Welcome! I made a forum.
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 7:28 am
Hey everyone! As you can see, I've set up a forum.
...Okay, I know what you're thinking. Why would I set up an internet forum in the year 2022? As a content creator, shouldn't I just direct people towards a Discord server or subreddit like everyone else?
Honestly, I miss forums. Some of my best memories from the Olde Internet were on tech forums that have now gone the way of the Internet Wayback Machine. I know that plenty of forums are still around, but in general they've very much lost their prevalence to the aforementioned Discord servers and subreddits, which I think is kind of a shame.
I'm not really a fan of "public Discord servers". 99% of the time you join them, mute them, and never look at them again, because whatever conversation/group of people that does talk there is something you were never a part of; you just happened to suddenly appear in the middle of it. Ultimately I feel like instant messaging, while great for a small group of friends, isn't really a good way for hundreds or thousands of people to talk to each other.
Subreddits are also a little too "social media" for me. I've grown tired of ~algorithms~ choosing what I do or don't get to see - algorithms written by massive corporations whose primary goal is to keep you on the platform and seeing ads for as long as possible. Subreddits are also generally very insular, having to focus on a single topic so they don't get disorganized, with very few shared users between them. A forum, on the other hand, can be much broader in scope with the same userbase, allowing for much more cross-pollination between ideas and subcommunities.
While undoubtedly some of my fondness for forums is nostalgia, for a while I've also been wanting a place where I (and others) can post and discuss things like tech/game modding research/discoveries in a way that's well-organized (unlike a subreddit), easy to write for (unlike a blog/wiki), and doesn't disappear up the endless scroll of an instant messenger like Discord, hidden away from public view and search engines. I've been in too many situations where I've struggled to find information about modding a game by searching for it, eventually finding a Discord invite link in the middle of nowhere containing a modding community for it, only to join and still have no real idea what they've actually done or are working on, because to figure that out I have to scroll through months of them Just Chatting™ to find any of their actual work.
So I've set up a forum. While it is on my website and (partially) named after me (no, this forum is not for residents of Kansas City), I actually don't want it to predominantly be about me and what I'm interested in. Obviously the community here will originate from my audience and probably initially springboard off topics in my videos/streams (hence the LEGO Island section), but my ultimate goal is for this to be the kind of place that all sorts of people can join and talk about hacking and modding games/tech. Obviously it won't be for everyone - forums didn't fall out of favor for no reason, and the convenience of Discord servers and subreddits is undeniable - but for people interested in joining/fostering a community of curious and enthusiastic modders, I highly encourage you to join and stick around.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy what's to come!
...Okay, I know what you're thinking. Why would I set up an internet forum in the year 2022? As a content creator, shouldn't I just direct people towards a Discord server or subreddit like everyone else?
Honestly, I miss forums. Some of my best memories from the Olde Internet were on tech forums that have now gone the way of the Internet Wayback Machine. I know that plenty of forums are still around, but in general they've very much lost their prevalence to the aforementioned Discord servers and subreddits, which I think is kind of a shame.
I'm not really a fan of "public Discord servers". 99% of the time you join them, mute them, and never look at them again, because whatever conversation/group of people that does talk there is something you were never a part of; you just happened to suddenly appear in the middle of it. Ultimately I feel like instant messaging, while great for a small group of friends, isn't really a good way for hundreds or thousands of people to talk to each other.
Subreddits are also a little too "social media" for me. I've grown tired of ~algorithms~ choosing what I do or don't get to see - algorithms written by massive corporations whose primary goal is to keep you on the platform and seeing ads for as long as possible. Subreddits are also generally very insular, having to focus on a single topic so they don't get disorganized, with very few shared users between them. A forum, on the other hand, can be much broader in scope with the same userbase, allowing for much more cross-pollination between ideas and subcommunities.
While undoubtedly some of my fondness for forums is nostalgia, for a while I've also been wanting a place where I (and others) can post and discuss things like tech/game modding research/discoveries in a way that's well-organized (unlike a subreddit), easy to write for (unlike a blog/wiki), and doesn't disappear up the endless scroll of an instant messenger like Discord, hidden away from public view and search engines. I've been in too many situations where I've struggled to find information about modding a game by searching for it, eventually finding a Discord invite link in the middle of nowhere containing a modding community for it, only to join and still have no real idea what they've actually done or are working on, because to figure that out I have to scroll through months of them Just Chatting™ to find any of their actual work.
So I've set up a forum. While it is on my website and (partially) named after me (no, this forum is not for residents of Kansas City), I actually don't want it to predominantly be about me and what I'm interested in. Obviously the community here will originate from my audience and probably initially springboard off topics in my videos/streams (hence the LEGO Island section), but my ultimate goal is for this to be the kind of place that all sorts of people can join and talk about hacking and modding games/tech. Obviously it won't be for everyone - forums didn't fall out of favor for no reason, and the convenience of Discord servers and subreddits is undeniable - but for people interested in joining/fostering a community of curious and enthusiastic modders, I highly encourage you to join and stick around.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy what's to come!
Let's do the time warp again 
