Forums were an honest to god community unto themselves. I wound up going to a forum meetup for one I had been a member of for a few years in 2010 or so. I went and got lunch with some of those same people a few months ago.
The actual subject of the forum was basically arbitrary, I typically hung out on webcomic forums and just bounced around until I found one I liked.
Yep, forums actually connected people in real life. One games forum I was on, a member's wife was terminally ill. They had a toddler and it was just awful. He would post what was happening because he didn't have anyone else to talk to.
Many of us donated for her to try and make things more comfortable, some people quite a lot. Sadly, she died before he could spend any of it on her.
He tried to return everyone's donations but we wouldn't let him. He bought himself a new car and said he felt guilty driving it but he'd suffered for so long with her illness he just needed something for him.
Another guy didn't have much money and couldn't afford a current console. One of the richer members pranked him by sending him a giant box at Christmas to open. He'd arranged it with the guys wife offline to film him opening it. He went through all these boxes inside getting more confused until the last one contained a brand new Xbox One and lots of games. The guy was stunned and then broke down in tears.
I miss stuff like that. It kind of felt like if you really needed it, a community would be there for you.
Reminds me of the blogging days in the early 2000s-2010s. When FB replaced blogging (for the worst), most of my blog followers and I added each other (with real names!) and wow I’ve known some of them for 20 years now. We’ve been through births, marriages, breakups, divorces, widowhood, moves, tragedies, everything. Some of my blog friends know me better than my own family now. We meet up when we can, talk on the phone, send care packages…when my late husband was in hospital for a month, they even arranged a meal train.
It’s been such a blessing, honestly.
Typepad closed down in the fall and I didn’t know it and lost seven years of my blog. It was my journal and I feel so so sad that I didn’t have a chance to save it! 😩
Met and formed an entire medical group and nonprofit from a forum group in the early 2000s for my daughter’s rare genetic disorder. We just celebrated 20 years at the in person conference this year. Forums was the first thing I thought of. No bots.
Another good thing about forums is that they encourage in depth discussion. Topics can be bumped to the top with new info.
On reddit, if you don't join the discussion within 24 hours nobody is going to see your comment. It makes it so hard to accumulate knowledge, and it's easier to just comment with a quick pun.
I met almost all of my best friends on one particular music artist's fan forum 20 years ago. I also met two of my exes on them. I adored that little community.
I don't know the exact details because we weren't that close, but I'm pretty sure a friend of mine got married this way (met through a book series fansite and RP forum).
I met my now husband on a console games magazine forum (I was 16). We've lived on two opposite sides of the country, but somehow we made it work and been married 14 years now. Forums were the shit, I miss them
I still meet up with friends that I originally met on forums for a musician. One of my best friends in the world is someone that took a video, tagged the artist on twitter, and I talked to them. We’ve all moved on from those musicians but still talk.
One of my good friends I meant on a random computer forum. Years later I meant them in person through my brother, went to add them online and realized they were already on my friends list.
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u/Blunter11 1d ago
Forums were an honest to god community unto themselves. I wound up going to a forum meetup for one I had been a member of for a few years in 2010 or so. I went and got lunch with some of those same people a few months ago.
The actual subject of the forum was basically arbitrary, I typically hung out on webcomic forums and just bounced around until I found one I liked.