# What is the best online forum of all time?

> Old-school message boards sit next to anonymous imageboards and reputation-driven Q&A sites here, each with its own house rules and in-jokes.

*By YPB Team · Published November 5, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-online-forum-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Reddit**
   Discussion site founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, organised into user-run communities called subreddits.
2. **Something Awful Forums**
   Paid-membership forums of the comedy site Richard Kyanka started in 1999, where the term Let's Play was coined.
3. **Digg**
   Social news site launched by Kevin Rose in 2004 where users voted stories up or down; its 2010 redesign pushed many users to Reddit.
4. **4chan**
   Anonymous imageboard launched by Christopher Poole in 2003, where many early internet memes first spread.
5. **Stack Overflow**
   Programming question-and-answer site founded by Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky in 2008, built on voting and reputation points.
6. **Fark**
   News-link aggregator founded by Drew Curtis in 1999, where members submit stories under joke headlines and comment on them.
7. **Hacker News**
   Technology and startup link board that Paul Graham launched at Y Combinator in 2007, written in the Arc language.
8. **ResetEra**
   Video game and culture forum founded in October 2017 by former NeoGAF members and moderators who left that site after its owner's scandal.
9. **Quora**
   Question-and-answer site founded in 2009 by former Facebook employees Adam D'Angelo and Charlie Cheever.
10. **The WELL**
   Early online community started in 1985 by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant in Sausalito, California.
11. **XDA Developers**
   Forum for mobile developers and Android modders launched in December 2002, named after the O2 Xda line of Pocket PC and Windows Mobile handsets.
12. **Gaia Online**
   Anime-themed forum community launched in 2003 with customisable avatars and a virtual item economy.

Tags: social-media, internet, websites, forums