Ask HN: What's the best forum-based community you've been a part of, and why?
Whenever I am stuck with a photography problem I ask at
and usually people there get me unstuck very quickly and I learn a lot from other photogs. The exception is in stereography and light field photography where there aren't that many people who know about it and even those who do a little don't understand the fundamentals well. But for ordinary things like taking flower pictures and sports photography (my main thing these days) it amazing.
Has it changed much after the Amazon acquisition, or later, after the almost-shutdown?
Dpreview seems very helpful to me now. There was a few weeks of fear that stretched into months but the shutdown never happened. I first got involved a few months before the transition when I was first getting serious about photography in this last round of getting serious.
I think AMZN runs the store for a camera vendor like Amcrest and I am happy to work with them. I like to work with Chinese brands directly.
I came back from a Volleyball game absolutely defeated and immediately had to get
https://www.dpreview.com/opinion/1627588691/gear-of-the-year...
which points how very commercial the area is. For that kind of gear I am more likely to go to Adorama or B&H who will ship it free in 1-2 days when AMZN is 5 days at least for me. Those New York camera stores also give top notch support so if I lose a screw for my tripod they can get me the part.
It’s still August there. I’m not telling.
This is the only correct answer.
The Straight Dope Message Board, https://boards.straightdope.com/
Smart people from a wide variety of fields, high quality discussions on many topics, and good moderation. Been a member for like twenty years and it's always been informative, insightful, and sometimes even compassionate and supportive. A pretty tight knit place with many long-time regulars.
It's much higher quality than reddit, about as intellectual as this place, but broader in focus and a bit more civil, I think. If you join, be nice :)
Thumpertalk
Incredibly useful for DIY dirt bike repair, threads often have step by step instructions with photographs. Motorcycle people are generally very nice unlike some of the car forums I've used.
Techlore Discussions
Self-described as, "a home for reasonable privacy and security discussions" — which I find to be good description. It was formerly a Matrix + Discord community, but transitioned to a forum as it's a more productive medium for discussions.
Reddit used to be amazing, alas it's gone now. My only regret is not deleting all my data before deleting my account... it's out there forever, and I have no way to retract it now. 8(
I used to post on this forum called LivingWithStyle (LWS) in the 2000s and it was great. There were forums that covered everything and I actually got to know people and make friends over the years from it.
It was a long time ago, in a galaxy far away…during a more civilized age…
Warbeatz/Futureproducers/gearslutz: just music producer stuff. Fun times.
eevblog, vogons. Both full of enthusiast, subject matter filters out casuals.