Active Forums on the Web

[Tuffy]

This is a community curated list of active forums on the internet.

It is linked to the Forum Revival Movement which has been discussed here @ The32bitCafé.

You can join our guild to show your love & support for forums and the forum culture in general. If you like, you might be as well able to join the core team and engage within the movement even more.

Do you speak English and another language on top? That’s great. You should help us to curate the list of forums for your country / region. If you are interested, send me a PM here on this forum or at our guilds place.

Let’s fight for an enjoyable internet culture!

This community-curated list is inspired by @xandra & @yequari’s great Resources List (thanks for bringing up the idea @juette)

I’m not sure how I could enable the ability for other forum members to edit this post. Maybe this has to be done by someone else.

I truly hope this will have an impact on the great culture of web forums that needs to be revitalized. Forums help people connect and share knowledge - That’s what everyone of us should do IMHO.

from Tuffy with

Active Forums List

General Discussion

Agora Road’s Macintosh Cafe - Very Old OG Forum for discussion of media, philosophy, and whatever, really… “the internet’s best kept secret” (has a really awesome webring, too)

awful.systems - Active group of forums that were subreddits but migrated off the platform a few years ago. All are very snarky forums that are critical of tech fascism and AI hype.

Basementcommunity - Basementcommunity is an active message board for talking about general things and specific things okay?

Cookdandbombd - Dedicated to British comedy shows but has all the usual boards too, with a community of regulars.

Foro Coches - Initially a Spanish webforum based around cars, today it’s the largest webforum still hosted in Spain, with a larger range of topics

Knockout! - A spinoff of the now-dead Facepunch forums. Here you’ll find comedy, politics, video games and various other creative topics.

quxnet - General discussion with a strong emphasis on participation. Old web-oriented with features like an 88x31 editor. Private (requires invite or intermittent open registration).

sickos - Casual general discussion board that emerged from the tildeverse.

Something Awful - Longstanding internet fixture. Free to read but $10 to post.

The Straight Dope - A general forum spun-off from the eponymous question-and-answer newspaper column-turned-website.

Urban75 - Long-standing and very active forum based in Brixton, London. Common topics of discussion are music and politics (with a progressive/radical bent).

The WELL - Groundbreaking general discussion board. Paid members only.

Animals & Pets

Fishlore - Saltwater and freshwater aquarium fish discussion.

PetSnails - Slow but active.

The Planted Tank Forum - A forum for planted freshwater aquarium enthusiasts.

Rabbits Online - A forum for rabbit owners with topics about rabbit care, health, diet and much.

Anime & Manga

Dynasty Reader Forum - Yuri manga. The forum’s software feels like an afterthought, but the community is quite active (and contentious).

Something Eternal - Revolutionary Girl Utena fan forum, sister site to the ohtori.nu fan archive.

Art

Comic Fury Webcomic Hosting Forum - Very Active forum for a webcomic hosting community / service.

Lost Media Wiki Forums - A Place to discuss and share all forms of obscure, found, and lost media.

MelonLand Forum - A forum to discuss all types of art and creative projects.

Recolor.me Forums - A place to create avatars, play minigames, and have discussions with your friends or the site’s community.

YellowTealPurple - A general art and discussion forum for creatives.

Boats

Boat Design Forums - Boat design and boat building forum.

The WoodenBoat Forum - Wooden boat building and restoration, run by the WoodenBoat magazine.

Books & E-Books

LibraryThing - A very active forum for everything books.

MobileRead - A very active forum, for ebooks, ebook readers, ebook software, creating ebooks, etc.

Computers

Bleeping Computer Forum - Anything computer related and more can be discussed here. Questions are usually answered in a timely manner. A place for pros and noobs to hang around and discuss about hardware and software related (nerdy) stuff.

Frutiger Aero Archive - Active forum for a 2000s computing archive.

LowEndTalk - Discussions on cheap web hosting and hosting providers.

Drugs

Mr. Nice Forum - A cultivated place to discuss about cultivating cannabis, cannabis genetics and strain related topics. Led by one of the most influential and trustworthy characters of the cannabis scene (especially in the golden old school era of the 80s and 90s in the Netherlands), Shantibaba.

Fandom Misc.

TFW2005’s Boards - Forum that is all about the Transformers franchise, and has been around AND still active since 2003.

Gaming

Bayside Gamers - Active but slower pace.

The Bell Tree - Animal Crossing related forum, features a subforum for discussions about Nintendo games and acts as a hub for trading and meeting New Horizons players online.

Cave of the Dragonflies - An active and (10+ years) old forum for discussion of the world of Pokemon.

Dragon Cave Forums - Official forums for Dragon Cave, an adoptables game.

GamingDNA - Lots of unique custom stuff here.

GBAtemp - Gaming forum with a focus on modding, homebrew, and hacking.

ResetEra - Very active gaming community with a progressive bent.

RetroGameTalk - Insanely active retro gaming forum.

Romhacking.net - Rom hacking (video game modification).

Serebii dot net Forums - Another Pokemon discussion forum that has also been around for at least a decade

Stardew Valley Forums - Official forums for the game Stardew Valley

Terraria Community Forums - Official forum for the game Terraria and tModLoader.

Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages Forum - Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (Wiki) forum, everything about TES series!

Zelda Dungeon - An active Legend of Zelda focused forum for fans and active players.

Language

Project Babel Forum - Particularly rich on Semitic languages and North African dialects. It’s surprisingly active!

Miniature Wargaming

Chaos Dwarfs Online - Considers itself as the world’s largest and most committed fan group for everything related to Chaos Dwarfs, Helsmiths of Hashut, Infernal Dwarfs, Abyssal Dwarfs & co.

DakkaDakka - Active Warhammer, Warmachine and Flames of War related forum.

Specialist Arms - Semi active wargaming forum

YakTribe.games - A community for miniature and board games with a focus on offering tools for creating and managing Necromunda gangs, campaigns & battles. A good place to discuss about modelling, painting & terrain creation.

Model making

ModelbouwForum (NL) - Active model making forum (Dutch language)

Music & Subculture

555-5555 - Focused on electronic music and dance music. Low activity.

Anarcho-Punk.net - Anarchist crust-punk discussion and sharing board.

DIY Conspiracy - DIY punk, hardcore & underground music forum.

Dogs on Acid - A UK based forum established in 2001 on Drum and Bass music.

DubCNN.com - “Westcoast News Network”, was created in 2001 and still has an active forum to discuss music, mostly West Coast based hip hop.

ktt2 - KanyeToThe Forums successor which is still active.

Metal Forum - Relatively active general heavy metal forum.

soEMO Emo Scene Community - Moderately active emo hub.

VampFreaks - Successor to the classic VampireFreaks goth forum and seemingly pretty active.

Perfume & Fragrance

Base Notes - The world’s longest-running fragrance forum.

Fragrantica - Perfume, fragrance, and aromatherapy.

Ouddict - Agarwood and agarwood oils (oud), fine fragrance, and incense.

Photography

Dpreview Forums - One of the most frequented forums for amateur photographers, professionals and pixelpeepers. A lot of knowledge about cameras, lenses and accessories is shared here including in-depth reviews and user made tutorials.

Roleplaying

Iwaku role play! - Iwaku is Japanese for Story. This site was started by a bunch of roleplayers from many different sites to create a new and active playground.

Science Fiction & Fantasy

SFFChronicles - Very active forum. It has everything from book to gaming discussions, a busy movie section. This forum is the brainchild of fantasy writer Brian Turner btw.

Sports

FSUniverse - Figure skating.

Watches

These are all very active. Watch guys love forums.

The Dive Watch Connection - Primarily for dive watches, but also has general watch discussion.

Omega Watch Forums - Primarily for Omega-brand watches, but also has general watch discussion.

Rolex Forums - Primarily for Rolex-brand watches, but also has general watch discussion.

TimeZone.com - 30+ year-old general watch forum. Also hosts an IRL convention.

WatchForum.com - General watch discussion with a “free speech”/anti-social media curmudgeonly bent.

The Watch Site - Primarily for Seiko- and Citizen-brand watches.

Watch Talk Forums - A slightly less active general watch forum.

WatchUSeek - General watch community. Maybe the most active? Seems to be connected somehow to The Watch Site and Watch Talk Forums.

Webmastery, Old Web, and Web Revival

32-Bit-Café - Community of like-minded website hobbyists and professionals helping to make the personal web fruitful and bountiful again. Offers a lot more than only the forum.

The Admin Zone - An old school forum for admins and webmasters that has been around since over two decades and is still pretty active.

Forum Promotion - Advertising, administration, and discovery.

MelonLand Forum - Has a lot of old web enthusiasts as a userbase and offers webdesign related topics and gives great inspiration for personal homepages.

Treefort - Indie web-oriented cozy general discussion.

Youth Culture 2000 - A retro webcore themed forum that is relatively active, dedicated to the y2k era of aesthetics online.

Up-and-Coming

Forums recently established by members that might not qualify as “active” yet.

Empty Lobby - General discussion forum by @enesemp (thread).

LonePortal - All-in-one Y2K-style intraweb by @Xyphien (thread).

Your help is appreciated

Below are entries that have been added but have no (proper) description yet or have to be categorized. You can edit the OP yourself and help make this list better.

Needs description

The Miniatures Page (does not work over HTTPS)

Needs investigation

Hip Forums - General discussion board for hippies and fellow travelers that tended to focus on recreational drug use and sex. Is it dead or still kicking behind the loginwall?

If anyone is really into watches and can give better descriptions of the different forums’ angles, that would be good.

Needs ingestion

cpvr’s and Garystu’s posts.

This list of nearly 200 indie forums.

[Tuffy]

You can edit my 1st post to add a forum to this list. This is a community wiki now - thanks to @xandra

I don’t mind adding your recommendation manually if you like to post it as a regular reply. This way, the thread gets recommended to more users, which I think is a good thing.

You can actually do both, edit and post a reply. I would also encourage you to share your opinions about one or more forums in this list, as this would be another good way to keep this thread active.

please don’t forget to add a proper description for the forum you recommend. It can be quite hard to understand what a forum is all about and what makes it unique as an outsider.

Thanks for your support.

[MundusImaginalis]

This is a great initiative, and I’ve been looking for more forums. I’ve found Cheapskates’ Guide helpful for me. I’ve made accounts on Basement Community and Chronicles.

[mattl]

Miniature wargaming related forums

• DakkaDakka
• Specialist Arms
• Yaktribe
• Chaos Dwarfs Online
• The Miniatures Page (does not work over HTTPS)

General forums:

• The WELL (paid membership required)

[xandra]

made this a wiki & moved this to general community wiki, a new category. :)

[fLaMEd]

@mattl

DakkaDakka

straight up doesn’t load for me?

[mattl]

Typo. Works now :)

https://www.dakkadakka.com/ (from the noise orks believe their guns make IIRC)

[armaina]

Iwaku role play is one of the most incredibly robust roleplay forums, if you want a roleplay forum section..

https://www.iwakuroleplay.com/

[yequari]

These are great additions! It would be helpful if you all add them to the OP, which has been turned into a wiki post.

[enesemp]

Since many here enjoy forums, I thought this would be a great place to introduce mine for the first time. I have been working on it since months, on and off, and I finally feel ready to share it for atleast testing purposes (Im still working on it). While it is not a professional-level forum, it is a heartfelt personal project of mine. At the very least, it is functional I hope.

(go to the forum tab to visit the forum) https://emptylobby.neocities.org/ . Feel free to leave a comment there and to check it out.

[Tuffy]

Thank you for all your contributions to the list !

I updated the OP manually.

We still have to decide what we are going to consider as an active forum.

My suggestion:

Very active - new posts are being made daily
Active - new posts are being made on a regular base, at least weekly
Semi active - there are new posts from time to time (weekly to monthly)
Low activity - New posts occur only every few months

What is your opinion on displaying the activity level of a forum in general?

I can imagine that people won’t click on links to forums that are marked as semi active. On the other hand, when people click on the link without knowing about the activity level of that particular forum, they may find out about it on the forum site and leave in disappointment.

The whole point of the Forum Revival Movement is to encourage users to get active in forums and even revive the ones, that don’t have an active user base anymore.

[juette]

@Tuffy

What is your opinion on displaying the activity level of a forum in general?

idk if its a good idea cause it means having to check the whole list every so often to be sure that activity levels are still accurate which adds a lot of effort

[varve]

hmm, if the forum has an rss feed you could display the most recent post date pretty easily. But idk how many forums offer that.

[Tuffy]

I’ve updated the project page. Still have some forums to add but the list is getting bigger

Thank you for your recent edit @juette and @everybody else participating as well ofc

You can join the Forum Revival Guild on the Melonland Forum. We use this as the temporary channel to coordinate actions and stay in touch. @xandra Is anything like that possible here on the 32bit Café as well? Like a separate area or the possibility to stay in contact as a group?

@varve , thanks for the hint. Many forums offer a rss feed. I still have to think about the implementation. A short info with the date of the latest post wouldn’t hurt I guess. Do you think this is a good idea?

[ABlueRose]

zeldadungeon(dot)net/forum is an active Legend of Zelda focused one! It has an RSS feed as well

[Tuffy]

Glad you made it here @ABlueRose :-)

You can edit the OP yourself to add forums yourself by using Markup / or the built in editor. I will add the forum you suggested now

[malifee]

added two forums to the list there, and a new section for music related forums. will add more if I come across more….

[effigies]

Resetera seems ok for gaming, it seems to be have an overall progressive bent.

PetSnails (https://petsnails.proboards.com/) seems slow nowadays but looks good.

iNaturalist has a message board to go along with it, there’s different sections for discussing nature and trading tips.

[Garystu]

Sorry about this.

And by “this” I mean listing almost every active forum I’m aware of.

I couldn’t figure out how to edit the original post, and a lot of my descriptions are bad, so somebody else do it. Write better descriptions if you’re more familiar with these sites than me. Somehow these results are curated - I also know dead forums, I know forums which get five posts a year, I know really bad forums, I know things.

The Straight Dope forums - A general forum spun-off from the eponymous question-and-answer newspaper column turned website.

GBATemp - A gaming forum, with a focus on video game modding, homebrew, and hacking.

Romhacking dot Net forums - A forum for general game romhacking.

Something Awful - ten bux

Fark - News and current affairs link aggregator and discussion. It’s not news, its Fark.

Duke4- Unofficial Duke Nukem fan forum.

Deltarune Unofficial Message Boards - Unofficial Undertale and Deltarune fan forum.

Larian Studios Forum - Official Larian forum. Larian are the developers of videogames like the Divinity series and Balder’s Gate 3.

Vintage Story Forums - Official Vintage Story forum. Vintage Story is a voxel-based sandbox survival game inspired by and often compared to Minecraft. The forums focus on discussion of the game, including storytelling and modding.

Bay 12 Games Forum - Official forum for Bay 12 Games, mostly focused on their best-known title, Dwarf Fortress. Storytelling with Dwarf Fortress is a particular interest members have.

Adventure Game Hotspot Forum - Adventure game fan forum. Spiritual successor to the now defunct Adventure Gamers forum, if you remember that one. For all adventure games old and new, but I won’t lie the userbase skews mostly towards old 80s/90s Sierra and Lucasarts adventure games.

Mix ‘n’ Mojo - Another adventure game fan forum, focused on 80’s/90’s LucasArts games like Monkey Island, Sam and Max, and the Indiana Jones adventure games.

Minecraft Forum - Once official, but now unofficial Minecraft forum. Minecraft is a voxel-based sandbox game, and needs no introduction.

Planet Minecraft - Unofficial Minecraft forum focused on creating skins and datapacks for others to enjoy. Userbase skews younger.

Pokemon Community Forums - Official Pokemon forum. Skews young, with strict moderation which only lets you discuss official Pokemon products in an all-ages corporate friendly way. If you can live with this, its a fine place for official Pokemon related discussion.

Pokecommunity - Unofficial Pokemon fan forum, with general Pokemon discussion and a strong romhacking community.

Seribii dot Net Forums - Unofficial Pokemon fan forum, which is general but ends up leaning towards game guides and Pokemon anime discussion.

Eevee Expo - Pokemon fan game forum, focusing on a suite of tools called Pokemon Essentials. Unofficial to the Pokemon franchise, but official to the Pokemon Essentials dev team.

Kanzenshuu the Forum - Dragon Ball Z franchise fan forum. I only know it as the home of high-effort anime fan cuts, but it probably has other things going for it, somebody else write the blurb.

SMW Central Forum - Forum for Super Mario World Central, a romhacking site. You can find romhacks tutorials resources u know the stuff.

TASVideos Forum - Forum for TASVideos, a form of videogame superplay using emulator tools. Each game has its own megathread where users post new discoveries and WIP TASes.

Startrek dot Website - A forum for fans of Star Trek and/or Doctor Who.

Sims 4 Studio - A forum for Sims 4 modding tool Sims 4 Studio. Contains discussions, tutorials, and showcases of Sims modding.

Vivaldi Community - Official forum for the Vivaldi web browser.

Ace Attorney Online - Ace Attorney fan forum dedicated to the eponymous fancase maker Ace Attorney Online. Lots of fan game discussion, not so much source material discussion. Has boards for French, Spanish, and Dutch speakers, but those are significantly less active than the English language boards.

RPG Maker Web Forums - Official forum for the RPG Maker series of software. Contains discussion of RPG Maker gamedev, and free assets for devs to use.

Starmen dot Net Forums - Forums for the unofficial Earthbound fansite Starmen, which contain discussions of those games. Also hosts an official Undertale section, but the Undertale discussion here is significantly less active than on the Deltaboards fansite.

TIGForums - Forums of the Independent Gaming Source (TIGSource). Long-running general independent gamedev discussion forum.

Gaia Online - A long running general/anime/roleplay forum where users create their own character with items purchased from their virtual shop.

Recolor Me - A general forum inspired by Gaia Online, where you also create your own character with items purchased from a virtual shop. They call these avatar sites, you know.

Blender Artists - Unofficial art discussion forum for the users of the Blender 3D software.

Krita Artists - Official art discussion forum for users of the Krita digital illustration software.

Aesprite - Official art discussion forum for users of the Aesprite pixel art software.

Inkscape Forum - Official art discussion forum for users of the Inkscape vector illustration software.

Dragon’s Den - Unofficial Dragon Quest fan forum.

Discourse Meta - An support forum for the Discourse forums software.

Mario Boards - Unofficial discussion of the Super Mario franchise, and general gaming discussion.

No Homer’s Club - Unofficial The Simpsons fan forum.

Linus Tech Tips - Official forum for the Linus Tech Tips Youtube channel.

Ars Open Forum - Forum for Ars Technica, a tech news website.

The Deviantart Forum - Forum for users of the art site Deviantart.

Proboards Support - The support forum of forum hosting provider Proboards.

The LifeStream - Unofficial Final Fantasy VII forum.

[frugalgamer]

Man, I do love a good list, and this is an excellent one. Thank you for all the annotations and for sharing!