Well, I suppose it’s time I actually started a thread here. Overall, my first impressions here have been very positive. As I’ve mentioned in other threads and on Locals, I started out using forums back in the late 90s and have rode the waves of chat rooms and social platforms over the decades. No matter what I’ve used, I’ve always felt like forums were the best form of social platforming on the web. Of course, I’ve used more forums over the years, but mostly just for work stuff or troubleshooting Linux issues, and most of the time it’s been an instance of phpBB.
I spent the last 24 hours exploring the settings and features here since I’ve not really used Discourse before (aside from the short-lived LCOS forum). It had a slight learning curve for me, but overall I think it’s an excellent platform! A few things that I really like:
Private messaging and private group chats are built in. I tested this out this morning and it works well on both desktop and mobile. I prefer the Forum discussions, but it’s nice to have that option, especially considering I don’t think Locals ever added a DM feature.
Markdown support that seems to work much better than Locals
The mobile app looks and works well for multiple communities. I don’t plan to use it, but I wanted to test it out and see how well it worked.
Thread layout is easier to track with than the Locals revamp. Sounds obvious, but it’s definitely a positive.
Lastly, it may sound silly, but I just realized this is probably the first time I actively used a forum for recreational use since the early 2000s… 2006 at the latest, but that was even pushing it. Most of the time it was to solve some sort of a problem, but I didn’t realize how much I genuinely missed community building and discussions on a web forum just for the fun of it. I’m glad to have it back.
I had just about forgotten how much we were sacrificing, in terms of functionality and user experience, on Locals, just to try to keep that Locals flame alive.
Then I came over here, and OH. MY. GOD. This is the most fun I’ve had since my USENET days.
Locals.com has been my only “Social Media” since (probably an “UltimateBBS” in) 2006 - where the “YOUR-A-NAZI” was being thrown around for comments on Iraq/Afghanistan, hints Leftists using those words).
Of course, now I have to adjust to the “Look and Feel”, plus “Publishing Tools.”
RE: Usenet - AOL was my connection for those Newsgroups back then…
This one makes two forums for me. The other is tubaforum.net, where the folks talk about, you guessed it, tubas! They run it on phpBB. Discourse is better. Full stop. But it’s a neat community, regardless. Lots of those people actually get together in meat space on a regular basis, and I think the forum has helped to facilitate that.
AOL was my connection for those Newsgroups back then…