He's asking if there's a requirement that Xk actually writes the forum software instead of using a pre-made bit of forum software (like what we're using now) were he to establish a new community.



I don't think large forums have ever been really good for maintaining a "private" space. Forums, by their nature, are generally intended to house more than a dozen users. In order to keep things private, you have a couple private subforums, usually devoted to staff matters. The issue at hand here is that the super subforums on this board stopped really being private subforums for <12 individuals and more like a "cool kids club" for people we liked or trusted more than the rest. Suddenly the private subforums became slightly less private. Even though the people in them knew each other and for the most part fully trusted each other, the thought still comes up that there's stuff you don't want to share even to the hand-picked super users. At that point, you're just repeating everything again, except now you have "regular users" "super users" and "extra special users" in a third, even more secretive subforum.

There's a very hard balance to strike between openness and privacy in regards to forums. That's why so many people had personal blogs even during the age of forums. Now blogs have been replaced with Twitter and Tumblr except in the case of Tumblr you can really choose who to let in, leading to its own source of issues like hugboxing. Will we see forums become more popular again as people slowly start looking for the privacy of smaller forums in lieu of "always on, always sharing" social media platforms? Who knows, but you might see a small uptick.

____________________

I think I was looking for the term echo chamber. I've probably been on SA too long.

Having supportive friends is not a bad thing, believe me I know. in my opinion it can become an issue when some people take it too far and create a space where absolutely no conflicting opinions are allowed in for whatever reason. It doesn't seem healthy to seclude yourself to that point for a long period of time. I've never been in that situation though so I'm not exactly the best authority on the matter.

____________________

I took a look at some other older communities I've since left behind.

SMWCentral seems to be doing okay in general. Activity is lower compared to a few years ago, sure, but at least it still seems to have activity. Bunch of names I still recognize on the staff team or just regular users. Crazy that I first joined it back in late 2006/early 2007. Even crazier is that they continue to host their annual Level Design Contest, which I started back in 2008 and ran for 5 years before turning it over when I left.

A Minecraft community I joined in 2011 that had formed around the then-growing Hat Films youtube channel (who are now huge and part of the Yogscast with nearly 900K subs) seems to be dying a slow death. The channel doesn't play minecraft any longer because all three of them grew tired of the game. There are still a few names there that I recognize but considering their MC servers are currently at 0/150 users online on a Sunday evening the community site doesn't look like it'll be around for that much longer. It's too bad. I have a lot of good memories of that place from years ago when the community was smaller and we all knew each others's names.

Digging up your internet history is depressing sometimes.

____________________