If I had to pay on a subscription basis, I would ditch every single one of them. WhatsApp is basically glorified SMS. I can live very well without the occassional "look at this funny video" shit. The only value I get out of Facebook is its event calendar. Since most of the type of events I used to love to go to are banned since Covid, I don't see a reason to continue using FB anyway. Twitter is pretty US-centric and basically just a journalist tool in my area. Reddit used to be fun until it wasn't. And HN is a nice to have, but I wouldn't pay for a subscription. But I might be the wrong person to ask, I find subscription models scammy. I had NetFlix and Audible, and am very happy to have jumped off the train. I never had Spotify, and I felt majorly pissed when Apple started to push its Apple Music pop ups in the Music app. In fact, my dislike of subscription models is so strong that you will likely alienate me as a customer if you ever inform me about the ability to subscribe more then once.

HN/bookface only. Reddit once used to be good for real reviews/opinions. But now it's full of shills/manipulation bots who do not disclose themselves. The conversation and comments do not feel organic either and highly manipulated on international/news/geopolitical/political/sensitive things. It's like someone wants to force us to change our views.

Reddit is still the best for specific topics imho, I wouldn't mind switching to a forum but if I want to read about and discuss football (soccer), news about my country, old school runescape, and stuff like /r/IdiotsInCars there's really no alternative for me (since I haven't used FB in years).

> news about my country

I would recommend that if you're from the U.S., just subscribe to the Reuters RSS feed and one Chinese state public broadcast channel (globaltimes.cn). That's it. You'd know what both sides say and form an independent opinion after that.

If you're Chinese, follow one of the reputable American media (not CNN, Fox, New York Times etc they're low quality entertainment sources, not news) but something like AP or Reuters in addition to your own. Never believe one side.

Do you think reddit can be reborn to make it better and not have those problems?

Do you think HN not having pictures plays a role in keeping it cleaner than Reddit?

HN is good because of the moderation and 'niche' audience I think. Any place with a relatively specific topic and passionate userbase can either shift to very good or very bad, the decider is moderation.

private forums would continue to outshine all of them

Private forums only compete with Reddit and HN on that list. Quora already seems like Xenforo with a highly custom skin.

Forums were basically never used for socializing with people you met irl. Nor could I imagine a scenario where I'm using a forum to stay in contact with irl friends except the rare case where my squad somehow set one up in 2006.

What type of private forum? Any examples?

They wouldn't be very private if examples of them were discussed on HN, would they?

without giving examples, I enjoy one that revolves around webdev, biz and programming, with a fair amount of hazing between longterm members.