Independent Spaces for RPG Discourse

[Eyes of Nine]

RPGGeek.com - interface ttakes a bit to get used to, but there's lots of discussion in the general areas.

No offense to En World's staff, who seem pretty good about not beating us over the heads with their own product, but given that the EN Publishing is linked to EN World, I don't think it qualifies as independently owned...

I think it's more independent in terms of not bowing to publicly traded corporate interests. I mean, ENWorld is basically Russ and his ragtag band of co-conspirators

 

[darjr]

Sometimes I hangout is discords open voice channels. A couple of times Dyson Logos dropped by and we talked. Other creators too.

 

[aramis erak]

I think it's more independent in terms of not bowing to publicly traded corporate interests. I mean, ENWorld is basically Russ and his ragtag band of co-conspirators

Similar dismissives have been used about many other publishers, such as Evil hat, Great White Games, Mongoose (don't know if it's still true), and Palladium (last I heard, staff of 3)...
Doesn't make their boards any more independent.

 

[dbm]

When Morrus closes down the D&D forums and only the Level Up forum remains we can call this site a ‘house organ’. Until then, I will consider this an independent forum site.

 

[TheSword]

Interestingly Discord is independently owned. Also Reddit is owned by Condé Nast’s trading company.

 

[Morrus]

Interestingly Discord is independently owned. Also Reddit is owned by Condé Nast’s trading company.

The reason I always kept this site separate is that your community on Discord isn't owned by you, it's owned by Discord; same with Reddit. It exists at their whim, and succeeds or fails based on the action of the tech company which are beyond your control--see Google+, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook. I guess that's a distinction between a hosted community on a larger platform and one owned outright. It can be taken away from you just like that.

 

[dbm]

A friend of mine runs a hobby business and the market forces him to use Facebook as a primary contact channel, but that then became very stressful when FB decided to close down his page with no warning, consultation or any apparent reason to do so.

So sites being owned by individuals is radically different from them being owned by tech giants.

 

[Joshua Randall]

FB is a racket that rather than being run by an evil genius, is run by a (movie style) schizophrenic amnesiac.

[sightation]: I briefly worked for a social media optimization company before I realized (A) how scummy it was, and (B) how pointless it was.

 

[Morrus]

A friend of mine runs a hobby business and the market forces him to use Facebook as a primary contact channel, but that then became very stressful when FB decided to close down his page with no warning, consultation or any apparent reason to do so.

So sites being owned by individuals is radically different from them being owned by tech giants.

Something similar happened with the Facebook group for our local gaming club. The creator of the group is now unable to access it. Several years growing the community and using it for coordinating club schedules, all suddenly gone.

I always say make sure your home port is something you own and control. You can branch out into various hosted platforms from there, but your main base is yours whether Google+ is discontinued, TikTik is banned, Facebook becomes useless, or Twitter turns into a dumpster fire. I have a modest presence on various social platforms (though I don't don't put any effort into growing them), but right here is where I'm based, not dependent on the transient whims of tech billionaires or megacorporations.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Frighteningly we are all still at the mercy of ISPs and payment processors….