There are so many niche forums.

Here's one I found a while ago when I was looking at repairing an old electric fan I found: Antique Fan Collector's Forum.

In the way that people would always add "reddit" to their searches, try just adding "forum".

Usually something hyper specific. This was a few years ago but I found a very bustling community forum for appliance repair. I posted a question on how to fix my oven and got very detailed answers and technical info involving the circuit board and heating element and troubleshooting steps. Unfortunately the general consensus on there is that for a lot of appliances, the board needs replaced which may or may not be available, and if it is, costs damn near what a new appliance does. Which is obviously done on purpose to drive sales.

The other one I know is my friend will participate on one for modding Toyota Yaris cars.

Bodybuilding / fitness forums are still pretty active.

All of these tend to have subreddit or Lemmy equivalents however.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/ btw

I regularly visit https://vogons.org/ to talk about retro computers.

Special interest forums still hold.

For me, the Royal Enfield motorbike forums are exceptionally good, and that's largely down to the admin. There's also a Series 2 Land Rover forum that has a unique collection of people with a phenomenal combined knowledge about that car.

I've hosted a few in my time - since the early 90s and Fidonet when BBSs were the thing. But things change. Facebook killed of a whole bunch way before Reddit and Lemmy just because that's where people were already, and it was easier for them to feel involved. Facebook is impossible to search, though, so the post history of a forum that was so useful has gone entirely.

It's sad, but things change. What's constant is people's desire to socialise and discuss topics they are interested in. I'm kind of curious what that will be next.

OpenStreetMap Community Forum

• love2d forums: https://love2d.org/forums/
• luanti forums: https://www.luanti.org/get-involved/
• joplin forums: https://discourse.joplinapp.org/
• All these prior links are very specific to one piece of software. So as you see, they all seem very focused and it depends on your interest in them.
• ramble https://ramble.pw/
• cant be really called a forum, but it is a link aggregator on tech-news https://news.ycombinator.com/news

https://tildes.net/ is still quite active and while the interface is similar to old reddit the focus is more on discussions than sharing links.

It seems that this might be useful to add to this pile of information:

https://meta.discourse.org/t/federation-support-for-discourse/90921

Does anyone remember Megalinks on Reddit? They started a forum after it was shut down, I was lucky enough to get invited before they closed registration. The forums are still very active and it's the best community I've experienced online. I spend as much time there as I do here.

cs rin.ru and ltt foums

I used to use RPG.net a lot. They have pretty strict moderation, which keeps the place from turning into some kinds of shit holes. But you also can't tell someone they're a fool, or all Republicans are traitors. Takes some getting used to, but is probably worth it.

Gbatemp is one.

Retrogametalk and segaxtreme

There are a few cannabis related ones, though activity is here or there on one or two. UK420, THCTalk, ICMag, GrowCity, etc.

Gallifrey Base, sometimes 😌🤓

Techlore forums and privacy guide

The Gear Page is very active as are sister sites like strat forums, my les paul etc

Talk photography

Fred Miranda photography forums

Av forums

Watchuseek

What HiFi

I used to live on the winamp forums, but I haven't for a long time and it's pretty dead now.

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/

Excellent forums. I have been a member for five years and it has been fantastic.

The Android rom ones like xda forums are active.

This is definitely not what you’re looking for but college sports forums are active if you want to read the dumbest shit ever.

I’m from Louisiana so I’ll pick on my own team and link to to Tiger Droppings:

https://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/lsu-sports/

The recipe posts are actually good. It’s basically a forum for insane people who get mad about LSU gymnastics recruiting but then post an alligator sauce picante recipe that’s better than anything you’ve ever put in your mouth.

Spacebattles is still alive.

Nexusmods "forums" and pages still have some social activity.

TBH it’s pretty barren. I noticed that even comment sections are drying up.

https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/

tildes seems pretty active

spacebattles as well

and the dwarf fortress forum, too

I know this won't interest most lemmy users, but the forums for most large american colligate sports programs are alive and well.

The EndeavourOS forum to give support (I use base Arch, but they're close enough), the Lutris forums, and Blenderartists. Stackoverflow and similar services, and various issue trackers, if you count those.

Larger open-source projects tend to have forums. Here's a few off the top of my head:

• https://forum.luanti.org/
• https://tavern.dcss.io/
• https://users.rust-lang.org/ (and https://internals.rust-lang.org/ )
• https://forums.opensuse.org/

cs.rin.ru

The only two that I ever still make use of are XDA for custom firmwares and other Android related shit. And Pokecommunity for the ROM hacking / decompilation stuff.

• https://budgetlightforum.com/ flashlights et cetera
• so many automotive forums
• https://eevblog.com/forum electronics engineering
• https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/ audio, lots of diy
• https://www.finishing.com/ - metal anodising/plating/finishing. This incredible forum has been running since before the internet, originally a BBS.
• https://www.automaticwasher.org/ washing machines and dishwashers
• https://elektrotanya.com/ electronics repair

Blenderartists.org for blender news, learning, and sharing of addons and stuff