D&D Message Boards?

[Gamer Girl]

So where are the active D&D Message Boards? A quick search of the 'net turns up lots of message boards, however most have 'last post May 5th 2005' or such.

So where are the active boards, where you can expect at least a couple of posts a day.?

Other then here, Brilliant Gameoligists, and Wizards(of course), where else is active?

[nedz]

EN World is slightly active; I got bored with it though because it was alwayes the same three people posting

[Keld Denar]

This is THE most active board, IMO. I float around the others, but I usually only refresh them once a day or so. This board, if you hit refresh after 5 minutes, the entire top 10-15 threads are all different, and if you post on something in the morning, it might not even be on the front page by the time you get home in the afternoon. Busy busy busy.

[Tam_OConnor]

RPG.net is larger than us, but they tend to be much broader in scope. Lots of non-D&D rpgs, and most of their D&D stuff is either 4th or pre-3rd. That, and they're the home of Tangency, which is polite and disturbing.

[Siosilvar]

There's Myth-Weavers.

Not sure how active the Tangled Web is any more.

Other than that and what you've already listed? Not much with very many people.

[Thurbane]

EN World is slightly active; I got bored with it though because it was alwayes the same three people posting

Ditto.

I started at the WotC forums, then got sick of the snark, poor/inconsistent moderation, and then the migration/destruction of the boards was the final straw.

My next stop was Enworld, which I really enjoyed, but eventually the 3.X traffic there slowed to a crawl.

...and that's how I found myself here.

Not sure how active Dragonsfoot or Brilliant Gameologists D&D forums are?

[realbombchu]

I also ended up here because the board is active, the moderators are consistent and fair, and the people are nice. I wasn't even aware that the other boards were quiet now.

[HunterOfJello]

People talk about d&d on message boards?!

That's so awesome. Where can I find one?

[Siosilvar]

People talk about d&d on message boards?!

That's so awesome. Where can I find one?

Sarcasm + text-based communication + other people =

[Dusk Eclipse]

Depends on which part of BG you frequent, the Min/Max subforum is littles active than Giantitp, but pretty active.

[Sang Real]

Paizo is the home of 3.P, but they've got a 3e and a 4e forum. Paizo and ENworld are the politest D&D sites on the net, but also the least active.

[Dusk Eclipse]

errr from my short time lurking at the Paizo boards they didn't seem very polite.

[big teej]

RPG.net is larger than us, but they tend to be much broader in scope. Lots of non-D&D rpgs, and most of their D&D stuff is either 4th or pre-3rd. That, and they're the home of Tangency, which is polite and disturbing.

whats tangency?

[Thurbane]

There's also Dicefreaks, but I think that their D&D forum (3.X, anyway) is a lot quieter than here.

[Tam_OConnor]

At Big Teej:
Tangency is where madman hit each other with pikes, the motivational poster threat has been ongoing since the early 2000s, and RPG.net types generally gather to discuss politics and life outside of gaming. I like to think of it as the midway point between our Media Discussions and 4chan.

[Kurald Galain]

This is THE most active board, IMO.

Probably. Whenever I visit BGO I find that anything but the last five, six posts is over a year old.

Enworld and Rpg.net are pretty good too. Wizards.com is rapidly declining in activity, or so it seems (their awful forum software may be a cause of that).

[LordBlades]

Tbh I think this one and Brilliant Gameologists are probably the best D&D forums atm

This one is probably the most active, while BG, while still being reasonably active (especially the min/max section) is pretty much troll/flame free.

My experience with enworld has been pretty bad. Too many trolls and clueless people there for my taste (at the time i considered registering there there were 2 10+ pages threads on the frist page discussing why fighters and monks respectively are mechanically superior to wizards).

[Aotrs Commander]

This is THE most active board, IMO.

I'm guessing that's possibly because once 4E came out, and the WotC boards began to rapidly die off (as the once-thriving 3.5 community started to split into 3.5/PF/4E groups) a lot of people like me, who previously irregularly frequented the playground moved over to here.

[ken-do-nim]

Not sure how active Dragonsfoot or Brilliant Gameologists D&D forums are?

Dragonsfoot is a very active forum, but it discusses only TSR versions of D&D and the retro-clones of them (C&C, BFRPG, LL, etc.) I'd love to see you there if you have any interest in the older versions! Also, Dragonsfoot is more than just a forum site; it is also an active publisher of free material which they post for download.

RPG.net is the best I think for a forum that spans all versions of D&D. There is plenty of 3E and 4E talk there alongside RC and 2E threads.

[Tyndmyr]

My experience with enworld has been pretty bad. Too many trolls and clueless people there for my taste (at the time i considered registering there there were 2 10+ pages threads on the frist page discussing why fighters and monks respectively are mechanically superior to wizards).

I hate to break it to you, but this isn't just an enworld thing.

Eh, I hang out here most often. It's busy, and people have a good average knowledge of D&D 3.x. Also, I like the comic.

Since I like snark and sarcasm, I actually prefer forums with looser mod rules, though, so it's certainly not the only forum I frequent. Also, I enjoy playing a number of systems other than D&D 3.5, and this place is much less helpful for many of those. Unfortunately...a lot of systems just don't have any active online community. D20 modern and 7th Sea spring to mind as excellent systems for which the most active forums are pretty dead.

Game maker forums are frequently good, if you are interested in information which potrays whatever system they're selling in a positive light. They generally have a lot of bias against everything else.

[Yuki Akuma]

I don't think this forum is really lacking in snark and sarcasm. Just less overt flaming.

You can be snarky and nice at the same time...

[Starbuck_II]

errr from my short time lurking at the Paizo boards they didn't seem very polite.

Paizo is not always polite: I'd say 50% chance.

But they sometimes have good discussions.

I visit:
Here
RPG.net
EnWorld
Paizo
The Gaming Den (I never would of heard of Cavern Mister otherwise)

[Tyndmyr]

I don't think this forum is really lacking in snark and sarcasm. Just less overt flaming.

You can be snarky and nice at the same time...

Oh, I'm ok with any level of hostility, provided the actual content is interesting or thought provoking. I acknowledge that these things don't always go together, but I've seen a few invigorating debates where the two people actually hated each other, and slid all sorts of insulting stuff in there, while at the same time excellently outlining a logical argument. You won't always find such quality on the internet, but it's nice when it's there.

Of course, making standards for moderation based on quality of posts is inherently hard and subjective, so there's really no perfect solution. Those sorts of systems are prone to moderation abuse against those who disagree.