What other good forums are out there with an active user base that engages in high-level discussion like here? Not necessarily about tech. Could be law, philosophy, geopolitics, literature, etc.
Can we please go back to forums?
https://moviechat.org/ - Movies
http://system7today.com/forums/ - System 7 Today. 68K Mac enthusiasts.
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/ - Overclockers UK. Hardware and software enthusiasts.
Some I've pulled from bookmarks, though I'm not a regular on them now.
http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/ -- not real active, but interesting subject matter.
Identifying and collapsing chatter/noise could also be wonderful. Sometimes people just want to [shall we say] socialize around a topic, it's fun but also making it horrible to read up on a discussion.
People seemingly forgot the self promotional qualities of a forum. If your high quality contributions generate customers [indefinitely] it all of a sudden becomes worth your time. It takes a good mod to deal with self promotion though unproductive posts. Have to ask: Is this worth reading? If it's not it's harmful to the prestige.
I'm now a "forest steward" volunteer. Ripping out invasives and planting natives. Organizing events and herding other volunteers.
I have so many questions. I've been coding since junior high school and sadly haven't picked up many other practical skills.
Sites like HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37611708
And also Facebook communities for particular goods and services (sort by city, local, ZIP)
Many people are in denial, any actionable piece of information will come from such communities, uncool as they are, whereas of course they waste their time on Instagram or the Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times or New York Times comment sections.
I would know because I was one of those idiots, and slowly but steadly have been trying to detox from all that performative BS which is nothing but propaganda from people who have enough connections and money to appear on such publications.
It’s sparse on content right now, and I think I need to find a specific vertical to focus on building a community around, but on the topics which Choir does have some discussion on, such as the impact of AI on the future, it already has some of the most thoughtful discussions on the web.
Not high-level, but possibly of interest.
I see posts like this. I myself made few here and other places.
I looked for long. In fact I even tried pretending at few places and wanted to believe. I made peace with it. It’s over. There are no good forums left (that means hn as well of course)
lobste.rs is a growing hackernews clone.
metafilter has some interesting talk from time to time.
Then they become more popular.
Once they become more popular -- they start to attract all kinds of people of "less like mind" shall we politely say, all kinds of people who would rather unfairly criticize and detract from discussions with one or two line carefully worded, yet malicious in intent, comments.
Then they start to attract AI bots -- both non-malevolent research bots, and agenda-driven Deep State AI bots -- foreign and domestic.
The net effect is, now there's a cacophony of stupidity created by AI chatbots and idiots alike.
Observation: There really isn't too much of a difference between a dumber chatbot and a smarter idiot -- sort of like how rangers at Yellowstone National Park discovered "There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists": https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/security_is_a...
Anyway, this cacophony of one and two-line stupidity dumbs down the value of any discussion, and ultimately dumbs down the value of the online discussion forum...
You know, like in Billy Madison: "Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."
Well, every time I see a one or two line snarky or indirectly sarcastic comment with malicious intent and/or intent to derail a discussion -- I just want to reply to them with "Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard..." -- but out of politeness, I never do...
Point is, there are good forums out there -- but you have to find them! (You know, "Seek and ye shall find", "Leave no stone unturned in your quest for, well, whatever you're questing for!", etc., etc.)
Once you've found a good one -- keep it secret as long as possible -- and then finally when it is broadly discovered by the public -- then that's the time to move on to a new less popular undiscovered one!
Stay a step ahead of the crowd!
Sort of like the way that the Rich and Affulent -- will stay in a country until it becomes so popular that it attracts hordes of people -- then they will leave for a relatively unknown, less popular new country. (Side observation: America doesn't have an illegal immigration problem -- it has a too much popularity problem! :-) Well, same concept -- but with online discussion forums! Anyway, wishing you luck in your online forum search! Oh, and also, if you find a good one -- don't let me know about it! :-) Related: 130+ Types of Internet Troll and Online Provocateurs: (Note: This list was created in 2014 before AI bots were widespread) Human/Bear Security Trade-Off https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/security_is_a... Billy Madison: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112508/ Idiocracy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy Eternal September: