Are Internet boards and Forums dead - eviltoast

i started using the internet in the late 2000’s and still remember when you search for something most of the times it would return with a forum post … now its just random websites … if you ever need real and concise answer you have to add site:reddit.com at every search and since discord or twitter are not crawlable by these search crawlers they are not mentioned . Where did all those forums went…are there still active forums ?

  • BudFactory@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Discord is pretty much the worst thing that happened to readily available information on the internet (when it comes to games and tech in general at least). No, I don’t wanna join your very specific niche server and use a search function worse than any forum back in the days had in hope to find the information I want.

    Also Google got way worse, but that‘s no secret.

      • BudFactory@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        That‘s not even all. The process now is something like:

        Search on Google: no answer -> search on Google with Reddit.com appended: no answer -> search on Google with Reddit and Discord Server appended: click through 3 expired invitation links -> finally find a working one: scroll through pages and pages of memes and rule34 content to find the answer you wanted

        I want my searchable forums and bulletin boards back ffs.

        • Wogi@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Search Google-> 5 YouTube videos pinned to the top

          Search Google with Reddit appended -> deleted comments in a thread 5 years old not even about my specific problem

          Search duck duck go -> numerous highly detailed websites that may or may not be related to my specific problem

          • eric@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The number of those comments that are deleted sure went up a couple of months ago. I wonder what happened 🤔

        • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          People falling back behind closed or private barriers for guaranteed human to human interaction and information as AI rises is more and more likely in the future … IMO.

        • Solarius@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 year ago

          you can search specific channels on discord. if you’re seeing memes and r34 while searching for something in a hub server for a game or something then you’re not searching correctly. or the thing you’re trying to find info on is so niche and poorly organized they have 1 channel.

    • ikidd@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Discord is like using SMS to run something like Stack Overflow. When subreddits were moving off Reddit (which is good), some were talking about moving to Discord and I could not understand why anyone would think that was a comparable migration option.

    • HipHoboHarold@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I love Discord for gaming with friends. I don’t mind some programs using it for releasing things. Like I play Session(skateboarding sim) a decent amount. It’s usually used for people throwing up custom maps and mods.

      But anytime people talk about going to a discord to really discuss things and keep up with them, I’m just gonna move on.

      • tehmics@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Discord is just not suitable for any group larger than a WoW guild. I don’t understand why anyone would ever think it’s a good idea for software/mod projects. Anything that needs to be searched should not be on discord

    • SkyNTP@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      “Join our discord”.

      No I don’t think I will. I don’t want to chat. I want to RTFM.

    • TimoBRL@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Two months ago I started using Kagi as a Google alternative. It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes not having to wade through a list of sponsored links first and actually getting the results I want.

      • qaz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        $10 a month seems a lot for a search engine, but maybe it’s just because I’ve gotten used to all of them being free.

      • shortwavesurfer@monero.town
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        1 year ago

        I am on kagi’s free trial right now actually. Honestly i thought i searched more than i have so far. I have been on the 100 search trial for like 3-4 days now and have only used like 11 or 12 searches. I never paid attention to how much i searched before. The great thing is that they accept crypto now.