Is TrekBBS the last of the great scifi message boards?

[Starfleet Engineer]

Ten years ago everyone and their mother had a message board. There were several active Star Trek boards and boards for all the popular scifi shows and more. Almost everything has gone the way of Facebook and more modern social media. Is Trek BBS the last of the great, active, scifi message boards or are there still some large active scifi boards out there?

 

[Chekov's Phaser]

I have no clue how many scifi message boards there are, but I know that theforce.net has a pretty active community. Especially now with all the new material they have to devour. Still find that place half the message board trekbbs is. Don't trust a place where you can't cuss!

 

[Christopher]

Well, there's Tor.com, which is basically a blog, but we have some lively discussions in the comments.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I love TrekBBS.

 

[tomalak301]

I'm non on many message boards but other than being a fan of comic book shows but not reading the comics (thus feeling out of the loop and lost in conversation), this is a good forum.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

GallifreyBase is the home of a large community of Doctor Who fans. Some parts are more rabid than others, but there are a couple of good forums that are worth checking out (those focused on the audio plays).

 

[.:: TSN ::.]

Forums in general seem to be dying away, which is a pity. I still think that forums have advantages to the FB-type stream of messages.

One of the non-scifi boards that I frequently visit just switched their forum softwater to a Question/answer-type board. Some sort of an panic-solution to prevent leaking of users to FB.

 

[Amaris]

Probably not one of the last, but likely one of the last with this format (and plans to continue in this format). I have found trying to hold a conversation on Facebook or Twitter is next to useless, as the format doesn't really allow for in-depth discussion. Of course, it seems most people that I've spoken with on Facebook don't want in-depth discussion, and much prefer the short, simple messages to longer, more involved conversations.

To me, Facebook feels like how you talk at work. TrekBBS, and message boards like her, feel like what you do at the bar. You walk in, sit down, order a drink, and then shoot the breeze with your buddies.

I much prefer message boards like this. My own message board is like this (it's not technically sci-fi, but more fantasy), and I have no intentions of changing that anytime in the near future.

 

[Skywalker]

TheForce.net's Jedi Council forums are still kicking, and they're more active than the Trek BBS. (Granted, Star Wars just had a new movie come out, with a bunch more on the way, but that board was super active even before Disney acquired Lucasfilm.)

 

[HIjol]

Probably not one of the last, but likely one of the last with this format (and plans to continue in this format). I have found trying to hold a conversation on Facebook or Twitter is next to useless, as the format doesn't really allow for in-depth discussion. Of course, it seems most people that I've spoken with on Facebook don't want in-depth discussion, and much prefer the short, simple messages to longer, more involved conversations.

To me, Facebook feels like how you talk at work. TrekBBS, and message boards like her, feel like what you do at the bar. You walk in, sit down, order a drink, and then shoot the breeze with your buddies.

I much prefer message boards like this. My own message board is like this (it's not technically sci-fi, but more fantasy), and I have no intentions of changing that anytime in the near future.

<orders Color a drink and pulls out his God-given-right-to-own gun and shoots Breeze>

 

[Triskelion]

Good modding makes good social media.
(A slight update to the Robert Frost quote).

I came here from the Analog Science Fiction & Fact forum back when Gardner Dozois was still editing and participating on that forum. With much love and respect for that one, Trekbbs let me joke around a lot more - and there was much less required reading.

I was in Shanghai when Facebook hit the internet, and I am still in Shanghai now (in my final months here, I think); so other social media was never really a part of my life. This forum never ceases to amaze me with some of the talent assembled here, the depth of insights to be gleaned, and the science fiction enrichment to be shared. Every one here should consider yourself "liked" by this guy. With special thanks to all of the mods, with their special talents for keeping it a place you want to hang out in.

One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard,
One faithful harp shall praise thee....

 

[Christopher]

Probably not one of the last, but likely one of the last with this format (and plans to continue in this format). I have found trying to hold a conversation on Facebook or Twitter is next to useless, as the format doesn't really allow for in-depth discussion. Of course, it seems most people that I've spoken with on Facebook don't want in-depth discussion, and much prefer the short, simple messages to longer, more involved conversations.

I find Facebook's format bizarre and clumsy. It's hard to find a comment more than once, it keeps randomly defaulting to "Top Stories" no matter how many times you set it to "Most Recent," it's a crapshoot whether a comment you post will actually reach everyone to begin with... it's horrible. I don't understand why people like it.

 

[Captain Craig]

Not knowing how many "large great ones" there once were it's hard to say. However, even taking bias out of the equation, we've known some boards to just shut down. Marvel & DC both shut down their msg boards. I'm frankly surprised Dynamite still has one, it's not active. Not sure if IDW's is still up.
Used to be a fairly big community at Mania.com, a site that grew from Cinescape Magazine but it shut down last year.

There are some modestly active Transformers boards I pop in on at semi-regular times: TFW2005.com & Seibertron.com but even in the height of the mid 2000's I wouldn't have ranked them as large as our BBS here.
SuperHeroHype is quite large and active still.
ComicBookResources grew due to the shutting down of Marvel/DC, probably ComicVine as well.
IMDB is indeed one of the large great ones but it's a mess of a board that I've all but abandoned. Can't recall my last post there. Same for AICN.com, at once I'd have called that a large one. Still is?
What about RottenTomatoes.com, where would that one rank? Large? I'd think so. I've not posted there in some time either though.

 

[stardream]

Not scifi but I used to belong to a rather active Tolkien board. It has shut down but I'm still friends with a lot of people from those days. We are connected via facebook, blogs etc. I have met some of them in real life. I've been on Gallifrey Base and various other ones for LOST and BSG (and I was here before with another user name) and while I have had fun that experience always stands out.

 

[davejames]

I've tried other boards over the years, and boards that are aimed at more specific franchises (DW, SW, Trek, etc), but this has always been the main one for me. Even if I don't really venture out much beyond the scifi/fantasy section.

 

[JWPlatt]

...[faceboook is] horrible. I don't understand why people like it.

Although, I do not have a Facebook account and generally avoid all social media sites, I can understand when individuals with friends, hobbyists, interest groups, small businesses, and companies don't want to spend their lives dealing with website development, maintenance, and costs while also dealing with freaking crazy people and spambots when there's a free alternative that is maintained for you that is used by half of the global population.

 

[Mudd]

Rpgnet is huge and has active "other media" forums.

 

[ancient]

I find Facebook's format bizarre and clumsy. It's hard to find a comment more than once, it keeps randomly defaulting to "Top Stories" no matter how many times you set it to "Most Recent," it's a crapshoot whether a comment you post will actually reach everyone to begin with... it's horrible. I don't understand why people like it.

Facebook is one of the most poorly designed websites on the internet today. A complete sham. I have an account, but haven't updated it in about 5 years, I only go there thru email notifications, but I try not to touch anything.

 

[Owain Taggart]

There are likely still many out there, but I do really appreciate this community. It feels like it covers all the bases, and I can always expect a discussion of something new and interesting. There's so much variety here, something of everything for everyone, and I feel that's part of why it's so enduring.

I find Facebook's format bizarre and clumsy. It's hard to find a comment more than once, it keeps randomly defaulting to "Top Stories" no matter how many times you set it to "Most Recent," it's a crapshoot whether a comment you post will actually reach everyone to begin with... it's horrible. I don't understand why people like it.

Yeah, anything older than a day or two, and I find anything gets lost in the shuffle. If I want to show someone in the household something, trying to find something in the timeline is painful, and half the time the search function won't even help. It's a system that benefits new content, which makes having convos aweful as slightly older stuff gets pushed off into oblivion. It's just too linear.

 

[Finn]

Not SciFI, but I'm registered for WhiteBlaze.net, a board for those who have an affinity for the Appalachian Trail. But there is quite an elitism among those who have done the thru-hike thing. I do visit time to time as there may be threads with interesting information that might help me with an upcoming hike or camping trip.