Very few people in that subreddit actually live in Taiwan.
Sometimes actual discussions pop up and gain some traction, but most of the posts voted up consist of the 10000th picture of the 101 taken from Xiangshan with a title like “Thank you, Taiwan!” or some tourist posting a shitty pic of their Taiwanese breakfast.
Just a general observation of foreigners in Taiwan:
I’ve only been living in Taiwan for 3 years and a bit now, but I’ve frequently visited in 2016-2018. I’ve noticed a shift in how people behave. COVID really fucked us all up. I find that I have fewer conversations with people at bars, especially younger people (part of that is also me getting older, I think).
People just don’t seem as eager to put effort into relationships. For example, I once met an expat couple that were FOBs, we met up a few times for drinks, traveled to Yilan together once. I gave them some advice, helped them with getting settled in Taiwan. Eventually, I just get ghosted.
It took a while, but I eventually found a group I hang out with pretty frequently. Most of them co-workers from South- and Southeast Asia.
yeah, it’s not really just one thing, a combination of things that have been pointed out already. I think there are definitely fewer young people coming to Taiwan, although I have met a couple of interesting (using that word sincerely) ones in the last year. one factor that hasn’t been mentioned yet is just the fact that Gen Z is a small generation and there are just fewer of them.
and yeah, I think it’s really unfortunate that so much has moved to major social media platforms, honestly, I think that maintaining a website like this is a lot of work and I am grateful to everyone that is involved in that. some of the other forums that I used to take part in are just gone forever and have become far inferior once they moved to social media. I think that forums like this, although they seem dated, really need to continue to exist, because they are mostly text based, well categorized/organized, mostly anonymous and generally, people make more thoughtful posts here than they do on social media. writing as much as I am right now would be RARE on social media. how often do you see people writing this much on social media? it’s mostly just short, shallow, surface level reactions to stuff that’s mostly just garbage in the first place. And there is no way to categorize and easily search for stuff later. Reddit is okay as a platform in general, and I occasionally read the Taiwan stuff, but I have just always liked the Forumosa community much better and keep sticking with this place over the years, a great place to just come and chat sometimes. I have been participating in message boards like this since I started going online back in the late 90s. I hope they never go away, but sadly they are. Hope you’re here forever, Forumosa.
Yeah, I miss the nutters and greenhorns. Is there the same amount of posts? Perhaps. But it’s the same boring political threads that are getting endlessly bumped. Relatively very little about actual life in Taiwan.
Only amusing thread right now that reminds me of the old days is that guy who posts endlessly about trying to get back in the country after being deported. God bless his wayward soul.
I enjoyed the post in the last year or so about the dude who thought the bank teller liked him. I would never have met my wife if I didn’t make a pass at her when already dating her friend. Or when I was single, going in for a haircut, walking out with a number, and having a fling soon after arriving…what a country! What poster boys of bad behavior we were To be young, dumb and full of again
I use Reddit it’s so sanctimonious and uses negative feedback to punish people with minority views. Kinda nasty. And I often see people downvoted for no real reason.
YouTube is good, but can’t build up a community of users on YouTube.
Facebook groups are ok but many posts on foreigner groups are so fcking stupid like 'how do I get a job ’ with no details even provided. Repeated over and over with inane comments.
Taiwanese Facebook groups are much better with many active niche and hobby user groups but all in Chinese which sadly excludes 95%-99% of foreigners here. If you do join the group or participate you’ll usually be the only foreigner or immigrant in most groups, which is ok but also a bit tiresome.
Reddit = too many judgmental ‘woke’ kids. “Taiwan can do no wrong”
Facebook = opposite problem really… creepy racists and bots. And people looking for jobs watching kids that you wouldn’t trust to order a pizza. At least the western groups.
YouTube = don’t know really. I don’t see much of a community there. Just randos spamming their diarrhea of thoughts under whatever video they’re commenting on.
again 
