Amino: Is it the future of forum culture?

[John L.]

I've been part of and started community forums for a long time. Going back to my early high school days I would join various online forums for a variety of topics. I've joined so many different communities over the years that when my birthday rolls around I'm reminded of them all thanks to those birthday emails . I've run a few of my own and seen the rigors of trying to keep people active and engaged, but I've always wondered if the "mobile age" has changed what I call "forum culture". We've seen sites like Reddit flourish, but most of the time it's just troll-city. Don't get me wrong, it can still generate some worthwhile content, but it's never been a real "forum-killer" in my opinion.

Then I came across this news article on Mashable and did a few searches here on TAZ to see if anyone has talked about Amino. It's possible my searching has been awful, but I haven't found anything yet.

So what is Amino? Well, I went to their site and basically it's just this: "Amino has authentic mobile communities for whatever you're into." OK, cool, mobile communities. I think that's awesome, but what if you're not on your mobile phone. Then of course, it hit me, I'm always on my phone . Maybe I never realized it, but my phone never leaves my side. So, at first I thought this was simply just an anime forum online for some reason, but then I discovered it's basically a mobile forum application that allows users to make their own communities. It seems like a basic idea, but maybe no one has ever flushed it out quite like this?

I haven't downloaded or registered on the app, but wanted to see if anyone else has investigated this? Is it a huge competitor for other community managers out there? Any fear that this is more of the future of forums as opposed to stand-alone software that we install on web hosting providers? Or is this just a completely different medium that has no impact on "forum culture" whatsoever?

 

[Yappi]

Good luck to these guys but I think they will find it more difficult as they expand. Not having an online presence is a mistake IMO. I went to their website and have no interest in downloading their app. Maybe if I could read some stuff as a guest, I would be convinced to download it but I'm not the type to just download something for the heck of it. Seems to be similar to Tapatalk with Amino maintaining more control.

Also will be interesting to see if they data they supplied is accurate or inflated to make themselves look good.

 

[pierce]

Good luck to these guys but I think they will find it more difficult as they expand. Not having an online presence is a mistake IMO. I went to their website and have no interest in downloading their app. Maybe if I could read some stuff as a guest, I would be convinced to download it but I'm not the type to just download something for the heck of it. Seems to be similar to Tapatalk with Amino maintaining more control.

Also will be interesting to see if they data they supplied is accurate or inflated to make themselves look good.

That's why Snapchat failed, and never got a billion dollar offer from Facebook.... No online presence...

 

[Anton Chigurh]

That's why Snapchat failed, and never got a billion dollar offer from Facebook.... No online presence...

DING DING DING We have a Winnah!

If it's mobile app-centric you really don't need a "online presence" you're present in 10s of millions of end user DEVICES!

 

[pierce]

It would be ironic that I started a thread in regards to apps for forums while saying that app only is successful....

But again my app may saturate at 50k users but Snapchat has millions upon millions.

It's also the holy trinity, fb, insta, Twitter, Snapchat.

(I know trinity means 3)

 

[ForumSentinel]

Very interesting. I'll want to dive in myself and see what they offer, especially want to create a community and check out their supporting tools/data.

 

[mysiteguy]

DING DING DING We have a Winnah!

If it's mobile app-centric you really don't need a "online presence" you're present in 10s of millions of end user DEVICES!

And 3 years in these people have managed to have under 100K downloads. You may not need an online presence to have 10s of millions of end user devices.... but you do need tens of millions of users. It sounds like a lot more vapor and hype than an actual hot product. I installed it, my reaction is "eh".

 

[Yappi]

That's why Snapchat failed, and never got a billion dollar offer from Facebook.... No online presence...

A forum is topic driven. Snapchat is not. VERY different types of sites. Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter are all similar sites that are driven by the individual. The content is "me". It's much easier to get someone to come to a site or app when you say "come look at me" instead of saying "come look at this forum about professional baseball." If Amino wants to be the next "me" site, I can see them growing. If they want to replace all the forum software as the next destination to discuss specific topics, I just don't see it without an online presence. Honestly, I don't see them replacing forum software anyway...

 

[Drastic]

Snapchat has exploded in the last few months. Just because Facebook doesn't buy it, that doesn't mean it's a failure.

Snapchat succeeds because people DON'T need a computer. Any basic smart phone can run it. Smartphones are to 16 year olds now, what our 30 lb monitors and tower computers were back when AOL chat was where you could pick up chicks.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/snapchat.com

 

[Maxxamillion]

I've downloaded and set up a page for my site to see if I can drive traffic from it. It's pretty cool tbh

 

[pierce]

Snapchat has exploded in the last few months. Just because Facebook doesn't buy it, that doesn't mean it's a failure.

Snapchat succeeds because people DON'T need a computer. Any basic smart phone can run it. Smartphones are to 16 year olds now, what our 30 lb monitors and tower computers were back when AOL chat was where you could pick up chicks.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/snapchat.com
View attachment 43084

Facebook did try to buy it..

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcom...ght-snapchat-for-3-billion-in-cash-heres-why/

3bn.

Maybe the old sarcasm detector didn't trigger....

A forum is topic driven. Snapchat is not. VERY different types of sites. Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter are all similar sites that are driven by the individual. The content is "me". It's much easier to get someone to come to a site or app when you say "come look at me" instead of saying "come look at this forum about professional baseball." If Amino wants to be the next "me" site, I can see them growing. If they want to replace all the forum software as the next destination to discuss specific topics, I just don't see it without an online presence. Honestly, I don't see them replacing forum software anyway...

Snapchat is topic driven. Me me me me me me, is the usual topic.

There's family, sharing moments, like honestly how many of us go back over all the old photos uploaded on fb? Unless it's your wedding and somebody posted them up. But somebody's holiday with +178 more pictures you don't really go through them... Do you?

Snapchat also has celeb news, live party updates, etc etc.

So it is highly focused on topics with multiple sections.

Maybe the screenshot shows a highly successfully xenforo user also have a very high presence on Snapchat..

 

[Drastic]

The sarcasm definitely went right over my head!! My bad!! In the back of my head I thought there was an offer for it, but couldn't remember. I don't use SC so I'm way out of the loop other than seeing it everywhere.

Gonna download it now!

Look at that, it just promoted itself.

 

[Alex.]

What exactly is Snapchat?

 

[pierce]

I take a picture and send it to you it lasts a few seconds then it's gone. Or put it on a story line for 24 hours.

There's also a lot of media presence that's paid for that you can look at like kardashisns, daily mail etc

 

[pierce]

The only hook I can find is:

Ughill find it later

 

[Alex.]

And people find that cool or interesting?

 

[pierce]

A tool to send friends temporary pictures that expire after a few seconds on receipt.

 

[Indianparents]

Downloaded the app. Seems nice.

 

[Lisa]

Downloaded the main app, to be told I needed a second app to start a community. Downloaded second app and started the process. Seems straightforward enough - pick a name, describe it, pick an image, pick a colour scheme from the scrolling colour bar, hit done. While it builds, it flashes up a number of hints and tips on how to build a community - pretty simple suggestions, but a nice touch.

Some of the steps are a bit tedious via phone, unless you're happy to use pre-made images for the site's logo and launch image. I do like the idea of the "launch image" (I'm posting this post as I go through the process, so it might seem a bit jumbled) and am curious to see what happens with it. Every time you need an image, it gives you the option to search for a gif online (and uses giphy) which I think says a lot about their target users -make of that what you will.

Overall, it looks pretty, but meh, it's not really for me.

 

[Digital Doctor]

I'd say this has success all over it.
Very interesting.
Feels quite mature -
No search really.
More social than forums.