Do Forums Compete with MySpace?

[Monty]

I set up a page on MySpace for our new TeenSports forum in an effort to steer some traffic over to our new forum. While a lot of people dropped by to take a look, we got only 2 signups and neither of them posted anything. Granted, the forum is brand new and has few posts. But I expected a few more than that out of hundreds of visitors.

But I'm also wondering if sites like MySpace or FaceBook are becoming the preferred way for younger people to interact online. While the MySpace site is a damn mess, it's incredibly popular, and the kids seem to love creating their own custom pages and decorating them with every digital doo-dad imaginable.

Are Forums as we know them becoming outmoded? I know not everyone wants to create a custom-decorated profile page littered with photos of their friends, but, lots of people do! I realize there are several hacks and plugins out there, or in development, that could change this for vBulletin. I feel the ability to offer MySpace-like profile pages would be quite attractive to younger people, the target group for my forum.

What do you think?

[Dcanfield]

Myspace has took a lot of traffic away from forums but this comes back to having a niche.

THere will always be traffic for quality forums from teens. You just can't expect to throw up a crap bb system and expect repeat visitors.

[PalePhoenix]

No.

[skyhawk133]

They are 2 different things, and target an entirely different audience.

Sure, it may have taken the TIME that some people spent on off topics forums, but myspace is not taking the VISITORS from forums.

I wouldn't worry about it, communities are on the rise and have their place on the internet. Myspace is a social networking site dominated by 16 year old kids. Anyone interested in intelligent conversation will still favor an established community.

[B2W]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyhawk133 They are 2 different things, and target an entirely different audience. Sure, it may have taken the TIME that some people spent on off topics forums, but myspace is not taking the VISITORS from forums. I wouldn't worry about it, communities are on the rise and have their place on the internet. Myspace is a social networking site dominated by 16 year old kids. Anyone interested in intelligent conversation will still favor an established community.

I totally agree with this comment. A few of my members are totally addicted to Myspace an they are between the ages of 21 and 28. I signed up for it, took a look around and deleted my account. I can't do it. Forums is where I'll stay.

Myspace, to me, is a "meeting place of nothingness".

[cpvr]

It's only a matter of time before Myspace falls off!

[hugh]

Myspace - THE MOVIE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ_dam5DmsM

[Monty]

Well, the target for my forum is kids aged 14-19, who, if online, most likely use MySpace because all of their friends at school use it, too.

Having done extensive research on MySpace I can conclude that the whole interface really majorly sucks lemons in every way possible. It's also horribly slow and frequently produces server errors. Yet the kids swarm to it, probably because of the huge community already there.

If you had your forum started and established before MySpace, there's probably no huge threat to it. But, for someone like me who is trying to get a new forum established now, MySpace is a factor making things a bit more difficult, esp. if it targets tweens or teens.

But, as mentioned above, MySpace may eventually have less draw than it does now. Let's hope!

[dojo]

My forums don't compete with myspace. I have "technical" forums or at least with a serious topic and myspace has a different demographic.

[Jeff]

MySpace is a virtual hangout, but nothing more. If someone comes online looking for specialized information, MySpace is the LAST place they will generally look (if at all).

Does MySpace compete with forums? Not at all... UNLESS...

Unless your forums are nothing more than a teen hangout. In that case, MySpace is kicking your ass.

[PalePhoenix]

And when the News Corporation comes to buy up your teen hangout, so it can indoctrinate another generation of Faux Nuze watchers, be sure to ask for a whole lotta cheddah.

[mmelen]

I think that MySpace only takes away garbage users from forums.
I looked at the myspace forums... its filled with "hey wanna see my pics!" etc. spam posts.

I think teens that are interested in sports, will definately prefer to talk in a real targeted forum rather than the myspace forums.

[Megan]

I wouldn't be so quick to blow off social networking sites altogether. Everyone has pointed out the downside of sites like this here but the fact is that they are really, really popular. I've heard of university computer labs that have had to block myspace because people were spending too much time on there while others were waiting to use the computers for homework.

I think there is a certain amount of overlap between forums and social networking. THey might not be directly competitive but if people are spending a lot of time on myspace, and are getting their online socialization fix there, then they aren't going to be spending a lot of time on forums.

There is something about all these sites that people really really like if they're spending that much time on them. I think that we as forum owners can learn from that and find ways to make our sites better. Think about what people are spending their time on and how you can borrow ideas to keep people on your site. People seem to really like to be able to create their own content or contribute to content. They like to have their own space and make stuff about themselves.

Are Forums as we know them becoming outmoded? In some ways I think yes. Forums have never got the mainstream media attention that social networking sites are getting now. Why is that? What is it about the forum format that has made it plod on steadily in the background while MySpace gets all the glory? The forum format has remained pretty static for a long time and that's causing us to lose out to other sites that are doing cool or innovative new things. Social networking is a big trend now but I don't get the impression that forums are considered to be part of that. I think we can learn from these other sites and find ways to bring forums up to speed.

It is true, as many have mentioned, that these are mainly popular with young people. But young people get older - are they going to give up my space when they move out of high school? Maybe, but then there's Facebook and other sites like flickr or 43 things or blogging tools and tons of other options where they can contribute and easily make stuff about themselves. Once they've had experience on sites like that they might be looking for something more from forums. There's opportunity there

[DChapman]

Very well said Megan, I agree 100%.

[Megan]

Here's a few ideas for your Teen sports forum - firstly, in vBulletin you can add additional user profile fields. Add lots. Also, create some public (joinable) user groups on different topics. Give people a badge or icon or something for all the usergroups they join. Let each group have a discussion area. Let people request groups, even if they're silly. You might want to mess around with the interface some to make this more prominent.

[GardenHelper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PalePhoenix No.

I always enjoy Pheonix's comments but I have to say I don't think I have EVER seen such a terse one. (lol)


MySpace and forums are two different animals and as the target audience for MySpace users matures I beleive they will migrate away from that sort of social networking and into sites and tools that better represent the needs of a growing young adult. Information becomes more important than social recognition for most young adults at some point.

However, I think the team that develops the best blend of forum and social network software will have a serious winner on their hands.

[Monty]

Megan, you make some very good points. Forums or Bulletin Boards have been around long before the commercialized Internet as we know it today. The Well started as a simple, community with a DOS-based interface that was extremely popular and attracted a lot of members in the 80s.

But the "social networking" phenom can't be ignored, as you mention, and hopefully developers of forum software like vB will start to adopt some of the more successful aspects of social networking sites. Profiles should be much more customizable, for example. Actually, most forum software has nearly all the tools there (private messaging, avatars, buddy lists, etc.), so, it might be possible to accomplish this with only plugins and mods.

Entire communities have also been created around blogs, and thankfully for vB users there is vBadvanced, which provides a blog-like home page for the forum. With other plugins and add-ons like this, it may be possible for forums to better compete with blogs, myspace, facebook, etc.

And thanks for the suggestions for my forum! I'm going to try to implement some of them this weekend.

[Pat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monty Megan, you make some very good points. Forums or Bulletin Boards have been around long before the commercialized Internet as we know it today. The Well started as a simple, community with a DOS-based interface that was extremely popular and attracted a lot of members in the 80s.

Ahhh BBS'ing, now those were the days... When 300bps was 'fast enough' and the 911 was a USR Sportster... Can't leave out the Juxta list...
...special greet to an old friend Dr. Detergent, where the hell are you now? [INT]


...Sorry, got all nostalgic...

[Megan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monty But the "social networking" phenom can't be ignored, as you mention, and hopefully developers of forum software like vB will start to adopt some of the more successful aspects of social networking sites. Profiles should be much more customizable, for example. Actually, most forum software has nearly all the tools there (private messaging, avatars, buddy lists, etc.), so, it might be possible to accomplish this with only plugins and mods.

Yes, exactly! it's all there, so why have forums been eclipsed so drastically by these newer sties that provide the same functionality?

I've been spending some time with Facebook and now MySpace (for work ) and I've also noticed that the designs are very very simple. Well, not so much my space in all areas, but check out their forums. Basic, basic, basic. If that forum was being reviewed here we'd probably say it needed a new skin, desperately. But it hasnt' seemed to slow the popularity there at all - why?

If you look at some of the "Web 2.0" sites like Flickr and Facebook the interfaces are very clean. vBUlletin (and vBadvanced) in contrast, look like they were designed in 1998. Really, the vBulletin interface has stayed more or less the same as long as I've been using it (6+ years). Design trends have changed a lot since then.

I think this contributes to the "outdated" factor of forums - they don't look modern. I think sometimes forum owners get hung up on adding extras, fancy graphics and things that while these other sites are keeping it simple. The sheer number of people in those mySpace groups and forums make it pretty clear that people don't care that much about this stuff. We talk a lot here about having a great skin, but maybe a great skin should really be simple not flashy or complicated. Maybe we should be subtacting from the default software, not adding to it.

vBadvanced has blogging, sure, but it looks like those phpNuke sites that were popular about 5 years ago, not like the blog sites that are popular now. vB has got nested tables and borders around everything and all kinds of stuff that was cool 8 years ago but is really in the dark ages as far as Web 2.0 style design goes. I'm trying to fix that on my forum but it's a heck of a lot of work.

[Megan]

Oh - the other thing I wanted to mention is that these places seem to be pretty open in terms of what people can and cannot say and do. I think sometimes in forums we tend to want to control things too much. Wheras on MySpace or whatever people can do pretty much whatever they want. So maybe as forum admins we need to loosen up and not try to micromanage things so much depending on the nature of your community.

Yikes, check out some of the groups in the MySpace Food & Drink area. Some of the photos people post are ... ummm.... almost soft core I wouldn't go that far!