Looking at alternative forums

I have just written the official guide to third party forums:

http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2006/09/02/aimees-second-life-forum-review/

And by "official" I mean I was in an "office" when I wrote it.

I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. In fact, while writing it I joined up and investigated all of these forums, and I highly recommend you all do the same! There are forum worlds forming out there and they are a lot of fun to explore!

I've bookmarked it. Definitely will be useful when the forum finally stops working.

HA! My thread is in the screenshot.

That'll be L$500, please.

Woah, she totally did too. I should've asked for L$1000.

Nobody ever mentions my favorite: http://tribes.tribe.net/2ndlife

Suezanne, leave a comment on the blog. Also, I fully intend to do a follow-up post a month from now to see which forums have pulled into the lead, and which have joined the long tail. I will be sure to include tribe in that post!

Great article but all the flashing ads make my eyes bleed.

You and I both

Though I'm sure there's more, there's at least two not listed in the review....the Stratics forum, and the one at seconlifes.com.

- Newfie

Yes. Don't forget I have a forum too!

There's just two users. Ulrika and I take turns accusing each other of things and then apologizing to each other.

lewis is taking care of any and all information leaked from stratics

as for the other, thier are not a legitimate forum at all

/108/c6/134427/1.html#post1265250

Thanks for the write-up Aimee. I really should have fixed the header sooner! I have done it now...

http://forums.slhomepage.com

Beyond the other parts of the portal (the journal, Topsites and SLHandbook services) I hope to have a few surprises by next weekend when I roll-out new features at SLHandbook and a few "hacks" I believe are worthwhile additions to vBulletin.

As you noted, the site is a clone of the current Official Forums, and as such has a "Resident Run Websites" Forum where all are welcome to advertise. The Topsites area is also getting a workout, with http://sl-forums.com currently at the top of the list! You can add your own site:

http://topsites.slhomepage.com

I have also been adding to the main page's WordPress blogroll and was sure to add Second Life Insider to the list.

Thanks again!

You continually amaze me with your wide-ranging talents, Aimee, including writing - as well as your enthusiasm and courage to explore and display your various talents. To take the bull by the horns, as it were, and turn your hand to many things, with a great deal of success in all of them.

So many people are too timid to put themselves out there, but you have in so many different creative ways. (And you have a good business eye, as well.)

I don't agree with all your assessments of the various forums, or the paucity of the selections (Stratics definitely should have been included, and I would like to have seen secondlifes as well), but it is an admirable, timely, and graphically creative and pleasing write-up. Just yet another one of your many talents.

coco

Yes. She writes very well!

Nice Job Aimee, I am sure this will be a good source for people to decide where they would like to visit and give em an all in one type of deal

you know, amiees wonderful article and recent events brings open a niche that someone may look into

instead of having each forum owner have to check, a 3rd party could verify an avatars name and perhaps link the user account to all the forums they use

just a thought, so for instance, I am Mulch Maker on all SL related sites (which is more my name than Mulch Ennui), also known as Mulch Ennui and Hooch Matador in SL, and i would have that name registered in the third party site, and any name disputes would be handled through the third party

like "avatar verified"

just a though and hopefully try to keep us all unified in some way even though we are scattering to our individual own niches

and an opportunity for someone who wants it

but I thought forums.secondlife.com is closing, Uma?

Ouch.

Nice work Aimee! It's nice to read that some (unfortunately not all) forums are taking steps to verify that your forum account is really from the same named person inworld.

Maybe LL should require any forum site that uses their trademarked name "Second Life" or the Second Life logo to take steps to verify that your forum name is your name in world?

Thank you Aimeem this certainly helped make my decision for when these forems do close

(Though, I still think it is a mistake LL closing in favour of blogs:/ )

Thanks, great timing, Aimee. I was going to ask here about alternate SL forums with two features: in-world registration and moderating of trolls. Now I think I'll check out YASLF. Personally I like a balance between drama and discussion. One thing I'll be avoiding is forums that have become the captive audiences of certain personas.

Don't forget the ones she didn't mention

http://teazers.proboards78.com

http://sldevelopers.com/forums/default.aspx

http://slprofiles.com/forum/default.asp

http://www.virtual-secondlife.de/phpBB2

http://secondlifes.com/forum/

http://metaforums.forumer.com

http://forums.secondcitizen.com/showthread.php?t=2364

There might be more....

So why use it? There are a ton of blogs that don't shove such things down your throat.

Heck, I'd donate a blogging forum just so you can have a clean interface. I'm sure anyone else with a server would too.

She did mention Second Citizen, in fact, ranked it her favorite. The Teazer's site you linked says it is no longer in operation, SLDevelopers.com and SLProfiles.com are niche sites, not really geared toward general purpose forum replacements. The virtual second life one is in is German. Metaforums has 7 members.

Considering that all kinds of sites have popped up at the opportunity of attracting forum traffic, I don't think it is realistic to expect every single site out there to be covered. The only one you listed that probably should have been included was secondlifes.com. The rest are not oversights for a comparison of viable forum alternatives.

Except Stratics, of course, which more than qualifies as a viable alternative.

http://sl.stratics.com or drop by our HQ (under construction) in my picks.

Lewis