A lot of folks have turned from Usenet to forums such as the QT3 boards. I'm interested in a list of the boards that people here feel are the best (i.e., highest good stuff/noise ratio.) What boards do people here recommend for specific topics, such as sims, sports, strategy, rpg, etc. and also general discussions (such as this one?)

I hang out here and over at Gone Gold. The forums there are moderated, but the moderators are open-minded, reasonable people. The level of discussion in general is usually very good.

Actually, it's quite funny, there was a long thread recently about the level of discussion on the GG boards. We had a lively debate about the problems inherent in the site becoming more popular. Actually, the death of many websites has pushed people into those that are left.

Which begs the question, how long can these web boards survive? Somebody has to pay for the bandwidth here, whereas on usenet the ISP's pick up the slack. Hmmm.

I just realized I haven't looked at c.s.i.p.g.strat in months. I used to go there daily.

Our costs are still minimal right now. The biggest expense we have is our time. If the bandwidth costs get to be expensive, I don't know what we'll do.

I like to read the message boards at Lum's site for MMOG news. Gone Gold is pretty good, though they seem list happy over there. That's about it for me. I still post on Usenet, though not nearly as much.

This is the only message board that I've actually ever posted to. It's also the only one that I hang out at, mostly because I wouldn't be able to remember all the threads that I'd been looking at on multiple sites. I've messed around with usenet a little bit just to find out what it was, but didn't really enjoy sifting through it to find the good stuff.

Here for fun, OMM forums for whack-a-troll. Someone there seriously suggested the US media was being callous for not reporting ~500 deaths in Congo's ongoing civil war last week.

As much as I hate to say it, I agree. That's why I've been watching BBC news lately... even Canadian media has become convoluted with Attack on America coverage.

Let's see, aside from here I post over at the11thhour.com message board. That site is a online genre magazine that is primarily concerned with the female perspective. But it is written so exceptionally well that I'd recommend it to people of both sexes. And there is no shame in being a guy who posts in their forum.

I also frequent the John Shirley message board. http://members4.boardhost.com/JohnShirley/
Shirley is a seminal cyberpunk author who, while not as famous as William Gibson, published earlier. He's written some cool stuff and he posts to the board all the time.

I also hit the Home Theater Forum (www.hometheaterforum.com).

Those and here, pretty much.

Brad Grenz

Nah if there Callous its for not reporting the near daily 500+ deaths in congo's,kenyas and basicly half the countries in africas ongoing civil wars for the past several years.

This is pretty much the only board I visit much. Occasionally I'll get over to read GGs, and cgonline's, but rarely do I post at either of them...dunno why, I just don't feel as motivated.

Really, this is the only board I post to.

I post here and at CGOnline. Once in a while I'll cruise usenet like Racer X when a particular title or topic catches my eye but that's becoming quite rare.

My list goes like this...

Quarter to Three
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games (mostly rpg)
alt.games (mostly ofp)
Gone Gold
Cdmag.com
the vault network (mostly mmrpgs/crpgs)
RPGdot
Lums

though Q23 is the highest and comp.sys.rpg the next. The others i usually lurk with an occasional post.

etc

quartertothree
arstechnica
slashdot

plus a couple of read only newsgroups, and a few other tech sites.

Quarter To Three - general and games
SimHQ - simulators

I hardly touch usenet now. I am also a big user of Yahoo mailing list groups.

Which ones, Sean, out of curiousity?

I read a lot of forums out there, on and off... but not because the signal/noise ratio is good. I mostly read it to be entertained by the spectacular moronity (I just made that word up!) of the noise. =)

I post here, becuase the signal/noise ratio is good, and because people generally seem to respect the fact that people here have strong opinions, but they're just that. There's arguing and disagreement, but it's good-natured and the personal attacks are minimal.

I post on our forums at cgonline.com too, of course.

let's see..

Quarter to Three
Apolyton (apolyton.net)
Home Theater Forum (www.hometheaterforum.com)
certain googlegroups search patterns to harvest scholarly discussion (see www.santafe.edu/~shalizi/Orwell/politics_and_english.html)
also, aldaily.com dailygrail.com and xxx.lanl.gov

One thing that has puzzled me for eons...

Why is it that so many forums end up having a creation/evolution debate sooner or later?...

This has happened to me repeatedly... I'll be on an AoK or UT forum or something... "Best way to counter the feudal rush?" "Favorite DM maps?" "Desert-Island Ultima Music?" "The LIE of Evolution!!!"

Don't all discussions degenerate into politics and/or religious debates ? :-)

I think the world was coded into existence by Sid Meier. No wait, Brian Reynolds, Sid Meier was lead playtester and put his name on it.

Sid Meier's Earth, a Brian Reynolds Design.

-Andrew

What if they turned Alice into a turn-based strategy game and you registered it with the IGR? Then it would be Andrew Bub's Sid Meier's American McGee's Alice, a Brian Reynolds Design.

- Alan

Bub --

I think Earth was an Origin project. "We create worlds," remember?

Fortunately, they completed the project before they were acquired by EA, who would have axed it.

"I think Earth was an Origin project. "We create worlds," remember?"

Well, that explains all the bugs, doesn't it?

-Andrew

I'm expiriencing a lot of laggy-ness.

Earth is God's first MMORPG. "Biblical" times were the intitial beta-test and launch. The Old testament describes the beta test. The new testament describes the early period after the retail launch.

Now we're well into the end game and customer service still sucks.

I don't think they coded an ending for this damn thing. The Bible promised a fancy finish but it seems to me like they just left the program running on an infinite loop or something...

They probably already moved onto the sequel and we're too stupid to realize it. I bet the graphics are way better on Earth 2.

BobM:
"Earth is God's first MMORPG. "Biblical" times were the intitial beta-test and launch. The Old testament describes the beta test. The new testament describes the early period after the retail launch."

So I guess Exodus describes when the original dev team got up and walked... would explain the significant change in play style dynamics post-launch. And it just goes to show you can't mix PvP+ and PvP- folks.

Sean Tudor:
"Don't all discussions degenerate into politics and/or religious debates ? :-)"

A debate without someone calling someone else a Nazi (at some point) is like a day without sunshine.

You nazi!!