So basically I’ve pretty much stopped using reddit as I’ve noticed it getting worse and worse over the past few years, and probably even longer. The main thing that kept me on there was the subreddit for my favorite sports team, but I’ve since found a pretty active online forum that sort of re-creates the enjoyment I got out of discussing them on reddit. I’d like to find something like to simulate the rest of reddit too. I used to love posting on certain forums back in the day, but I don’t even know where to start looking. Something like a general use forum, preferably populated by millenials, with discussions about whatever. Movies, music, pop culture, sports, politics, random internet bullshit, whatever. I think it would be great to kind of re-create the sense of seeing new stuff like on reddit, but with a much smaller community.
EDIT: I understand that Lemmy can be viewed as an answer to this question, but it’s not for me. I’m looking for an actual forum, with a sense of community. The whole decentralization aspect of the Feidverse seems great to prevent enshittification, or to prevent a billionaire from buying and tanking the place, but I don’t really see it ever appealing to normal, non tech savvy people.
Besides the active forum with an off-topic section recommendation, I’ve gotten the sense a lot of this style of communication has shifted from forums to group chats in whatever messaging app people are using, whether it’s Discord or Whatsapp or whathaveyou.
It’s unfortunate as those aren’t the same style at all, but seems to be how things are now. It’s part of why I wish more fediverse instances would instead operate with a site mindset and try to build distinct identities. A few do and they’re much more interesting for it imo, feeling like the small community site they are in a good way.
Interesting insight. Perhaps the underlying issue is privacy. The web is public. In a world where literally everyone is on it (this was not the case in the 90s), having conversations there may just feel a bit icky for many people. You need to protect yourself with pseudonyms, you’re always subconsciously censoring personal information from comments, and so on. Semi-private group chats take a lot of this pressure off. I get that.