OT: The Greatest Discussion Boards - Special Places

[bmattock]

I was just thinking about this, since the OT thread about pocket watches reignited my fond memories of TimeZone, where I used to hang out.

There are lots of discussion boards. Few have the mix of people, the depth of knowlege, and the willingness to share that make them "great". RFF is obviously one of those - it stands head and shoulders above...well, above others. There are othere places I've found that have a similar atmosphere and quality to them - for different purposes. So here's my short list - feel free to add to it:

For Rangefinder Cameras (of course): http://www.rangefinderforum.com

For Mechanical Watches, New and Old: http://www.timezone.com

For Unpretentious High-End Audio Gear, New and Old: http://www.audiokarma.org

And believe it or not, that's it. I haven't found any others that 'feel like home' where you make actual, real, friends online - and not just 'this guy I know online'.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[back alley]

how did i miss this post?

i come here.
if i drop in elsewhere it's only for a quick visit.

 

[JoeFriday]

I'll have to check out audiokarma.. sounds like my kind of place

 

[MP Guy]

check out hometheaterdiscussion.com I use to run that site and my close friend has it.

by the way, joe was one of the first to join HTD 🙂

 

[nwcanonman]

And if you can put up with Yahoo, the Kiron Klub is a fun place to talk about all kinds of camera gear and especially "Focusing Fluid" = Guinness of course
~ ; - )

 

[nwcanonman]

And to show I'm involved with the 3 aforementioned subjects.
1. Some of my Rangefinders.
2. The Omega my dad left me.
3. My 1982 Technics SA-828 stereo reciever.
:angel:

 

[JoeFriday]

ironically, I've never been much for discussing home theater.. altho I had a dolby surround system back in 1987.. before dolby-encoded movies were available in VHS.. had to buy them on laserdisc.. these days I'm plenty happy with my Cambridge Audio home theater system.. it occasionally freaks out my guests when something happens in the rear channels and they think someone else is in the house making noise or talking

but tube talk is always fun.. except I know my ears aren't good enough to pick up the nuances that others claim to hear

 

[SteveM(PA)]

The Taylor Guitar Forum used to be a very warm, friendly place. It's gone now though 🙁

Saabnet is renowned as a place to go to get a quick answer to just about any question. But as I was saying to Brett the other day, it is heavily, heavily policed. Long carefully written threads go "poof" with no explanation, leaving everyone disoriented and scared. And then the threads about being disoriented and scared are deleted 😱

I don't feel scared here at all 🙂

 

[cp_ste.croix]

There's a bodybuilding forum I go to which is really warm and supportive as well, though not on par with this place. Users post their training logs and get encouragement and can have any questions they might have answered.

 

[SteveM(PA)]

I guess, of course, there is craigslist too...

Ah...to be somebody's "missed connection".... 😛

 

[eIII]

http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.html

a rather large, but tight, group of fender nuts. it seems like everyone has their fave sub-category (i hang in the bass forum) and "moe's tavern" is the community hangout.

however, this place is definitely special....

-billy

 

[Poptart]

I've been on some of the best forums on the internets. My favorite was started and run by a small group of friends out of Austin. Eventually fearless leader got married, started a blog (which is still going) and lost interest, pulling the plug on the BB. Lately he's gotten divorced and I'm hoping he may revive the forum. Others have tried to re-create it in the meantime with no success. It was very abstract and ineffable.

 

[JoeFriday]

some of my best friends (in real life and online) are people I met in a chat community based on music (bands, songs) discussion.. it was called Firefly.. during its height, it was typical for the site to have 1500 members online at any given moment.. it allowed you to set up your own webpage and decorate it any way you saw fit.. and it provided a weird little mailbox that acted as a scrolling chat system

the most interesting thing about the site was that you could see who was visiting any given webpage at any time.. with links to all the pages of those members

the site actually developed the Passport technology that Microsoft now uses.. Microsoft bought the entire site specifically to strip out that software and shut the site down about 8 years ago.. there were dedication sites set up for members to contact each other after that.. some are probably still out there

Firefly had the same sort of "we're all here to have fun" attitude that RFF has.. I don't think about it much anymore, but it still affects my life through various friendships I have.. and it was also where I originally picked up the username JoeFriday