from Hacker News

Don't Contribute Anything Relevant in Web Forums Like Reddit (2020)

by theNewMicrosoft on 6/24/23, 5:14 AM with 6 comments

  • by sgbeal on 6/24/23, 7:16 AM

    > My message to all those authors is: don't use web-based forums.

    While his message is certainly relevant for _most_ forum software, i feel compelled to point out one which enables anyone to clone the whole forum, in full, and sync it at will for local use (with two-way sync if the remote admin enables that (on a per-account basis)).

    https://fossil-scm.org

    Though fossil is an SCM/DVCS, one of its features is a built-in forum in active use by both the fossil project and sqlite (https://sqlite.org/forum).

    With such a forum, anyone can clone it, host their own copy somewhere (it only requires a low-end HTTP server capable of hosting CGIs), and pull updates from the upstream copy as often as they like. If/when the upstream goes dark, none of the content is lost.

    Edit: granted, fossil's forum is intended to be on the scale of one project per form. It is not, and will never be, a multi-project forum like HN, Reddit, or whatever the cool kids are using nowadays.

  • by barrysteve on 6/24/23, 10:15 AM

    Alternative n+1: Run your own hosting and content. Advertise in real life and through friends networks.

    Why bother playing by big platform rules? They will never ever adjust course in your favour. They have their own goals and individual contributions are content to be farmed.

    I can not post the majority of my views and content without being suppressed, so time to walk.

  • by midzer on 6/24/23, 5:41 AM

    Even HN is mentioned. Is there an open alternative for HN yet?
  • by paulpauper on 6/24/23, 6:00 AM

    why not just save a backup. problem solved