Old web forums (emo/goth)

[Nhasasite]

(I already posted this in the melon land forums)

So I started looking at old emo forums/websites in the website archive, and wow, was internet culture different back then.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070227182955/

http://vampirefreaks.com/main.php,

https://web.archive.org/web/20080913100 ... howforum=2.

I guess the internet has just started feeling so unreal? Everything seems to be made by a bot and replied to by bots, and it's just an ouroboros of bots. The World Wide Web is not interesting anymore for me, I'm trying to find forums (like this one lol) or something more tangible other than my website to look at. (Im not making much sense)

I don't know, guess I need to go for like a hike or something.

What do u guys think of internet culture today?

[Onio]

Wow, I don’t remember the last time I saw so many topics in a forum timestamped ‘Today’! And now I miss it dearly XD

There is one forum I know of from the 2000s that is still active to this day, which would be https://overclock.net

The times have definitely changed, I think forums died out largely because everyone moved over to the big handful of dominant apps/platforms like Reddit or even Facebook and then began using features like Facebook Groups as a replacement. Other people seem to just be fine responding in comments on YouTube videos and Instagram, which really don’t seem like the best places to go looking for conversations.

The Internet is definitely different, I don’t think I noticed how different until I started spending time on personal pages again, but I’m not sure if I’ve noticed the whole ‘everything is bots’ yet! Most comments I see, for instance, seem real to me, but if they aren’t, then I genuinely can’t tell!

AI has definitely blurred a lot of lines. Of course there are AI videos that are fooling people into believing they are really, but stranger to me than that is weeing so many people convinced something is AI when it isn’t. I’ve even had comments on my own videos by people who were convinced my videos are AI generated.. and then when I bring it up with someone, I’m told those are likely bot comments! Who knows?!

[Karkalicious]

I’m honestly surprised at how active GTAForums still is. I’m not surprised there is an active forum for GTA, but I’m surprised by how active it is. I forget the exact name, but I know there’s still a very active forum for DOOM mods as well.

If you want to lurk semi-active forums, game modding can be a good bet. Some of the classic ones are still pretty active. I think because they’re a grey area, they tend to stay a bit more underground, so people kept them on forums. That and some of these titles / tools are just more popular with old gens. I hate when game modding just gets moved to Discord, but a lot of newer games started and stayed there wrt modding communities.

Something I liked about old forum formats (which you can see in those links) is that you could have a topic asking a question and still actively receive replies / foster discussion for months. I hate how on new platforms, questions get buried or redirected so quickly. It’s like a lot of people don’t want to foster a discussion anymore, but rather push along the people who aren’t already established regulars / friends / etc. I wonder if it’s a side effect of internet fatigue.

Most of my time on newer platforms is with Discord servers and it just feels like they’re hangouts for an existing circle with incidental info / posts about the topic surrounding that, rather than open spaces for people to find eachother, the way forums were. I’ve been on cliquey and otherwise awful forums, but even then- aside from the real worst ones- they were more approachable in the sense that, without being an established regular, you could more reasonably expect a response to posts.

[Onio]

I hate how on new platforms, questions get buried or redirected so quickly. It’s like a lot of people don’t want to foster a discussion anymore, but rather push along the people who aren’t already established regulars / friends / etc. I wonder if it’s a side effect of internet fatigue.

I think one of the reasons I find myself interested in forums is that it does serve like a conversational archive, I really like the idea of ideas and discussions not just being preserved, but opened to be commented upon and returned to across time. I think the slower pace of a forum format also opens up the opportunity for people to sit with their thoughts and reflect before posting, which is in itself kind of a fresh air from your typical chatroom, where everything is in the present moment and continually changing course. I think these two points alone help to position forums as a platform that rewards genuine contribution - the effort one puts in stays there for all to see, and helps build a database of insight for future visitors to read through.


I found this article off the 32bit.cafe forum, it looks like there are a lot of forums still active right now! : https://aftermath.site/best-active-foru ... net-today/