Are forums the new third place/r
I’ve been on the internet for over a decade now — long enough to watch platforms rise and fall around it. MySpace vanished, Tumblr shrank, Twitter mutated, Facebook aged into irrelevance. But somehow, Reddit (of all things?!?) stayed. Not unchanged, but weirdly consistent, like the old neighborhood coffee shop that keeps the same mismatched chairs year after year.
I think the reason is simple: Reddit never stopped being a forum.
While every other major platform shifted toward algorithmic feeds and influencer culture, Reddit stuck to its roots, topic-based communities run by volunteers (moderators), built around shared interests instead of personal brands. It's old-school internet energy, a relic of a bygone era. Yet it continues to be one of the most trusted sources on the Internet. Maybe not trusted to site in your academic paper, but if you need to fix your sink, Reddit is one of the few reliable places left on the Internet.
This reminds me of Ray Oldenburg’s idea of third places; the spaces outside home and work where people gather just to be together (ex: cafés, playgrounds, libraries). (Oldenburg, 1989). Reddit, for all its chaos, feels like that sometimes. A digital third place. You drop in, chat, help someone troubleshoot a problem, laugh at something stupid, learn something new and leave feeling like you were part of something.
But lately I’ve noticed something interesting: forums aren’t just surviving on Reddit. They’re coming back on the Indie Web.
Smaller communities (the ones not necessarily trying to scale or optimize) are building forum-style spaces again. Places like Neocities blogs with comment boards, or tiny Mastodon instances with tight-knit conversations. Full Discord servers that function like modern message boards for entire communities. And those are just the ones accessible by the general public, across the Internet indie-boards are still active.
And I wouldn't even write out some of the old forum boards. Candidly, I've used Tumblr for a few years to interact with some of my more nerdy interest. I post, comment, and interact with people across the world in our own niche fandoms. Tumblr doesn't have a follower account, sure you can see your own, but there's no way to see other users, even if they would like to opt into it. Virality isn't the point.
Researchers even say platforms like Discord can function as third places when people use them for casual, social interaction rather than productivity. (Boucher et al., 2025). And honestly, that tracks with my experience. Some of the most genuine online conversations I’ve had recently weren’t on any sort of mainstream media at they were in tiny, hand-built communities where no one is trying to go viral.
It feels like the internet is looping back to something it accidentally left behind: smaller spaces, slower conversations, communities built around curiosity instead of clout.
Maybe forums never died. Maybe they were just waiting for us to realize we miss hanging out.