Ask YC: How many forums do you use?

6 points by DarrenStuart 18 years ago | 9 comments

I have an idea I have been toying with for a long time and wonder if you guys still used forums in this day and age of social sites like this one etc.

How many other forums do you use? Are you very active on them? What forum software are they running if you know?

thanks in advance guys.

nreece 18 years ago |

Once in a while I visit:

http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com (custom ASP forum)

http://www.webhostingtalk.com (vBulletin)

http://wordpress.org/support/ (bbPress)

And a few others that I can't seem to recall right now :)

Feynman 18 years ago |

Back when I had more free time (no wife, no kids, no business) I used to participate in a few forums. Now, I usually stay updated with the topics via Google Reader and the # of forums I keep up with have dropped to maybe a handful. They mostly come in handy for when I'm searching for specific tech related subjects and certain good threads show up high ranking in the search engine.

List of forums: VMWare's VMTM Forums, Ubuntu's Forums, and Webmaster Forum at Digital Point are the top ones that come to mind.

symptic 18 years ago |

I frequent www.wickedfire.com and www.offtopic.com (their webmaster section). I'm more involved in marketing and advertising than hacking and these are places I go to get and give information and insights (respectively).

I try to stay away from forums since they can turn into mega time drains, but they allow for quick transfer of information and ideas, which is always great.

They both use vBulletin.

tx 18 years ago |

ubuntuforums.org - they have a very nice feature where you can see unanswered questions from beginners that you can take care of. I genuinely want Windows to die and try to contribute to Ubuntu in any way I can.

mindplunge 18 years ago |

I still use forums a lot especially for subject related issues. It's a total different medium then a social network so I don't think it's fair to compare. I still think that forums are a huge part of the internet.

DarrenStuart 18 years ago | |

yeah I have to agree I often think they are over looked.

Goronmon 18 years ago |

I'm a big gamer so most other sites I peruse are usually specific to that topic.

http://www.evilavatar.com (vBulletin)

- Sure, it's a news site, but the best part is the forums behind the scenes.

http://vnboards.ign.com (custom ASP)

- The first board system I stuck with. Been around for a while. I've actually been moderating there for over 4 years.

tjr 18 years ago |

...if you guys still used forums in this day and age of social sites like this one...

I consider this (news.yc) to be a forum. Why would it not be?

DarrenStuart 18 years ago | |

yeah I wasn't sure. I think its kinda a forum more of a hybrid.

I would love some for forum like features if I was honest. Split the questions, news and cool links and I think it would be more forum like.