edit: I ain't complaining. If reddit engagement is dying and forums are taking it's place,

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Forums are more private and I generally hate reddit :)

I want to know just who these people are? I mean, the success of forums have been a surprise to me. And recently, in my experience Tech reddits (linux distros and such) haven't been getting as much attention as they used to get.

If I have a question regarding MX Linux or someone has asked a question regrading it, it seems reasonable to me that I would find it on Reddit. Since there are generally more people on reddit than on forums and reddit is like a super forum with almost everything under the sun attached to it and showing up in your feed. So, I might not be passionate enough to just stay on MX forum, but I will get enough variety on reddit that I will be able to stay interested and browse it more.

I don't know enough about MX Linux to frequent the forums, not do I want to know/read every small issue someone else has. But, if I come across a post on reddit while I am just browsing through my feed, I will make sure I try to help them as much as possible, but yeah, I don't see myself going to forums to try and help people. So, I don't get why forums are so successful.

Are there really so many people to frequent forums and provide answers to people who seem to be in trouble. I love MX but it's not my passion and frankly, I am surprised that there are many people for whom it seems like it is.

  • the_itsb [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Idk anything about Linux forums, but as far as forums in general:

    Are there really so many people to frequent forums and provide answers to people who seem to be in trouble

    This is legitimately my husband's favorite thing to do. He's not into Linux, he's into garden tractors and mowers, but he loves the enthusiast forums and Facebook groups he's in and is very active.

    Generally, he loves helping people who want to learn, and specifically, he is nuts about helping people learn to care for their machines and save them from the junkyard. He will spend hours on the phone and days over email helping people troubleshoot things, purely for the joy of helping.

    And when he's not helping somebody, he's talking to other tractor nerds about how cool their tractors are and how best to take care of them! 😂🥰

    So yes, there are people who like to hang around to give help, some people just really, really, really love to help.

  • krei [it/its]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I peruse ModWiggler occasionally (bbs forum for synthesizer enthusiasts), more often since the Reddit blackout stuff when I stopped using it.

    And I am actually quite pleasantly surprised by the quality of discussion and how many people are actually open to more radical ideologies. Way more personal and pleasant than subreddits for the topic. In fact, most synth enthusiasts I know are leftists. I don't really know why.

    I think there is an argument to be made that communities that are smaller and harder to enter have better social health.

    Also, I think forum users tend to be older, so you get less edgy teens. I don't trust surveys. I think most people I interact with on Reddit are teens. Surely they wouldn't lie about their age, right?

  • Call me Lenny/Leni@lemm.ee
    ·
    1 year ago

    I'm on every website I've ever heard of and so I've been exposed to a great deal of forums. The most popular of these is the TV Tropes forums. People go bananas over it. They're like places of mental salience, that's the main takeaway. I was also popular (if that's the right word) on the DeviantArt forums (you might be familiar with me if you've looked up my username on Lemmy on DeviantArt), though it's a hotbed of hate and inceldom, especially the last thing. And now you may begin to see a nemesis in the mix.