Right, but how do I find that tight-knit community (and begin to trust the people in it) if none of the people I currently associate with are interested in that niche & can introduce me to it?
Well of course, these types of communities aren't going to be paying for advertising because the communities themselves are generally going to be non-profit.
My point was if these communities are hard to find, targeted ads from small businesses in that niche might inform you of relevant products or services, not relevant communities.
Definitely not saying it's a perfect solution, or one that I like, just trying to point out it's not as black & white as people like to make out (especially on sites like HN)
They tend to cluster around a couple of websites or Facebook groups, so I would say Google. Reddit works as well, there are a lot of subreddits on any subject one would care to mention.
Sure, but how do I know if I can trust a random community I found via Google or on Reddit?
At least with ads (on a platform like Facebook), it's obvious they're ads and what their incentive is. With a random community, it may be unclear if people within it/the community itself is being paid by some company etc. Or if they have some other incentive to misrepresent the quality of certain products/services (e.g. recommending only what they can get affiliate links for).
Yes, you don't know whether you can trust a forum that's been up since 2004 whose only reason to exist is to discuss $topic. The rockbox forum for example, how would you know those guys _actually_ like cfw for mp3 players and don't just want to scam your crypto away?
Ads on the other hand you can trust to lie to you 100% of the time. Ads are never honest, their only intention is to fool you to buy something you don't need.
I legitimately don't understand how _anyone_ would think he gains any value from reading dishonest corporate propaganda, less how he would think "hey, thats nice! I'll buy that!"
Ah of course, all niche communities have existed for 16 years...
Your example of rockbox forum seems disingenuous because I assume they're not recommending you buy particular products (maybe recommending some particular mp3 players that the cfw works well on, but I think they try to target a wide range of players).
> Ads on the other hand you can trust to lie to you 100% of the time.
Exactly my point. You know exactly what you're getting and what their incentive is.
Well actually, maybe not exactly my point - it's pretty clear to me that ads do not "lie to you 100% of the time". Some ads are going to exaggerate the quality of their products etc., but some ads literally just inform you "this is a thing that is available", which is typically an easily provable claim.
But the point is that yes, with ads you know that it's being paid for by the people who have a direct financial interest in you buying the thing. You can make an informed decision.
I know how to evaluate the quality of the discussions and contributions from my experience.
Also, we can discuss the quality of Internet communities, but I would tend to trust one of these quite a bit more than an advert, even targeted, which was where we were coming from.
As real life examples, I have got advice on stuff to buy from photography websites, modelling (railway and wargames) Facebook groups and blogs without any trouble, and I know where to find it when I need it. I know when to take a photography buff raving about a camera with a grain of salt ("but it has a better score with DXOMARK"), I have about zero confidence in adverts on the web.
