Do you have any good suggestions on forums where comic fans share their thoughts on comics with a positive mindset? I’ve stopped buying physical copies and have gone full digital and with that move, I miss the discussions with fellow fans at the local comic shop. I’ve gone to certain forums but I find a surprising amount of negativity about the books (x-books specifically) and I don’t find it adding to my enjoyment. I’d rather talk about what I like then the flaws. Thoughts?

rachelandmiles:

brianmichaelbendis:

This question comes up a lot too and I wish I had a better answer for you. It does seem that the discourse on the forums has hit an all-time low. I haven’t visited them but I get so many comments about them and how unfriendly and unappealing they are to people who actually want to have a fun and friendly positive discussion. I do feel bad that so many of you are having a hard time finding a decent conversation. 

I know that the number one culprit is people just beating you up for liking something. Like it’s against the law to actually like something. And sometimes you’re being beat up by someone who hasn’t actually read the thing that you liked. Of the many things I was proud of my boards,  was that you could actually like something and find other people who like something.

I also know how funny it is that negative people bully positive people off the conversation and then they think they won something. 

Hopefully below this people can point you in the direction of some positive conversation.

If you are into (or interested in) X-Men and looking with nice people who are all about sharing enthusiasm for comics they love, we have been incredibly impressed with the quality and tone of the conversations in the Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men comments.

(Obviously a) this isn’t a forum-forum, and b) it’s pretty topic-specific, so, YMMV.)

We’ve been podcasting—with a listenership of roughly 10k—and blogging semiweekly—both with a very active commentariat and pretty stringent moderation guidelines—for just under a year. In that time, we’ve blocked, I think, a total of two comments (not counting spam and things like accidental double posts or empty posts). 

We’ve needed to ask someone to edit something once.

I know recommending a content-driven site for the comments sounds kind of ridiculous, but there you go. (And even if you’re not interested in following the podcast or blog posts, most of the discussion is usually of the source material, so it’s pretty feasible to treat the comments like a forum.)