Will Facebook Kill Forums?

[phreakwars]

Will never happen. Facebook, much like AOL of old, will collapse under it's own greatness. Probably turn into a search engine and merge with God/Google.

I'm old school AOL and remember the great clique's we had in our own special chat rooms.

People we didn't know in real life, but we chatted with all the time. You could actually get a damn guide to show up if someone was disruptive, and life was good.

Problem was... AOL got too big, once you got past the commercialization thrown at you, your old stomping grounds were becoming a cespool of spam and retardation.

I can handle the farmville and treasure Island and mafia wars because I play those... but I get real sick of the QUIZ THIS, and HOW "X" is your "X" that. All coming from your alleged friends and relatives.

Naww.. no thanks, not for me...

I facebook, but I still love a good forum with a shoutbox on the index. You can always call it your own home and avoid advertising it out too much.

I've seen alot of people all frantic going "HOW DO I GET MORE MEMBERS"

On my forum personally... it's about the guys who have always been around, I'd rather not have a crowd. Fine if others wanna come along for the ride every once in a while, but in the end, it will always be the same group.
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[jlabarr]

Agreed with the last post. Facebook is a social networking site, forums are a source of information and help. No matter what facebook implements, forums are here to stay.

 

[CMOBOSS]

Some amazing reads here guys & gals. Witty, informative, and even logical in many senses.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Facebook is this generations AOL.
Just without the pile of disks in the mail.

Facebooks forum capabilities are limited and near useless for prolonged discussion. Even bare bones free forum software allows more discussion tracking and searching.

Where FB excells is a built in user base, ease of extras like photos, videos and chat.

So, combine a video addin capability like Youtube with photo gallery capability like say Flickr, with blogging ability like Wordpress with a modern forum software like vB, Xen or IPB and you'll have a FB killer.

Now you just need 400 million members.

 

[Jacob_]

Facebook is this generations AOL.
Just without the pile of disks in the mail.

Facebooks forum capabilities are limited and near useless for prolonged discussion. Even bare bones free forum software allows more discussion tracking and searching.

Where FB excells is a built in user base, ease of extras like photos, videos and chat.

So, combine a video addin capability like Youtube with photo gallery capability like say Flickr, with blogging ability like Wordpress with a modern forum software like vB, Xen or IPB and you'll have a FB killer.

Now you just need 400 million members.

And so many sites have done what you've said, the killer is that Facebook isn't a forum or anything like that.
It's handy to push small, insignificant broadcasts about your life, and to share pictures.

It's mainly just a dispersed chat platform. You've got the IM and commenting, both of which father numerous, simultaneous discussions.

I lold at your AOL statement, I found it rather cool
I probably would have referred to facebook as a bit of an IRC alternative for the herpderps in this world.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

"just a dispersed chat platform."

I think that's it. It's a giant chaotic chatroom.

 

[Riaz]

I was having a good think about this last year and at the time considered it to be a subject that hasn't been given the attention or research that it deserves. There seems to be some natural evolution in forum technologies, firstly with Usenet, then Yahoo Groups, then web type forums such as phpBB and vBulletin, then social networking sites like Facebook. I questioned whether Facebook is the latest technology destined to wipe out its predecessors; a side branch in evolution; or even a short term wonder destined for extinction in a few years time.

Usenet still exists but society has turned its back on it. I suspect that fewer than 5% of all people who started using the internet this side of the Millennium have even heard of Usenet.

Yahoo groups are in decline and there doesn't seem to be much indication that this will be reversed in the future. I suspect they are heading for the same obscure corner as Usenet. It will end up becoming a small number of active groups and few people will even consider setting up new groups or joining any groups with a low activity.

Forums have many advantages over Facebook. Many users appreciate this but the overall image of forums is fading, especially amongst the young. They are getting an image of anoraks, geeks, and places where the middle aged meet.

Facebook is the craze amongst the younger generation. Whether this (or even social networking) continues for the long term remains to be seen...

One advantage of Facebook over forums that hasn't been mentioned is convenience. To set up a forum like this takes much time and effort. You need to register a domain name then install and configure software. The end results may be outshine anything Facebook with its crude and primitive forum facility offers which is why people still use forums. However, all it takes is a few mouse clicks to set up your own Facebook group. There's an old saying of the survival of the fittest. There's also another saying that not as many people know. That's survival of the adequate. If something will do what 90% of the population wants at a price 90% of the population are willing to pay then it will probably succeed. Facebook is utterly unsuitable for serious in depth discussion of technical or political matters but it's adequate for millions of users for exchanging low grade information.

The cynic in me tells me that the people behind Facebook are in the game for the money. If it fails to make money in the future then they will sell it off and it will end up as another Bebo or Friends Reunited.

 

[GarnetFeathers]

Good thinkin

Raiz, I believe everything you posted as well as others. I have to wonder though, do forums really need or want people on their sites exchanging low grade information.

One of the reasons I think forums will remain and once again become the outlet for alot of people, the exchange of high grade information. Facebook comes no where near having a reasonable exchange of information and is becoming boring for people that prefer to think about something instead of just posting random (uninteresting) thoughts.

The world is populated with intelligent people that only connected to facebook to stay in touch with friends and family. People are now beginning to block the users that interfer and post random, silly, uninteresting post just for the sake of posting something. Too many times, on my own FB page, I have gotten feeds that mean nothing to me and actually anger me. In my age group we don't want to know you are in church and going out to eat then home. I simply do not care. At least with a forum, the rules of spamming eliminate such inane posts.

In summary, the total number of members FB likes to brag about, are not using it to read stupid stuff, and actually limit their contacts to people they do want to stay in touch with and keep up with their lives. Once they become tired of the constant problems, viruses, spamming, advertisements, game request, application request and FB in general, they will begin deactivating their accounts and return to either emailing or common interest forums. In the past three weeks, four of my friends have deleted their FB accounts and started emailing me instead.

 

[djayusevlademir]

I don't think this would be too late..

Congratulations to all the winners.. those essays are really nice and such information should be known by many..

 

[Ashfaqk]

I honestly think that facebook has already killed forums with the introduction of the new type of groups. And what it is doing these days is burying forums deep deep inside ..

 

[Riaz]

I honestly think that facebook has already killed forums with the introduction of the new type of groups. And what it is doing these days is burying forums deep deep inside ..

Another question is whether Facebook is out to kill independent freestanding websites I remember back in the mid to late 1990s that a considerable proportion of the world's websites were run off other websites, such as Geocities or Angelfire, rather than had their own domain names because of the difficulties involved in getting your own domain name. After the millennium, these hosting services fell into decline to the point where most websites after 2005 were freestanding with their own domain name. Is the web going full circle?

 

[loodust]

I honestly think that facebook has already killed forums with the introduction of the new type of groups. And what it is doing these days is burying forums deep deep inside ..

Small and beginner forums yes, but I doubt it will get audience of big and developed communities

 

[Riaz]

Small and beginner forums yes, but I doubt it will get audience of big and developed communities

How easy is it to move from a Facebook group to a proper forum and retain all the existing posts?

 

[Akela]

How easy is it to move from a Facebook group to a proper forum and retain all the existing posts?

Is that even possible?

 

[Jessecast]

As long as there are text role players like me forums will be around because you can not get that type of organization anywhere else

 

[GeekyMary]

They are not competitors so I don't think it will kill forums, forum are about sharing knowledge, facebook is about sharing news about friends.

 

[walton007]

forums will die out from them selfs without facebook help for that.

Everything comes and goes. Belief me in a 100 years all there was on the net will be gone and replaced with new software on what the content comes.

 

[slyreptile]

I don't believe FB will kill forums for the simply fact that forums provide a community atmosphere. FB has yet to do that and probably can't do that due to the sheer size. But, time will tell.

 

[King Justice]

FaceBook has nothing on forums. Forums is a lot more targeted where FaceBook & social networking sites is to target a group of people to communicate, not a niche.

 

[Guitar_Guy]

I don't believe FB will kill forums for the simply fact that forums provide a community atmosphere. FB has yet to do that and probably can't do that due to the sheer size. But, time will tell.

This.