[grawprog]

>Today, it's definitely harder to find good commentary and exchange. It's also super heavily astroturfed by political groups in all the subreddits

I've found a lot of hobby specific subreddits or ones on niche topics tend to avoid that. Also, less popular niches or hobbies i've noticed tend to have more people that are actually interested in having decent conversations about said topics or hobbies.

[mdoms]

I have never found a hobby subreddit worth following. If I look at my hobbies like /r/simracing /r/gardening /r/welding /r/motorcycles an overwhelming (in the literal sense) number of posts are just lazy image posts of (in order of listed subs) a sim racing rig, a pile of vegetables, a nice bead and a motorcycle. A picture of an ordinary part of a hobby is not conducive to meaningful conversations on the hobby.

Additionally I have found virtually all hobby subreddits are dominated by newbies to the hobby. This is especially pronounced on /r/motorcycles but appears to be general. Hobby subs are places where newbies hear newbies give advice and then pass that advice on to other newbies as if they were experienced.

I keep seeing people say that niche hobby subs still have worthwhile discussions but I have yet to actually see this.

[chapium]

> Additionally I have found virtually all hobby subreddits are dominated by newbies to the hobby.

Indeed, that is my experience as well. Its mostly show and tell from people new to the hobbies who are in the growing phase. There is also a lot of trend chasing to be "in". I've seen this in all sorts of hobby sub.

[grawprog]

Like i said, less popular topics and hobbies tend to have higher quality discussions. Gardening, welding and motorcycles are pretty popular topics.

I tried looking around for a decent motorcycle sub, you're right that one lacks some alternatives. For gardening, maybe try more specific subs like for your local area or a specific kind of gardening, flowers or vegetables or whatever, just something more specific and niche than just gardening.

For welding again, similar idea, look for more specific less general welding related topics that may have subs devoted to them.

It may not work for all topics but generally i've found, the more specific and niche you get, the. better chance you'll find something decent.

It's still just a chance, you may or may not be able to find what you're looking for, but this is generally what i've found.

[derefr]

If a subreddit is about a visual creative medium, then the image posts won't be lazy, as they will tend to be people's Original Content; and they will frequently spawn good discussions on how to achieve the effects shown. See:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/origami/

• https://www.reddit.com/r/PixelArt/

• https://www.reddit.com/r/Watercolor/

• https://www.reddit.com/r/MSpaintLikeBobRoss/

DIY hobbies also spawn good subreddits. See e.g.

• https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/

And of course, there's the great and under-explored genre of "hobby X but for old people who aren't interested in the fads of hobby X" subreddits, e.g.

• https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/

[tayo42]

There's never any discussion on watercolor? It's just a dumping ground for some average at best paintings

[derefr]

The few times I've looked at the comments sections it's been pretty good. But then, I don't visit the subreddit (or any subreddit); I just join it and then wait for things from it to show up on my front page. So I only see posts from it when those posts get wildly popular, or at least more popular than posts on such a sub usually get.

[tayo42]

Oh thats interesting, I guess yeah if something actually gets popular enough to bubble up it could be decent content.

I water color paint, in the end I was pretty disappointed with it. I was hoping their might be helpful community but it's non existent

[joshlemer]

Is there a better place you go for your hobbies them, or do you just google "<my hobby> forum" to find the best discussion boards for each topic individually?

[mdoms]

Forums are dead so for modern hobbies like simracing I haven't found anything. I work on old cars so there are still great forums for that stuff, and gardening I have given up on online discussion content - it's mostly crappy sponsored content trying to sell you bullshit. Gardening content is best consumed in books and YouTube and ignore online discussion.

[MattRix]

I just mentioned it in another comment but Discord servers are one of the newest types of communities popping up (especially for younger folks, but they can be for people of any age). For example, here’s one about gardening: https://discord.gg/D2kCbGY

[mdoms]

This is the worst possible outcome for hobby content. At least forum/reddit threads are searchable on the open web and likely to remain available at least for a while.

[MattRix]

There are definitely pros and cons. In many ways it’s like a modern equivalent to IRC rather than Reddit/Forums.

[chapium]

Discord is searchable enough. Not being on the open web forever is a feature.

[MattRix]

Not OP, but one modern option is Discord servers. There are lots of them these days on all kinds of topics.

[ativzzz]

IMO live chat is awful for community building, especially one with deep knowledge bases such as gardening. It's great for troubleshooting problems and asking questions, but it does not do a good job of retaining information, and it excludes people from obtaining information who are not there right now when the conversation is happening

[dentemple]

It probably depends on the hobby.

/r/anime and /r/manga are pretty great when it comes to discussing active releases.

[cpach]

Indeed!

Example: The other day I had a question about Exchange Server client compatibility. I wanted a discussion about pros and cons, i.e. not a good fit for Stack Exchange since there’s no obviously correct answer. So I googled for ⸤exchange server subreddit⸣. And of course, there was an Exchange Server subreddit. Asked the question there and got lots of high-quality answers, zero bullshit. That’s Reddit at it’s best.

PS. In order to save one’s sanity, I encourage all redditors to use https://old.reddit.com/ exclusively.