• Light/Dark

Does it ever strike you that Resetera is a ‘forum’? Those are practically dead.

Fantastical

Fantastical

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,661
Resetera is, I believe, the last stand alone forum that I use outside of major social media websites. Reddit, Twitter, Facebook - these websites have replaced 99% of the way people communicate online in "communities". Probably some of the last bastions of this, outside a relative handful of full message board software based websites, are communities built around comment sections below articles or recipes or something, so not very strong. Now most people just go to subreddits or *shudder* Facebook groups or something. Or they have Discords, talk in Twitter threads, etc.

I'm feeling very nostalgic for the "old internet" right now (which for me would be like '99 - '08). Facebook kind of changed the game, as did Reddit. Obviously a lot of good things with today's internet but just missing some of the 'uniqueness' of websites and self-contained communities back then. Bring back signatures!!! Kidding.
But what if...

This is mostly just "back in my day" shit, I know but with rose tinted glasses it was cool.
 
Punchline

Punchline

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,151
i always mourn the loss of forums before remembering how shit the admin teams tend to be
 
Mezentine

Mezentine

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,032
Yes, I specifically prefer it. Its why I spent so much time here, despite having various issues with policy and direction at times. The webforum is still the ideal social media format for me. Not Twitter, with its tiny snippets and its interface designed to encourage dogpiles and discourage conversation. Not Reddit, where every comment section on anything of any real size is impossible to put together in any sort of coherent picture, so you just skim through and find interesting subthreads

I like seeing lengthy posts, arranged in a sequential order, where I can see who replied to who and in what context
 
Cipherr

Cipherr

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,549
Definitely. Forums are moooooooostly dead outside of smaller focused ones. I still frequent some culture based ones, hip hop ones and this one. But thats all thats survived the changing internet is these small little island communities typical with a singular focus in most cases.

I think discussions in general are affected a lot by the point based systems the newer online communities force into their systems. Reddit and the like won't ever be my favorites. People get too much of a high off of trying to get upvotes, thumbs up or whatever for their daily endorphin rush. It just erodes so much potential.

Everybody just wants to go viral or as close to it as they can. I understand wanting attention to some degree is normal, but damn.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot
Member
Oct 25, 2017
96,246
here
im old and dont like discord, i dunno if im using it right every time i try to use it

i prefer this, its like an ice cream social for the modern day
 
Rosebud

Rosebud

Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
44,773
Yeah, it's sad 98% of forums died.

For some reason I can't get used to Reddit and Discord, and Twitter is always full of hate.
 
Brat-Sampson

Brat-Sampson

Member
Nov 16, 2017
3,576
I mean i use this place and a couple of other active forums too, so it really doesn't seem that strange to me :p I get that they're probably less popular now, but comments under articles or twitch chat don't really serve as replacements.

I guess thriving discord communities or subreddits are the closest you get nowadays, but they're still not the same imo.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot
Member
Oct 25, 2017
96,246
here
6EZ6MTe.png
 
Ether_Snake

Ether_Snake

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
11,306
People complain about echo chambers but it's actually great, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram have no politics or news, no toxicity, only stuff I enjoy. Social media is what you follow, so I like how I get no noise on those.
 

Deleted member 8118

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
3,639
It dawns on me from time to time.

It's amazing how little this site resembles a lot of the Internet. The interface is archaic, but that's why I'm here, I guess.

There's no animations, no quick reactions or like system, just bare. Also, this site is so easy to read large amounts of text on, especially on PC. There's nothing messing with the formatting or anything, just plain text.

I only use one old forum outside of this one. I exclude Reddit because I only go on there for one game, and I don't even interact with anyone.
 

Deleted member 4461

User Requested Account Deletion
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,010
Yeah, and I'm glad it exists. Compared to social media, even if people take you out of context on a forum, the whole point is to discuss.

And with the right moderation team, you can keep people from crossing lines while still allowing open discussion.

I know that ERA has been criticized for openness of discussion and such, but... major social media is infinitely worse. Forums are great.
 
krae_man

krae_man

Master of Balan Wonderworld
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,744
Apart from setting up push notifications for deals I can't get into discord unless it's a small group of friends.

Reddit is tolerable for me when it's the only community with enough people to sustain itself for a subject but I still don't participate as much.

I just like forums better.
 
Catshade

Catshade

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,210
Pshaw, Resetera is barely a forum. I mean, where's the jpeg signature below everyone's post?
 
Illiterate Bookworm

Illiterate Bookworm

Member
Oct 30, 2017
557
It crosses my mind every now and then.

It's funny but if I see something interesting pop up on Reddit or social media, rather than respond there I usually come here or to some of the select few hobby forums that are still around to see what others are saying.
 
Pwnz

Pwnz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
14,280
Places
I strongly prefer the format of forums for discussion. Everyone sees the same thing, it's persistent, encourages more detailed and meaningful discussion. Social media and reddit are just about ad revenue and curating per person viewability to rile up emotions hence the clusterfuck Facebook is and ADD meds reddit is
 

Deleted member 82064

User requested account closure
Banned
Sep 29, 2020
596
Forums like Era makes sense. Reddit for example moves too fast and I really don't like how replys work in reddit.
 
louie

louie

Member
Oct 29, 2017
559
I feel like I'm shouting into a void with twitter and reddit. At least here I'll recognise an avatar or two.
 

Deleted member 40853

User requested account closure
Banned
Mar 9, 2018
873
Yeah, I think about that a lot. I'm glad this place exists, I wish there were more sites like it still around. I use my fair share of social media but it's just not the same. I hate how Reddit ate message boards and became the de facto place to discuss...everything. The internet feels so much more monolithic now. This place has its own distinct feel - it's own unique tone and user base. Reddit all feels very samey.

I used to spend so much time on Nsider, then Nsider2, and lots of other smaller boards along the way. I miss that era of the internet.
 
SigSig

SigSig

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,777
their death is greatly overstated. what died are crusty phpbb boards. there's plenty of modern discourse boards. I absolutely don't miss staff cliques with giant signatures and two kilometer long titles and giant oversized avatars
 
Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,180
You know, I've never really considered that forums are a dying breed, but indeed they are. I've been reading message boards since I was a teenager and I can't imagine not having one to peruse regularly.

Long live Resetera.
 
Hours Left

Hours Left

Member
Oct 26, 2017
18,581
Reddit is just a more annoying forum, and Discord a more annoying chat room/messaging app.

I prefer forums like this. Simple, to the point, easy to read.
 
Xandalan

Xandalan

Member
Oct 17, 2020
1,646
Before neogaf then Resetera I lurked in the rotten tomatoes forums. Life will suck if this website goes away.
 
Cass_Se

Cass_Se

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,153
Message boards are a superior form of communication on the Internet and I have no idea how Discord mostly replaced it. Discord is mostly just an IRC channel which always worked fine in conjunction with message boards, but if it's an active Discord channel it's unreadable unless you spend a massive amount of time there.
 
mbpm

mbpm

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,362
We can bring back signatures manually if that's what we truly desire.


-mbpm
Still the best
 
Molten_

Molten_

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,598
honestly I feel like oldschool forums will start making a comeback as they become more "retro". we're kind of already seeing the resurgence of MSN with discord, only a matter of time.
 
GamerJM

GamerJM

Member
Nov 8, 2017
15,848
I still post on GameFAQs and read Smashboards sometimes. I'm a weirdo who just never stopped devoting time to forums.
 
Unknownlight

Unknownlight

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 2, 2017
10,687
Cass_Se said:
Message boards are a superior form of communication on the Internet and I have no idea how Discord mostly replaced it. Discord is mostly just an IRC channel which always worked fine in conjunction with message boards, but if it's an active Discord channel it's unreadable unless you spend a massive amount of time there.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It's very strange. A game that I like has a dedicated forum that dates back to 2001 or 2002, and it also had an IRC channel throughout that full time period as well, both existing in harmony.

Then Discord rolled around and the IRC channel was replaced with a Discord server, and in the years that followed the message board slowly withered away. It still exists, but it's a shell of its former self.

I don't understand what's so attractive about Discord that it managed to completely subsume a community that was already used to switching between forums and IRC.
 
Soda

Soda

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,058
Dunedin, New Zealand
Reddit is just a modern forum in the same way Discord is a modern MSN/Yahoo/AIM which were just modern ICQ/IRC.

Resetera is wonderful, but we're basically the 2021 forum equivalent of people that used ICQ/IRC in 2003 while everyone under the age of 30 was switching to AIM.
 

UnderNewOwnership

Member
Dec 4, 2017
3,103
GamerJM said:
I still post on GameFAQs and read Smashboards sometimes. I'm a weirdo who just never stopped devoting time to forums.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Regarding GameFAQs, it always saddens me to see the utter lack of detailed guides for newer games. Basically, once you move into the early-'10s, you get a couple quick hint docs, at most, and from circa 2014-onwards, it's a desert. You might be lucky to find a detailed guide for one of the 'big-name' titles, but for most (especially smaller) newer games, YT clips is all you have, and those suck horribly compared to a nicely laid-out document you can Ctrl+F into.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.