Do you use other forums in 2024?

[Frunk]

Hi fellow ghosts of TWC,

Do any of you still 'use' other forums in 2024?

It's clear the world has changed and Discord is all the rage. Perhaps other things my mid-2000s brain can't comprehend.

If you do happen to use another forum(s), what software are they built on? Which software(s) do you like or dislike, if you care at all?

I personally remember having used MyBB, phpBB, Invision, vBulletin, and others back in the day.

TWCenter uses state-of-the-art vBulletin Version 4.2.5 from circa 2009. No expense spared here.

(Currently vBulletin version is 6)

[Flinn]

Finally someone asking the right question

No I don't, TWC is the only forum I still use and has been so for atl 7 or 8 years

If this doesn't say a LOT about what a unique place TWC was (and somewhat still is) then I'm an armchair

[Morticia Iunia Bruti]

Nexus for making, sharing and commenting screenshots. And looking for mods to improve my immersion in Skyrim. And here and there having a nice smalltalk.

Don't know which software is their plattform and don't care, if i'm honest.

[Dismounted Feudal Knight]

I skulk about a handful of them, usually lurking. Some really do hit it off today and I think in part it's their momentum + keeping up technically + fresh ecosystem. SpaceBattles is the largest standalone independent & true forum I browse and that one, like most other maintained hobby fora I know, is running xenforo. That's almost a requirement at this point although other options exist and can be used. Less conventional but still all over if you know where to look are various discourse boards which seem to be used for 'serious' projects, you find them as the 'modern' option for linux distros (whereas linux mint is on phpbb which... isn't aging well). This is the only vbulletin let alone 4 I am around. mybb is dated but feasible in a pinch, usually the xenforo of the broke. Invision is a big player still running up against xenforo but I can't say I've ever distinctly liked it and I would not use it if coming up with a forum now not least because it's the latest to be flirting with cloud subscription piecemeal models. Not that xenforo is innocent on this as its core is a bit barebones and its depth is in the multitude of usually premium extensions.

Vbulletin appears to have diminished in quality going from 4-5 and I haven't heard much at all about 6 so any jump I'd make is to XF, never VB.

Forums mainly keep ground in areas they haven't totally lost the battle in, for example the total war forum space never really evolved much so it no longer has real players in scope of the overall total war community.

Anyone overly committed to the forum model either needs to put a lot of effort in carving back a niche that several interconnected platforms, not just discord stole and I think the formula is going to need a new 'meta' software and a big crash of the giants to actually woo the masses since forums have become a generally niche thing or secondary at best. Note that most of the active internet takes place on the big social media platforms and a site like twc would for many of them would be some scary dark corner of the internet.

[Araval]

There is an invite-only forum I visit also almost daily. It uses phpBB.

[Narf]

I just use TWC, never really used anything else.

[Flinn]

I just use TWC, never really used anything else.

That's my lass

[Aru]

No, I stopped using forums altogether around 2016.

It wasn't conscious decision, it just happened.

I still visit a few from time to time, but what I'm doing now, here, is the most I'm using one.

[Niles Crane]

I visit TWC from time to time but I just haven't had much interest in for over a decade. I don't play the Total War games and virtually all of the friends I made on here in the 2000s are now gone. I was 13 when I signed up and I'm 33 now. It's been a very long time and I mostly just came back out of nostalgia.

I was also a member of Anagennese - an offshoot of TWC c. 2005. That forum essentially died 2010-2011 for reasons I still can't figure out. Another spin-off of TWC was Sogdian Revival which is also virtually dead.

The only forum I regularly post on now is Something Awful which has maintained the traditional forum format and still has a large, active community. If that goes, which it probably will one day, I don't know what I'll do. Reddit is fine for looking up information but I can't stand the format and the anonymity of posters.

[Ishan]

No, I stopped using forums altogether around 2016.

It wasn't conscious decision, it just happened.

I still visit a few from time to time, but what I'm doing now, here, is the most I'm using one.

Same.

I visit TWC from time to time but I just haven't had much interest in for over a decade. I don't play the Total War games and virtually all of the friends I made on here in the 2000s are now gone. I was 13 when I signed up and I'm 33 now. It's been a very long time and I mostly just came back out of nostalgia.

I was also a member of Anagennese - an offshoot of TWC c. 2005. That forum essentially died 2010-2011 for reasons I still can't figure out. Another spin-off of TWC was Sogdian Revival which is also virtually dead.

The only forum I regularly post on now is Something Awful which has maintained the traditional forum format and still has a large, active community. If that goes, which it probably will one day, I don't know what I'll do. Reddit is fine for looking up information but I can't stand the format and the anonymity of posters.

I guess you are the oldest most active TWC member. You & Aru are the Keanu Reeves of TWC.

[Niles Crane]

Oh, I don't know about that. Every now and then someone from c. 2003 pops up.

I had some good times here, though. Lot of drama and controversy, too, when I think we all took the internet a little too seriously. I even remember some 'friends' faking their death, and others who I think were so troubled that they actually died.

[Niles Crane]

Wait, why is my name blue? I'm sure it wasn't blue last time.

[Dismounted Feudal Knight]

All registered users were press ganged into (dis)content staff

[mishkin]

All registered users were press ganged into (dis)content staff

It kills me to admit that the "Discontent" thing is a bit funny.

[Alwyn]

It's important to direct the discontent properly.

[Morticia Iunia Bruti]

It kills me to admit that the "Discontent" thing is a bit funny.

It is.

First i thought Blue? I wasn't that drunk yesterday.

[Sir Adrian]

Petition to make the colors permanent. They add extra flair.

[mishkin]

now I need a new avatar that fits the color blue

Edit. I swear I was about to Google " blue avatar". Yes I am stupid.

[Alastor]

I still visit some here and there. Older communities all of them like RPGcodex and NMA. But I have always been more of the lurker type. Including in TWC.

[Flinn]

I HAD THE YELLOW, but some ugly Hexer took it from me