#internet forums

[artfulkindoforder]

reddit people maybe the solution is to make your own AO3

a non-profit message board site

It could be just to replace your specific subreddit or go all the way and make it for everything like AO3 is

it was your posts and your moderation that was Reddit's product anyway. Just take your free labor to your own place

I bet you already have lawyers and programmers in your community

[nervouspiratedragon]

Reblog if you miss internet forums and dislike how they're being replaced by discord/Facebook.

[ijustwantedtobeoneofthestrokesuk]

Doing It Ourselves

Online

The internet played a key role in making the UK indie scene sustainable, but this was pre-social media, if the NME wasn’t talking about it, you wouldn’t know about anything that was going on beyond your doorstep unless you went on the band forums which built communities of like-minded people. These weren’t exclusively for the London bands, but it was that scene that really benefited from them.

They were a space where bands could share their music to an audience who liked bands similar to theirs, for free. The Others, The Paddingtons and The Cribs used their own forums and each other bands’ forums to not only advertise gigs but book gigs too. Arctic Monkeys recognised this as part of their early success (despite not doing it themselves) but it only worked for them because of the quality of the music. Success requires both luck and skill, without the skill it just becomes a trend that won’t last, Arctic Monkeys outlasted everybody because they were better than everybody.

Ask anybody who was part of the 2000’s indie scene about .org (The Libertines fan forum), they were probably on it. It was legendary and it built a community amongst fans but it was more than just a fan club. 

The band themselves used the forum to engage with fans, often jumping in on conversations, uploading demos (people would burn them on CDs and sell on eBay) and announce last-minute gigs. The forum was also used by other bands in the scene to connect with like-minded people and build a fan base. If something exciting was happening in London, details would be on .org. 

Zac Stephenson (Special Needs) “We used to post our news on .org and some other fan forums. It was great because there was a pretty large gig-going community on there and it was easy to reach them quickly and at no cost to the bands. And there was a lot of exchange of fans, particularly as bands shared line-ups.” 

Tom Greatorex (Black Wire) “There is no way anyone can ever talk down the importance of online message boards from 2002 - 2006. Every website that had anything to do with music had one: club nights had one, bands had one, cities and towns had one and they were integral in constructing this amazing network of people. 

There's nothing new about any of it, fanzines and letters pages in music mags had been doing it for decades but this was instant. Two extremely important factors that fed into this came a couple of years beforehand: Napster and the roll-out and prevalence of what was then called Pay-As-You-Go mobile phones.  

All of a sudden young people had access to music and sounds which would have most likely passed them by previously, maybe through lack of funds or maybe due to a geographical remoteness, via Napster. You could take a punt on an artist without losing your pocket money. 

Pay-As-You-Go made it affordable to be in direct contact with your friends which made meeting up for gigs much easier. It also meant that if you organised events/gigs you could make last-minute bookings and alterations at the drop of a hat. 

What these two cultural changes cultivated was a sense of immediacy and so when the internet really became a household tool around 2001 (mainly thanks to AOL carpet-bombing the UK with free installation disks through the post allowing easy dial-up access to people who may previously have still thought the Information Superhighway was just for nerds. Once people found out how much porn they could access any other war was lost) these kids were already primed with the knowledge of how to use it and where it should go. 

In fact they were so on it that almost a quarter of a century later the music industry still doesn't know what its own role is. 

Black Wire booked our first tour using message boards. We didn't know any promoters outside of Leeds so we hit people up on forums. The brilliant thing was that all the promoters used the same message boards so they could all coordinate with each other directly, in real-time, what would be the best dates for the gigs to happen.  

'Playing a gig in Bath on the Friday? Ok, the promoter for the Cardiff gig is going to pick you up afterwards and drive you to their friend's flat where you can stay for the night so you're in town for your show on the Saturday' (This is just one example of something that actually happened because of forums). 

For that first tour we pooled together our dole money for train tickets to the first gig and then used the fees from each subsequent gig to pay for train tickets to the next. 

It's called DIY that is. Punk Rock. Make a note of it. LOLzzz.” 

Paul Melbourne “I don't actually know I discovered .org, I was just always on it from as soon as I'd first heard about The Libertines, and that was as much a part of it all as the actual band. It was where you would go to chat music, gigs and new bands with like-minded kids across the country. It just harboured that real sense of community amongst like minded folk. There was no bullshit or pretension, just people who liked the same music travelling the country meeting up for gigs and getting wasted! 

Pete was the only Libertine I remember contributing, I think Carl posted from time to time but after things got messy with Libs Pete would regularly be on there posting about all the tiny gigs we has doing, tenners on the door! 

That community spawned many lifelong friendships! At the time that was where I discovered The Others who were notorious on the scene at the time and they really carried on the whole community and made their own. All of the Poptones bands were part of .org and bands like Special Needs, 10,000 Things (one of the most underrated bands of that time), Ludes, Dustin's Bar Mitzvah and Les Incompetents. 

I have made so many lifelong friends through .org, and indirectly met my wife through there, we met through mutual friend Alan Jewels, who we both met through going to gigs with .org'ers. I went to uni in Notingham and we would regularly find out about gigs on .org and travel down to London and to other cities, Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and meet up with .org'ers there. Also many gigs at Stoke Underground! An unlikely place to go but for Pete making it a bit of a second home for a time! I met one of my best mates Delaney (delaney girl) on there and all of her mates who are some of my best mates to this day!” 

Tom Atkin “.org was massive for The Paddingtons.” 

Each band had its own forum and online community too, The Others, The Cribs, Bloc Party and The Rakes were all pretty active, it was tribal and it brought fans from across the world, which was never so easy in pre-internet days but is normalised in the social media era.  

Bill Ryder-Jones “I was aware of The Coral forum and engaged with that a bit but ultimately we belonged to a time where fans had to go looking for info on their bands.” 

Whatever you had an interest in, however niche, it was now easily accessible to find others to connect with. Music blogs had started to build up a following, each had its own core group who went there for the latest news, reviews and opinions. We take this for granted these days.

NEXT CHAPTER

[zanreosauce]

curious about something so I'm making a poll:

(please reblog and share!)

[arconinternet]

Something Is Awful (Website/Hoax, Richard Kyanka/Dr. David Thorpe/Kevin Pereira/Chris Putnam, 2005)

When a writer for notorious comedy website Something Awful got a TV interview on G4's Attack of the Show, the website's owner instructed him to prevent people joining the site as a result by making it seem terrible... and to give the wrong URL, which led to a phony site, which you can view on the Wayback Machine here.

You can watch the interview here, and read a little about its history in a contemporary NeoGAF forum thread here.

You can learn a LOT more about Something Awful from the podcast I'm From the Internet.

[implausiblyjosh]

Kimplausible - The Message Boards You Help Make

Hello! If you're unfamiliar with Kimplausible, this is the last post I made about it. The gimmick is simple, I can't add anything to this message board unless YOU tell me to. I can post, others can post, but I can't make any administrative changes unless YOU tell me to. No new categories, no new boards, no new changes unless YOU suggest it.

We started from a blank forum name, and now we're here:

(See for yourself here)

So now I ask you, what more should we add to these message boards?

Last time I asked about Ranks, a little title that changes the more posts you make. Our last non-serious suggestion was from @starzoomies who said we should make the ranks Jerma1 through Jerma985. A fun idea!

What do you think? What should we add to the messages boards? Lemme know, and we'll make those changes!

[soapdispensersalesman]

My Webcore/NEO Y2K album MessageBoard2000 is now available on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms!

[soratayuya]

I miss online forums where someone would post a stupid and irrelevant response and everyone else would quote them and respond with how irrelevant they were being and it would stay publicly posted in a niche forum for a decade as a warning to people without reading conprehension

It’s amazing how on the internet I’m like hey here’s a thing that helped me. Maybe it will help you.

And then someone is always like if I do that thing though it will kill me.

Probably don’t do it then. Idk what you want from me, man.

[horn-stumps]

you know i think its generally agreed upon that people who used to hit you with the lmgtfy link back in the day were the most insufferable pricks to ever exist but i gotta hand it to them it was a tactic so annoying and stupid that i did google stuff instead of having to deal with someone like that and i feel like kids these days are missing out on that experience. something something removing wolves from Yellowstone

[phantom-of-the-north]

Flashback builds gingerbread houses!

Since 2011, Flashback arranges a competition in December for building the best gingerbread house. Users gather all their creativity and assemble their masterpieces, they post images of their contributions and other users then vote for their favorite! It’s a pleasant and festive tradition on Flashback and it's endorsed by admin himself

Translation of the last paragraph:

"Many thanks to all who participate. Funniest gingerbread house competition ever. I'm indeed biased, but I can promise that I would've held the same opinion if I weren't biased. Last year's contributions were spread on forums overseas and in social media, where people amusedly wondered what we were up to in Sweden. There's a reason for this. Christmas baking is supposed to be fun. Thank you, all you Flashbackers who make Christmas a lot more fun.

admin"

Unfortunately, the interest for the competition has been pretty low throughout the years, in 2019 it was cancelled because there were too few participants. But it was back again in 2020! Here are the competition rules:

The gingerbread house shall have the participator's name and year visible.

The gingerbread house shall have a name.

The gingerbread house shall have an explanation of the contribution.

The gingerbread house is expected to be designed as a building.

The gingerbread house shall be designed by the person who builds it/competes with it.

The gingerbread house shall only be built of edible parts (not including lighting and cotton).

The gingerbread house shall contain "gingerbread".

The gingerbread house shall be documented with stills.

Here are some of the previous years' winners:

2021: “The storming of The Capitol” by user Stegosaurusen

2011: “Taj Mahal” also by user Stegosaurusen

“The three wise men turned out good… but the stall itself imploded.” By user Moramannen

“Snow dreams” by user duckling

Some other contributions throughout the years:

2022: “Saddam Hussein’s secret bunker!” by user Hivmannen

2021: “An ode to Flashback” by user Luismi

“Christmas cosiness outside the crack house.”

“During Christmas, peace reigns among political opponents. Completely impossible to photograph the political corner from a fair angle. The whole phone is full of icing after several failed attempts.”

“Blurry Nazis.”

“Equally blurry anarchists and militant feminists.”

2014: “Kiruna Church” by user NordSvitjod

The winner of 2023’s competition:

“The Burrow” by user lucky-luci

Two of the competitors from 2023:

“The snow lies white..” by user Jultrollet

”Christmas coziness in the Dekorima corner” by user Messi2022

“Olof Palme’s last breath in a Christmas guise.”

[oldinterneticons]

Top icons posted to @oldinterneticons in April 2024

[catshinji]

hmm.

[aquillis-main]

RIP internet forums. They will sorely be missed⚰️🪦

I remember spending hours on forums as a teen. Really enjoyed the unique culture. Plus creators would occasionally engage with their fans there and provide answers/lore/interviews that couldn't be found anywhere else . I remember so many forums providing unique programming information and walkthroughs for various software or games.

Nowadays So much precious information being irreversibly lost to the sands of time. Sometimes before they get a chance to be archived . It's even worse when it happens without warning(like most of my favorite childhood forums. They just suddenly died)

Doesn't help that I feel that modern replacements(Facebook/twitter/Reddit) for forums lack a certain je ne sais quois compared to forums.

Wah! ;_;

They do, don't they?

[prokopetz]

Folks talking about the weirdness of late 1990s/early 2000s forum culture usually focus on the macro-level stuff – the inter-forum beefs, the raids, etc. – but on a personal level they were often even more unhinged. Like, many popular forums had recurring issues with people putting on the persona of a Sickly Artist (often claiming to have a heart condition, though just as often the nature of their ailment would be left unspecified), building a following based on the idea that they were this gentle, tortured artistic genius who could kick the bucket any time, and eventually "dying", only to return a few weeks later in a different Sickly Artist persona and start the whole thing over again. Many of the worst offenders went through this cycle multiple times. Sometimes they weren't even real artists, and were simply misrepresenting someone else's art as their own, which was much easier to get away with because Google Image Search wasn't yet a thing.

[busylazy]

spirit realm lol

seeking the answers to my tech problems by consulting with the spirit realm (old internet forum archives)

[implausiblyjosh]

If you still need ranks. Nice guy funny guy silly guy little guy wise guy

HELL YES I LOVE THIS

The Kimplausible ranks are:

Nice guy

Funny guy

Silly guy

Little guy

Wise guy