search query. So basically, people use Reddit to search on the internet now because it’s real people, not shitty SEO content.
Fucking hell, Forums also still exist, they just aren’t getting activity
True. But forums don’t get the activity they deserve because of centralized networks that take it from them.
Let’s change that! What can we do to strengthen and grow the Fediverse?
So basically, people use Reddit to search on the internet now because it’s real people, not shitty SEO content.
Excuse me what? Since when since Jun 2024 does Reddit actually have real people?
I haven’t had that many problems with bots on Reddit.
Articles like this are constantly like “if only there was something we can do about it” while omitting the thing people are doing about it because the writer is too lazy to research properly
