What are your favorites ongoing message board threads?

September 3, 2013 6:41 PM

I read the same few web forums and am looking for some new ones. Am especially looking for the best threads--threads that are long running, get lots of posts, and are generally interesting and high quality. Any subject.
posted by aerotive to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Slowtwitch Dirty Secrets

It starts off benign but gets pretty interesting.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 6:47 PM on September 3, 2013

The SomethingAwful Political Cartoon Megathread is a thing of hideous beauty. Lots of inside jokes, but it's easy to get the hang of things.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:32 PM on September 3, 2013

If you like campfire stories, allow me to recommend iFish.net's Weird Findings in the Woods. The thread was started in 2007 and currently runs a very engrossing 31 pages, with the most recent post added on 8/22/13. Most (but not all) of the posts document strange things seen around Oregon and the PNW, some explainable, some not. It's a forum for people who fish and hunt, so maybe not for the squeamish, but the postings are honest and the posters respectful. Honestly, it's one of the best threads I've read in several years.
posted by mosk at 10:01 PM on September 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

I love the SomethingAwful Comic Strip Megathread, home of newspaper comic discussion, appreciation and snark. It's where I learned to love Rex Morgan and hate Brooke McEldowney.

I am also strangely addicted to the threads on Free Jinger about Lauren, who has "Sparkling Adventures" and lives in a van in Australia with her 4 children while traveling around being sparkling. Oh, and her husband is in jail for killing their baby. It is a train wreck that I can't quit. You might need to be a member to see those, though, I'm not sure.
posted by Biblio at 10:34 PM on September 3, 2013

Maybe that last one doesn't fit the "high quality" criteria! But the threads on Free Jinger, while snarky, contain a lot of interesting discussion about fundamentalism and religious extremism.
posted by Biblio at 10:37 PM on September 3, 2013

I am not a nurse, but I have spent an entertaining night or two freaking myself out reading AllNurses.com's What's your best nursing ghost story? It started in November 2000 and the last post was a day or two ago, so...nearly 13 years and still going strong. I think I might have first read about it on Metafilter or AskMe, come to think of it.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:20 AM on September 4, 2013

I used to like The Straight Dope - probably still would, but I don't have enough time for internet browsing these days and Metafilter takes up most of that time! :)

This long running thread, If Lord of the Rings Had Been Written By Someone Else, was one of my favourites.

On an entirely different note, the MoneySavingExpert forum, UK-based, with good and informative tips about living frugally.
posted by Ziggy500 at 2:38 AM on September 4, 2013

I second "weird things found in the woods..."

There are several out there if you google the sentence and add, while hunting, while fishing, hiking, etc.
posted by otto42 at 4:11 AM on September 4, 2013

Top-law-school off topic forums. Though you have to make an account to read them.
posted by obviousresistance at 9:39 AM on September 4, 2013