i started using the internet in the late 2000’s and still remember when you search for something most of the times it would return with a forum post … now its just random websites … if you ever need real and concise answer you have to add site:reddit.com at every search and since discord or twitter are not crawlable by these search crawlers they are not mentioned . Where did all those forums went…are there still active forums ?
There’s still a lot, but they’re generally niche or are more business related (eg. answers.microsoft.com). Hosting fees and technical knowledge have lead to many people just using reddit or facebook groups.
For gaming there’s places like ResetEra and I think SomethingAwful still has their forums going.
There’s a ton of support group like ones, often related to certain medical conditions.
SomethingAwful is still kicking, although Lowtax is dead and no one mourns him, but that’s a story for a different time. I’m coming up on 18 years there myself. It’s been a lot more than just gaming for a long time though, and before Reddit, it was the place where memes were born.
I should give it a try. I used to read the front page every day but never joined the forums since I was a broke kid.
I recently started posting on Doomworld and it’s been such a nostalhia trip being on a normal forum after so many years. SA might be worth it just for the nostalgia alone.