Are forums dying?

[CarpCharacin]

Someone who owns 2 big forums told me that they are dying. Are they?

 

[GTB]

Yes

 

[GTB]

Why did you ask if you disagree with me?

 

[CarpCharacin]

Why did you ask if you disagree with me?

I asked, but I don't think they are dying.

 

[CarpCharacin]

There are more forums than there were years ago, but those forums aren't dying.

 

[Namorat]

Declining seems more fitting to me personally. I don't think they will go away, but activity focusses on fewer boards and decreases in general.

One can argue if people don't have what it takes anymore to be a member of a community or if new social media options simply fulfil needs forums could in the past.
Forums are paar their prime.

 

[cms674]

I don't know if I'd say they are "dying", but they certainly aren't as popular now that there's places like Facebook. Anyone can start a page or a group there and it's where the majority of people already are throughout the day. People being relatively lazy, if it isn't in their newsfeed they may not be as apt to seek it out.

The trick is to find a way to make your forum interesting enough that they'll come back frequently. Then getting them to participate is another beast as well.

But I wouldn't say dead, they just have to offer something social media doesn't.

 

[OUTL4W]

Why don't you think forums are doing better?

Have a read here and then give a comprehensive reply as to the contrary
https://theadminzone.com/threads/the-discussion-forum-universe-is-dying-i-know-why.139697/

 

[we_are_borg]

When i started with forums in 2000/2001 you had lots of competition. Forums going up left and right these days even the script maker boards are not visited much.

 

[GTB]

When i started with forums in 2000/2001 you had lots of competition. Forums going up left and right these days even the script maker boards are not visited much.

True that, if you look at sites like MyBB and SMF now they are a shadow of what they used to be like getting used

 

[cms674]

I just think you don't have as many people starting them up as once before. There's more quality, less quantity. But I don't think that's a bad thing.

 

[Maddox]

I don't believe it's forums that are dying, rather it is the interest that people used to show them that is dying. There are loads of forums out there on the Net and more going up each day - however, they are more like grave markers than active communities, effectively they are dead and will stay that way unless they cover some unique niche that has never been covered before and is immensely popular, or the owners find a way (nigh impossible) to generate people's interest and get them into an active and productive state.

I also believe that many forum owners flash up a new forum just for the fun of actually making it happen; there's rarely any prospect of harvesting 100's of members and if they do, most of them will just be a number to rack up the counter and never add anything constructive.

Unless Facebook and Twitter suddenly vanish from the face of the Earth, or something incredibly better comes along, then most forums will just sit there and gather dust whilst those two monsters thrive and harvest even more of the bland and inane into their ranks.

Que Sera Sera!

 

[CarpCharacin]

I just think you don't have as many people starting them up as once before. There's more quality, less quantity. But I don't think that's a bad thing.

I agree. There are many more forums now than there were once and that is why I think starting a forum is harder these days.

 

[ozzy47]

I cleaned this thread up.

Now, lets stay on topic of forums in general and leave the fish forums out of it.

 

[Yappi]

They use social media or blog type environments or sites like Reddit, etc.

Just curious that you use Reddit as a reason for forums dying when in fact, Reddit IS a forum. Albeit, a really big forum.

Personally, I've come across some incredibly busy forums the last few months that I had never heard of previously. The difference now is that it is much more difficult to start a forum and reach a reasonable threshold. In the early 2000s, it wasn't hard to attract new people to a forum. Everything was new back then but things have matured and getting a forum off the ground is more difficult but is certainly possible.

It seems most people that say forums are dying are looking mostly at the entry level. There certainly weren't any "Reddits" out there 15 years ago that had 100s of millions of users. I would go as far to say that Reddit now has more monthly active users than ALL of the forums put together from 2001.

 

[CarpCharacin]

I think that reddit is a forum.

 

[Namorat]

I think that reddit is a forum.

Why do you think so?

 

[GTB]

I have seen a lot of forums vanish from the web that I used to post on which was very large ones.

All of them gone now, bar a very few left.

 

[CarpCharacin]

I have seen a lot of forums vanish from the web that I used to post on which was very large ones.

All of them gone now, bar a very few left.

Vertical scope owns thousands of large forums.

 

[CarpCharacin]

And are those "thousands" of forums all doing as well on activity as they were 2 years ago. I know at least 3 that aren't (again, they are vehicle related).

There are lots of active vehicle related forums. There are so many vehicle related forums. I'm sure some of them aren't active anymore, but that can be because of other things too. Of course some forums are dying, but I don't think all are dying.