Ya its sad..

The only big mainstream site thats still about and still as popular all these years later is city-data.com/forum and I think its because they havent changed anything!

I mentioned several ones still existing in my previous post in this topic. Some of those forums I actively participate in or read.

To some extent, Reddit can be considered a collection of seperate forums too.
Of course there is some interaction between those subreddits, but they are more or less stand-alone discussion boards. I feel they are a lot more user-friendly than a Facebook group.

Sadly enough, a lot of previously existing discussion boards moved to a Facebook group, which is a lot less user-friendly. Also, even some websites were taken offline with their domain name now redirecting to a Facebook page. I miss the days when artists, sports clubs, etc had actual websites instead of relying on Instagram or Facebook accounts/pages. Luckily many artists, sports clubs, athletes, etc still have their own website, but especially at amateur level I see a lot shifting towards Facebook and Instagram. Thereby forcing their fans to also use those platforms, while maybe some fans prefer not to but have no other choice if they want to stay updated about their favourite band, musician, sports club, athlete, TV host, comedian, ...

For the same reason I didn't delete my account on X just yet, even though I last signed in over 3 years ago. The account is still existing should I ever want to use it again, and this is only because so many interesting people, clubs and associations are still using X as primary channel of communication.
I prefer BlueSky all the way.

Is this discussion still only about "free" forums?

If so what does "free" refer to? The software that runs the forum?

Even if that's financially free ... the server(s) & bandwidth used by such forums are unlikely to cost the provider nothing - even if users don't have to pay.

Some forums need an owner or administrator to pay for the forum to be present. Then the users, the people who join and become members of the forum can do it for free (no fee).

ohh! Like to add: Something like Proboards allows people to use the site to setup a forum, and for free (unless this changed in the last few years).

I used to participate on a number of forums. Now it's vastly reduced to just a small handful of forums I regularly frequent (This one included).

It's mostly because the forum has gone away or taken over by bots and idiots. A few because I no long have interest in the topics discussed. For example gaming forums or software forum for stuff I no longer use.

To focus on some well-known forums, although which do not focus on email, be aware of very active bleepingcomputer.com/forums and howardforums.com Real people participate on those.

bleeping computer is ridiculous! (And some othrers)

I log in and it says to re-verify my email address.. I CANT DO ANYTHING UNLESS I DO!!

Well the email address I used there IS GONE so how am I gonna verify it??


I havent been able to use bleepingcomputer in awhile due to this stupidity!!

You might try to look for a way to find through the site how to contact an administrator to find if person could help. You might, if you were interested enough, create a new account on whichever forum (BleepingComputer).

For forums you actively use and intend to keep using, I recommend using a contact email address that you either check regularly or at least keep the account existing by signing in before you reach the inactivity limit.

When we're talking about accounts you only created for once-off usage, then there is no harm in using another email account to sign up, or even an email address that automatically deletes itself after a day (like GuerillaMail provided).

But forums you plan to keep using, better use an email address to sign up with that you also intend to keep using.



Maybe if you contact the forum administrators they can help you recover your account access.
Otherwise you can always re-sign up with a new functioning email address.



There's still enough real discussion forums around that are widely used. But the number definitely used to be bigger before Facebook groups came into existence.
The downside of those is that you're either forced to have a Facebook account too, or that you're basically cut off from participating in debates. You have to decide for yourself what you think is worse.

Note I mentioned a couple of forums, specific ones. The arranged user interface or structure presented to the visitor (as well as any of its visiting members) is a fundamental way which makes such forums GOOD or EXCELLENT, at least for knowing how to find things. I do not know what that arrangement or structuring is called. But I have seen other forums of various kinds which are not put together well and I do not like to try to use them.

A side from this forum, there are my most frequent as in daily forums. Private forums excluded.

https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/

There are about a dozen more that are bookmarks but only visit occasionally.

Its just getting riciculous how hard they are making it when things used to be so easy!

RIght now im using Chrome 49.0.2623.112 (64-bit) (Mac laptop) and many things wont work on it and this is a much newer browser than IE6 is!!

Expected that many of us faced what you have. The older the browser version, and the older the operating system you use, the more likely one of them or the combination of them will not work well for some of your desired online forums. I had in the few past years tried to enjoy Pale Moon browser on Windows Vista for some forums, but at some time point, the forums of choice were unworkable. For good results, you want a more up to date O.S. AND a more modern version of browser preferably Google Chrome or Firefox. Or some modern alternative.