Traditional forums were functional and worked great. They all got ruined by modern "design".
Discussion
Name the elements that make it functional, por favor :prayinghands:
Also, name what we should definitely not do.
Make old school forums, but decentralized. That interface worked so well for small communities, before being destroyed by junk like reddit & discord & telegram. Look to any older phpBB style forums. They still exist and people still use them. They just aren't VC friendly, or a hot "design" trend.
SQUARE AVATARS
Forums and square avatars are ...dare I say it... Lindy. Lol
This is peak community tool UI:
Wow, OP's sorted by last active, threads ordered chronologically with *no sub-threading*, just quotes embedded in notes to continue conversations. Perfect.
> threads ordered chronologically with *no sub-threading*, just quotes embedded in notes to continue conversations
We'll be doing this by default on any reply sections (beyond level-1 replies).
Many think it's a technical thing, but it's ::90percent: just a UI choice.
The embedding quotes is the important part I think. That way one can be on page 42 and still get context without having to scroll forever and read 20 pages of unnecessary posts. It's nice to have a link to jump back though.
I agree! It's the best reply-thread UX (beyond level 1).
- Chronological
- Quotes for replies
HUGE AVATARS :wow:
GIVE ME SQUARES (rounded or not, squircles are meh) OR GIVE ME DEATH
If it needs to be more 'aesthetic' perhaps have a look at this forum which is still going (it probably has more daily active users than Nostr tbh lol)
All those 90° angles are beautiful.
I honestly wouldnt even change anything from this set up. And especially no discord-like UI.
What specifically is awful about Discord iyo?
(I strongly dislike it too to be clear)
It's far too confusing to use. I haven't used it in ages tbh so I can't pinpoint a specific part of it. I just couldn't be bothered learning how to use it.
Same :checkmarkgreen:
I dislike it being non paginated. Endless scrolling is a dark pattern. It's display & formatting of quotes is lacking as well.
Perfection.
Bring able to be simply themed was a nice feature of traditional forums too. Most modern replacements just all look the same from community to community. Communities should have personality.