Lemmy/Reddit style platforms are good at generating short term discussions, it’s threaded chats.
The main features that makes forums the best to accumulate knowledge is bumping and linear discussions. There’s only one discussion that everyone is following if they want to talk about a specific subject, the knowledge on that subject is centralized and keeps accumulating instead of requiring to be constantly repeated because the previous thread is lost to time. The linear discussion means you don’t have to go back up and start reading a different branch to know what some other people are talking about (which often times leads to having many people basically saying the same thing without realizing it), all new replies appear in chronological order and people quote others to provide context when necessary.
Look on old school forums for more “boomer hobbies” and it’s ridiculous how long conversations can keep going. I provided a link in another reply but the Yamaha WR250 thread on ADVRider has 428k replies since 2013, all that is possible to know about this motorcycle is in they thread and pretty much any question you might have will have its reply in there. There’s car forums with discussions that have been ongoing for decadeS!
Meanwhile on Reddit of you want to ask a question in a thread that was started 24h ago you’re shit out of luck, no one but the OP will know about it. On Lemmy? Everyone sorts by top 6 hours.
In regards to the advrider comment, I don’t find those ridiculously long-running threads all that convenient even though they are very useful. In your example the WR250R thread could have multiple subtopics being discussed at once in the same thread which I find frustrating.
For example, one guy might ask about tires and while that’s being discussed another guy shows up asking about a big bore kit to make more power. Now there are two discussions happening at the same time and all I can do is view the thread chronologically. Then someone else shows up asking what oil everyone uses. Then someone new joins and says “Hey it’s not possible to go back and read through all 2300 pages in this thread, what GPS are you all using?”
Like sure it’s great that all the information is in that one thread but navigating through it only in chronological order can be super frustrating.
ADVRider is more of a “motorcycles in general” community and they try to limit the number of “subcommunities” (the Wr250 thread is in the Thumpers subcommunity), but a WR250 specific forum would have the discussions you’re talking about split up.
The real solution though would be for a “Reddit style forum” to exist, where people can create new subcommunities however they want but to have it work like a forum instead of having threaded discussions that don’t get bumped.
It actually drives me a little nuts that the 500 EXC-F thread is under Thumpers and not under Orange Crush. I get that it’s a Thumper, but it’s also a KTM. Why have a subcommunity based on engine type when all of the other engine types are in manufacturer-specific subcommunities?
I honestly don’t know why they decided to divide it this way and as you say it would make much more sense to split it by manufacturers and that’s it, maybe it started with Thumpers and Others and as more and more manufacturers started making ADV motorcycles with other types of engines the “others” section became too crowded? 🤔
Lemmy/Reddit style platforms are good at generating short term discussions, it’s threaded chats.
The main features that makes forums the best to accumulate knowledge is bumping and linear discussions. There’s only one discussion that everyone is following if they want to talk about a specific subject, the knowledge on that subject is centralized and keeps accumulating instead of requiring to be constantly repeated because the previous thread is lost to time. The linear discussion means you don’t have to go back up and start reading a different branch to know what some other people are talking about (which often times leads to having many people basically saying the same thing without realizing it), all new replies appear in chronological order and people quote others to provide context when necessary.
Look on old school forums for more “boomer hobbies” and it’s ridiculous how long conversations can keep going. I provided a link in another reply but the Yamaha WR250 thread on ADVRider has 428k replies since 2013, all that is possible to know about this motorcycle is in they thread and pretty much any question you might have will have its reply in there. There’s car forums with discussions that have been ongoing for decadeS!
Meanwhile on Reddit of you want to ask a question in a thread that was started 24h ago you’re shit out of luck, no one but the OP will know about it. On Lemmy? Everyone sorts by top 6 hours.
In regards to the advrider comment, I don’t find those ridiculously long-running threads all that convenient even though they are very useful. In your example the WR250R thread could have multiple subtopics being discussed at once in the same thread which I find frustrating.
For example, one guy might ask about tires and while that’s being discussed another guy shows up asking about a big bore kit to make more power. Now there are two discussions happening at the same time and all I can do is view the thread chronologically. Then someone else shows up asking what oil everyone uses. Then someone new joins and says “Hey it’s not possible to go back and read through all 2300 pages in this thread, what GPS are you all using?”
Like sure it’s great that all the information is in that one thread but navigating through it only in chronological order can be super frustrating.
ADVRider is more of a “motorcycles in general” community and they try to limit the number of “subcommunities” (the Wr250 thread is in the Thumpers subcommunity), but a WR250 specific forum would have the discussions you’re talking about split up.
The real solution though would be for a “Reddit style forum” to exist, where people can create new subcommunities however they want but to have it work like a forum instead of having threaded discussions that don’t get bumped.
It actually drives me a little nuts that the 500 EXC-F thread is under Thumpers and not under Orange Crush. I get that it’s a Thumper, but it’s also a KTM. Why have a subcommunity based on engine type when all of the other engine types are in manufacturer-specific subcommunities?
I honestly don’t know why they decided to divide it this way and as you say it would make much more sense to split it by manufacturers and that’s it, maybe it started with Thumpers and Others and as more and more manufacturers started making ADV motorcycles with other types of engines the “others” section became too crowded? 🤔