
Ask HN: Where to “hang out” online these days? - dfischer
I miss the old feel of IRC. I crave something like HN but an alternative. It could be a site, forum, chat, or something I can’t conceive.<p>Where’s a cool place to hang out these days online and discover interesting content, and people?<p>Maybe it’s still IRC but I haven’t used it in a long time. Maybe a few recommendations?<p>Thanks!
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sjustns
Somewhat related:

I've been thinking about organizing a snail mail letter writing initiative.
Less about fancy stationary and pens and group writing sessions, more about
one on one correspondence. I'd post a reading list, or a specific topic, and
we'd spend a good chunk of time going back and forth to whatever end. Maybe in
time, I'd share addresses (with permission) with other writers when I notice a
common thread so that the conversation can branch out. I'd like to think this
would be a good way to share ideas, and to learn through the act of writing,
one thought after the other. And it would be a great way to practice
handwriting.

Having had the luxury of stepping away from the screen for a few months to
sort out what it is technology is doing to my nervous system, I've been heads
down reading Jacques Ellul, Jean Baudrillard, Lewis Mumford, Marshall McLuhan,
Neil Postman, Daniel Boorstin, Carl Jung, Alan Hayakawa, C. W. Mills, Guy
Debord, Wendell Berry, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, and all sorts of philosophy
from Schopenhauer to Spinoza.

To be honest, I am having a hard time finding people to talk about this stuff
with. That's where the idea comes from. On one hand, it seems like people
don't read much these days. So there's that. And on the other hand, I haven't
found many people who seem concerned about how our habits, behaviors, and
thought patterns are changing in response to our digital environments.

Perhaps letter writing is too much to ask? I thought a physical note, and
actually having a single person to write to, opposed to an unknown audience,
would be a nice change of pace. That said, I suppose this might also take
shape in a private Discourse community, or Basecamp message board, or
something like that. A space where paragraphs and punctuation are required to
participate.

If you are interested in letters, let me know? Or if you are interested in
helping me whip up a digital space where we can hear ourselves think, let me
know?

~~~
moralestapia
>To be honest, I am having a hard time finding people to talk about this stuff
with.

Hi man, I get you. I recently had a long vacation break and started reading
lots of things that had in the 'someday' queue. I'm fascinated by all of that
but have absolutely no one to talk to about it (they're related to what you
wrote, like Ellul).

We should get along, drop me an email at alex@<HN-username>.com

~~~
ilovenlp
Hey, I'm following up on this thread, even though its a bit late, because I'm
really interested in this idea of snailmail and such ideas for topics of
discussion. Is it OK for me to e-mail you about this? I'm not currently
reading like I want to, but I think having a snail mail reading discussion
thing would be awesome. Maybe we can loop in the other user who also replied
to this comment thread?

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rootsudo
IRC is nice. The really simple technical requirement to access IRC is still a
barrier. (30 years+ later!)

Not Reddit. Reddit is gone, it used to be nice. Maybe some extreme niches are
okay, but generally, no.

HN is okay for now, but is getting popular. We're already afraid of bots and
state actors when we get posted on Chinese social media....

4Chan is 4chan, some niche boards are great, but media bias.

*chan derivatives, lean far to one side on the political spectrum. Great to compare and contrast, but who knows what the intention is.

~~~
bkq
>4Chan is 4chan, some niche boards are great, but media bias.

When you curate the boards effectively, you can come across some nice generals
for your interests.

~~~
tkifnn
/diy/ is my favorite board and the only reason I go to 4chan. There are plenty
of knowledgeable people there eager to help.

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dredmorbius
Libraries. Books.

Online's gotten too damned polluted. HN is somewhat holding it together, but
is limited.

I have a small number of correspondants I keep in touch with through email.
Have been in the process of bailing from Reddit and (re)launching a blog for
... two years. Selecting and rolling your own site is somewhat painful
(particularly if you're picky), though the GitLab option is still the one I
prefer.

A handful of RSS feeds, though the crap consistency of feeds (boilerplate,
full/no content, tagged/not tagged) means a lot of cleanup is required. Though
I've got a pretty good Phosphor X11 screensaver app feeder ;-)

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ryacko
Niche phpbb forums still exist.

I recommend searching for a relevant search term using this:
[http://boardreader.com/](http://boardreader.com/)

It’s a search engine dedicated to message boards.

~~~
lapnitnelav
Too bad there's no way to exclude sites (particularly reddit) from the search

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BenWhit
I've seen Spectrum pop-up a few times, there is a way to search for
communities too. [https://spectrum.chat/](https://spectrum.chat/)

Slack has active channels. Finding them can be a challenge. Try:
[https://slofile.com/](https://slofile.com/)

------
jayyeh
I'll likely be the one business guy chiming in with this but I've really
enjoyed following topics and influencers on LinkedIn. The content is
surprisingly helpful with way less trolling than other communities. That may
not last but for now it's worth a look...

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catacombs
IRC.

Much better than Discord and doesn't suck you dry of your data.

~~~
developer_zero
What's IRC? is that a site?

~~~
Japhy_Ryder
Wow. I'm 31 and never thought I'd feel like one of the old timers here.

IRC is where all the best programming discussion used to happen. Maybe it
still does.

~~~
winternett
It was even better for being catfished than Facebook... Back then no one had
modems to send ugly selfies. :/

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eswat
If you miss IRC maybe scour through the networks on
[https://netsplit.de](https://netsplit.de), find some channels you’d be
remotely interested in and hang out in them.

------
asdf2234
If you can get an invite to Telepath
([https://apps.apple.com/us/app/telepath/id1185104828](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/telepath/id1185104828)),
you should check that out. The founders have the product in private beta but
you can get on the waitlist. Not sure when it'll be more public. It's a
community based product with interesting people on it. You can "hang out" in
the different communities.

------
seph-reed
It's not a great solution, but I share a slack channel with my extended
friends group. It all revolves around personal projects, so we kind of meetup
sometimes to work on our own things in the same space, maybe collaborate. It's
definitely not like IRC, but I'm not sure if big bubbles of interesting people
are an achievable goal anymore.

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dnh44
I’ve gone back to IRC over the last 12 months. And I seem to hear more and
more people taking about it so maybe it’s making a comeback. Maybe the slight
technical barrier to entry will work out to be a good thing.

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sergiotapia
discord. reddit sucks these days, it's over the hill.

~~~
dfischer
I agree massively with this. That’s actually what prompted me to post this.
How do you discover things in Discord? Recommend anything?

~~~
ilovenlp
I'm also curious about this! I would love to know how to discover things in
Discord. I'm only a part of 1 or 2 Discord channels, but I learned about them
from podcasts that advertised them.

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spacemanmatt
I still enjoy the tech channels on irc.freenode.net

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ivanfon
I've really been enjoying Tildes: [https://tildes.net/](https://tildes.net/)

It's somewhat similar to Reddit (and was started by a former Reddit admin),
but values quality content and discussion over "fluff" content. The users on
there are wonderful, and I've had some very good discussions about both tech
and non-tech topics. This blog post has some good info on it's philosophy and
what makes it different: [https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-
tildes](https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes)

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zzo38computer
IRC is still in use. So is NNTP, but it look like perhaps not as much as IRC
and other stuff.

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neuroticfish
Discord channels specific to your interests and/or strictly moderated, niche
subreddits.

~~~
marcusverus
Any specific subreddits that you would recommend?

~~~
neuroticfish
Just depends on what's relevant to your interests. Some of the ones I'm
subscribed to and read most frequently are r/TennesseePolitics,
r/LowFantasyGaming, r/BlackMetal, r/PureASOIAF, r/pugs and, unfortunately,
r/PetLoss at the moment. These are all relevant to my ongoing interests, but
more importantly they're (almost) as specific as possible. When you narrow the
scope (e.g. r/PureASOIAF instead of r/books or r/asoiaf), you tend to have
better discussions and stricter moderation.

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peruvian
I hang out on Discord servers, but none are tech related.

