I originally got into forums in 2006. I was a 16 year old who happened to gain internet access via dial up since that's all my parents could afford at the time. I came across a community that talked about the various glitches in the Pokemon games, this was Glitch City. Shortly after I discovered a Teen Titans fan forum. I love forums more than any other platform because of how organized they are and you don't feel rushed trying to reply to an instant response. Because I love them, I wanted to become an admin. In 2009 I opened my first forum but had no clue what I was doing. Now I know better than I did that's for sure. I don't think there's anything that would make me not want to mess around with forums anymore, the only thing that could would be a negative life event like I get sick and can't manage to get online, or I lose a close loved one.
I needed interaction with other adults when I was taking care of my daughter as a stay-at-home mom. I enjoyed being able to read and reply on my own time and I looked forward to building friendships with others who had the same interests that I had, but also sometimes to debate our differences and still remain friendly.
I continue on forums because I like building friendships that last. I've been on forums for decades and have friends that still keep in touch with me more than my in person friends do. It's amazing.
I joined a gaming forum that was using a nulled version of vBulletin 2. I rectified that by purchasing a licence and eventually took ownership of the forum and domain. I saw an opportunity to gain income from forum ownership in general and it carried on from there.
This is multi-faceted for me. A part of it is pure nostalgia. Other aspects are resource and knowledge sharing. I also enjoy making friends. As an introvert with a family, I tend to not go outside of my bubble much which is why I also enjoy in office work compared to remote work.
I stumbled upon forums way back in 2005, joined, and never looked back. It's been a great way to meet new people, learn new things, and expand your horizons. I honestly probably never would've started doing some of the things I do now if it wasn't for forums.
I stumbled upon my first forum in 1995, it was a basic flat forum, it was old school internet time, but it immediately had me hooked. I was a kid, I didn't understand what I was truly getting into at that point, but it quickly became a part of my vernacular, part of my routine and part of my life. I started running my own forums not long after and that was it. I was in for life.
I still forum because there's no better platform for communication. Social media is awful, it's toxic, it's short form communication that's not really attuned for real discourse. Forums let you really speak to people, broadly, civilly and openly.
