I've been thinking about this a lot lately and have this festering plan to de-google and de-facebook my online life... but damn is it hard to kick the habit! It doesn't help that I actually have a life now... I should have done this when I was still in school and had outrageous amounts of free time, but back then web2.0 was just getting started and things didn't seem so bad.
Thing about itch is that it is very focused on projects, which is probably a good thing from a wider perspective. It makes the site a little more professional (a little). I mean, there isn't even an "off topic" section of the forum, which is where this thread really belongs. The lack of direct messaging also reduces the social aspect.
I would say don't just make a website, go visit other sites and specifically look for forums related to your interests. Many people are still out there posting on forums other than reddit. Also try looking for ways to chat with people, preferably other than Discord... IRC is still a thing. There are also some modern platforms like VRChat where people actually just hang out.
There is a whole internet still out there, just because most people only visit the same 5 social media sites doesn't mean you have to. Webrings still exist even! But you will need to search for them the old way, with non-SEO search engines and a bit of determination.
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Yeah, you're right. I agree with you on most things. But about the things you suggested (which are absolutely valid and cool): the problem with IRC for me is that it has no message history (obviously) and it drains your battery in the background (obviously), so if you are using it on the phone like me, you either have a low battery life or you gotta start conversations yourself and this is also my personal problem as I always feel like I'm bothering people if I reach out first in any context, but yeah. IRC is ultracool overall as it has amazing people from every generation (there are people 60 and 70 years old alongside with people who are 14 (I'm hanging out in slashnet))
Forum websites that aren't technical are hard for me to find, as well as web rings, but I'm only starting to explore neocities and will probably find some cool ones soon (if you have any recommendations, feel free to share them, though)
And thank you for your response!
Dang, it really uses that much battery? What if you use an in-browser client, wouldn't it pause when you navigate away from the tab?
I haven't used IRC in a long time, I used to just join rooms and say "sup", heh good times
I spend a lot of time on www.doomworld.com because I'm into oldschool Doom and there's a big modding community there (and I've been a member there since 2003!) I think it will be harder to find a good forum if you don't have a specific thing like that in mind. Most forums revolve around a specific activity so I would think first about WHAT you want to talk to people about, then look for websites related to that topic. Try not to be too general - so if you want to hang out with game developers, consider narrowing it down to the type of game you are interested in. I mean, there are general game dev forums (this is one) but I just think it can be a better experience if the topic is more focused, because the community will hopefully be a bit smaller and more intimate. And, you'll have a common ground to start conversation from.
You can also really do it the old way by making your own forum :P
EDIT: just realized you made a classic Doom map, awesome!
Browser client is offlining the tabs, but your "sup" method works great, yeah. And doom is cool as hell (sorry).
Oh and thanks for checking out my profile and following. If you'd ever play the map,let me know what you think as a doom enjoyer. The final part of the map sucks, because I did all of it in a few hours for a jam (the jam actually was two months, but I completely forgot about it and it's host Steve Lee gave me a chance to upload it in 24 hours and I did my best), but I'm quite happy with the parts before the gate and the fact that you only need any two keys to proceed.