Messageboards in 2026

[NowhereMan]

So last year, in 2025, I was studying people, products, things I can benefit form or interested in, and I was looking for specific messageboards to post photos of them, discussions, ask questions, but they were no more like in the 2000s. For example, I am working on a Marilyn Monroe project. Assuming that there would be some sorts of actual fan community or messageboards for the actress, I could not find anything. But I would like to assume that in the 2000s I would have probably been more likely to find a messageboard of her. Now we have social media, X, Instagram, Reddit for that. 

So what are your thoughts on messageboards in 2026? Do you have any ideas to make them last? Make them more active? What are your thoughts on the messageboards of MFGG?

EDIT: Do you still visit any other forums/message boards other than MFGG?

[littlelum]

I think the best way to get message boards to be active is to use them. Sure it sounds obvious, but I'm guilty of just hoping someone comes along and posts something so I don't have to do it myself.

As for other message boards, I occasionally go onto Melonland. There's a few others too, like the Mario Kart Players Page and Bibby Team that I only visit occasionally.

Sometimes I'm so focused on being nice I forget to be good.

[VinnyVideo]

Good question! It's a bummer that a lot of independent forums have died out over the past decade, and few new communities have sprouted to replace them.

But all hope is not lost! A growing number of people are frustrated with the corporate-owned walled gardens of Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Even Discord is threatening to go public, which will quickly send them down the road of enpoopification.

On an individual level, my main advice is to take the time to be active! If you're working on a project, share your progress on the Development or Arts boards. If you play an interesting game, make a topic in Gaming. If you notice a bug on the mainsite, create a ticket in the Suggestions board.

If you're an admin or a site developer, I think one of the biggest problems with forums is they usually run on older software that was developed with desktop view in mind. But over the past 15 years, many Internet users have shifted from browsing on a full-sized screen to doing most of their browsing on a phone or tablet. So choosing forum software and forum themes that work well on all screen sizes is important. I'd love to see more forums running on Jaxboards (shameless plug), which delivers outstanding performance for both desktop and mobile users.

Besides MFGG, I'm still active on the Bibby Team Forums and the GameFAQs Contributors Board.

Course clear! You got a card.

[NowhereMan]

As for other message boards, I occasionally go onto Melonland. 

I like it, thanks

[Louis Paul]

I think the reason for that is the change of age demographic. In the late 2000s and early 2010s people preferred computers for accessing content, the internet was less bloated, and smartphones were more primitive and limited on features. Nowadays this has changed, people became too hooked on smartphones, they don't care anymore about computers unfortunately.

Another forum that I occasionally participate is the HP Museum forum. I also have an account on Hackaday.io, where I posted project logs for the RetroChallenge 2024/10 and 2025/10.

PS: does the MFGG IRC still exist? I found it buried in the wiki, and if the channel still exist we could be more active there.

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