I like GBB because it has a different vibe from the SDMB. It’s more personal a little looser. The main area I hang out is the Ultimate Megapoll Forum where we talk about stupid stuff and have fake arguments over who is a better villain, Gladys Kravitz or Freddy Kruger (Freddy is winning but Gladys is getting support.) and does the Grinch count as a villain (I say no).
It’s fun and it’s silly and it just wouldn’t work here.
Back in the hey day there was a lot more churn but like all boards its slowly dying off in favor of Facebook.
I know OP said no Reddit, but Reddit. There is a vast amount of content there. Multiple subreddits for just about every topic you can think of; cats, art, science, video games, politics, car repair, literature, or even eating oranges in the shower. It can get as specific or as silly as you want. If you don’t see a subreddit for a topic you want, you can start your own instantly. Moderation ranges from extreme to nonexistent depending on the subreddit, it’s like the wild west. But the good stuff is really good. A good starting subreddit to browse for a cross-section of popular posts on all sorts of topics is popular.
You’ll sometimes see posts from Wil Wheaton, Arnold Schwartzenegger, and Snoop Dogg. There are ongoing AMA (ask me anything) posts from many people including Barack Obama. And I love being able to upvote or downvote comments and posts and move on, not everything calls for a reply.
So yeah interface is weird. I fairly quickly got used to the old Reddit website design, I came to appreciate that it squeezed a lot of posts on the page with minimal UI and bandwidth. The new Reddit I can’t stand, too many pictures, too much whitespace. So far they let you use the old design if you pick it in the options.
Additionally though, there are mobile clients that have very different interfaces, the one I use on Android is called Now For Reddit and it looks completely different from the website. I do a lot of my Reddit browsing there.
The thing is, I’m more a lurker and reader than a poster. I’m not going to save a dying board with my witty repartee, (especially over at GB where the Raffers hold me in contempt :)) I just want to glom off an already busy board.
SA is really a collection of communities. There’s still some of the dumbest stuff on the internet there, of course, so self-referential by now that it is hard to understand, but the various subforums have plenty of topic-specific quality discussion.
The moderation isn’t site-wide, more forum-specific (actually in some cases thread-specific), so lurking is strongly advised. Also, it’s pay-to-post.
I like it too. Not only do I like it, I recently broke my 5+ year old self-promise never to pay no money to speak on no internet message board just so I could finally participate. I like the humour there, and the active moderation + posting tax keeps the signal/noise ratio to a rare minimum.
Depending on one’s definition of signal of course :D.
That’s the major thing I don’t like about Reddit. There are seven or eight subreddits I visit every day, but I couldn’t tell you who the regulars are in those subs—or even if there are regulars. Reddit is probably not the place to go if you’re looking for a sense of community.
RPG.net It’s focus is on gaming, particularly tabletop (e.g., D&D) but it’s a robust community with subboards on media and other topics. Some of the posters in those areas I never see in the gaming sections I visit.
More importantly, it’s a refuge from all the basket of deplorables on the net. Ravelry took it’s policy about not supporting Nazis and their ilk from RPG.net, so all the people who can’t help but troll about Trump, or spew hate at LGBT folks, and the like are sent to the land of wind and ghosts. It garners howls of outrage from people who feel they have a right to spew hatred whe’ere they want, but in the words of RPG.net moderation: “Nazis, fuck those guys.”
There are other message boards?
Seriously, the only other board I’ve been really active on no longer exists. Watching twoofers trying to be rational was fun.
