[Resources] Classic style Forums in the Internetverse
Since thanks to the sundering and enshittification of the internet, returning to the old ways of the Internet 2.0 or even the Internet 1.0 is in vogue, and decentralized / independent communities are also in vogue, I thought:
Why not just collect some relevant links to Pokémon forums that still exist in this formerly-Reddit-controlled universe.
These all are places where we can go read and post Pokémon Fanfiction, as well as discussing other aspects of the franchise.
Now, I'm not just interested in a mere list of links. I'm gonna mention a few things I've experienced of each platform I personally know of, am interested in more input.
In no particular order
- Serebii Forums
Fanfiction section. A true Classic of the era vBulletin-style forum, for those who remember their 90s, that runs on Xenforo.
For writers, it has some practical BBCode and engine level amenities such as spoiler blocks, tags, and a nested quote support that actually works.
It's also one of the few forums I've seen that supports both tables and paragraph indents and outdents for layout, so if you want to write a work that has more "technical" elements, Serebii is going to cause little if any issues (and with less cost for composing it than eg.: PokéCommunity).
For readers, a number of PMD long-runners are actively posted there. There was a time where Serebii was "the" forum to go to if you wanted some PMD (or feedback on your PMD), and it still shows.
- PokéCommunity
(Disclaimer: am a mod of their fanfiction community)
Fanfiction section. Another old-standing forum that has been there for "20 years and counting" and is a bit more generalistic and has a bit more visual flair. Runs on a self-made engine, apparently, but with announced plans for a big migration, likely to Xenforo.
For writers, the big power is "PokéCommunity CSS", a wrapper around CSS for decorating a work or thread – in about the same way AO3 does (both platforms were around "even" on CSS support until around Apr 2023).
This means you can make a work just as easily accessible on PC as you can on AO3 (it even supports Furigana!), and you can (for the most part) cross-post from PC to AO3 and viceversa with little more help than a BBCode-HTML converter and a couple of search-and-replaces.
For readers, it has many old works as well as some series or rewritings of. Statistically speaking seems to have a stronger focus on trainerverses. Activity is not that recurrent, but it does see a significant boost during event seasons.
Currently doesn't support tagging, covers or threadmarks. Might or might not change with the migration.
- Canalave Library
Fanfiction section. An old proboards forum that later migrated to forumotion. Has a basic but workable layout and engine that still supports a quite lean rich text editor.
Am unsure on their current level of engine support, and IIRC they have a restricted set of pre-defined tags; but they have pretty good BBCode including smileys and the editor doesn't suffer from it.
The old proboards forum seems to still be available and has some stories there that have not been ported over to the new location, so go grab them while you can!
One extra gain from it, in case you need it, is that it's one of the few forums where saving stories with "Save As..." as HTML-only will work properly, whereas for most other forums the generated file still tries to phone home or load external resources for some essentials.
- Thousand Roads
Fanfiction section. Another Xenforo forum of a more recent generation but that for the most part doesn't eschew any of the things that made 1.0 forums great. In particular it has one "returning nicetie" from that time: a chat/reply system for members.
For writers, it has a pretty strong rich text editor with multireply control, and has only one known gotcha (when using section dividers, the classic "horizontal line"). It has a good system of tags, has support for threadmarks, and support for (IIRC) both thread and post level covers.
For readers, it's a platform that features some of the regulars who have branched out from some other communities to try out new spaces.
You are bound to see newer stories, and in particular a pretty good pool of oneshots from their event seasons. And because of their little on-site chat system, who knows, you might find out about new releases "live".
- Bulbagarden Forums
Fanfiction section. Bulbagarden's branch for fanon, contrasted with the Bulbapedia wiki which is their branch for canon. It is also a decently long-standing forum, currently running on Xenforo. It seems to also have a microblogging feature for its members, but I haven't checked it.
For writers, it has the usual amenities, a decent rich text editor, support for spoiler blocks and I think for threadmarks as well. While it has the basic BBCode support I don't seem to recall it having mid-tier typographical support such as super/subscript, inline blocks (for eg.: code or spoilers), Furigana or any other sort of annotation. Someone please correct me also on what I'm missing at the engine level.
These are the main platforms I know of and have used at some point. I'd love to edit this with more info as I get to know some more.
Also I'm touching here on only the English-speaking community forums, I know there's both franchise-level and generalistic communities in other languages such as cPokémon (Español).