Facebook Groups / Web Forums / Email Mailing Lists

Current Facebook Groups / Web Forums / Email Mailing Lists

• Canals and Rivers UK facebook group - more than 80,000 members as of 24-Sep-2023
• Canal World Discussion Forums - near 33,000 members as of 24-Sep-2023
• Norfolk Broads Forum - about 13,000 members as of 24-Sep-2023
• "Narrowboats" Reddit group - about 9,500 members as of March 2024
• Boaters' Manifesto facebook group - over 400 members as of 24-Sep-2023. For background information on this group, see Boaters' Manifesto
• The canals mailing list. Begun 1995. Over 150 subscribers. I (George) am one of the two "moderators. Now only about 1 message per day, on average. Subscribers are mostly long-time participants. There were many messages in the past, but everyone probably said all they have to say by now, which accounts for the current low traffic! However there is a font of knowledge available here.
• Inland Waterways Association of Ireland Discussion Forum - over 2000 members as of 24-Sep-2023; low message traffic
• Boats and Canals Forum - about 300 members as of 24-Sep-2023; registration of new subscribers suspended, except by contacting the administrator

  There is some canal and waterway related content on X (Twitter), Pinterest, and Reddit, but since I don't do those, you're on your own there. By the same token, Facebook probably has more content than what I've listed above.

  Note: many canal societies have their own mailing lists.

Defunct Groups

• Just Canals - a forum site; had over 2900 members
• thenorfolkbroads.net forum
• Lost and historic waterways mailing list/forum - specific to lost canals and waterways in Great Britain and Ireland; had infrequent messages
• Historic Inland Working Boats mailing list/forum - specific to the British Isles; very infrequent messages

Usenet Newsgroups

• uk.rec.waterways not very active - spun off the the canals mailing list (see above) in November 1995. Carried the same messages as the mailing list until June 11, 1999. Independent of list since then.
  • uk.rec.waterways is also available on the web
• fr.rec.bateaux, converses in French, and may sometimes include canals and waterways information.
  • fr.rec.bateaux is also available on the web
• uk.rec.waterways.fens, Essentially defunct - no on-topic postings in years. - created in January 1999, for discussions related to the Fen waterways of the UK.
  • uk.rec.waterways.fens is also available on the web