Split from https://administrata.net/threads/how-many-forums-have-you-had-and-what-where-they.150

 

I've only had one and have always used MyBB. I did retire it for about a decade and recently brought it back last year. I don't find forums as popular as they once were.

This is absolutely true. Social media hammered nails into the coffin of forums - but we're not ready to give up yet!

 

 

Forums are not as popular as they once were. This is mainly down to the rise of social media. Discuss!

Edited October 6, 2024Oct 6 by Al

This is absolutely true. Social media hammered nails into the coffin of forums - but we're not ready to give up yet!

Add Discord to the mix also... there was once a belief that it would kill off forums for good, and some people even saw it as a replacement for them. Even I once believed in it...

Add Discord to the mix also... there was once a belief that it would kill off forums for good, and some people even saw it as a replacement for them. Even I once believed in it...

I wouldn't actually consider Discord as a forum though. It's more of instant messenger service like Skype, Facebook messenger, telegram,

Etc.

 

Discord’s content isn’t in the open web either, so I don’t see it ever surpassing forums.

I wouldn't actually consider Discord as a forum though.

I didn't say that it was a forum though... I'm just meaning that people were using that more instead of forums. Of course that can be said for Reddit and such.

Yeah the traditional forum may be dying out, but there's still going to be plenty of us who prefer forums to any other form of communication! I think lots of people will start to realize that forums are the way to go when it comes to research communities, especially since social media censors content.

Reddit is the only social media I actively use and that is only sparingly. I think forums can have benefits over social media, such as more tight-knit communities that aren't full of countless people who post their opinions or discuss something and never see them again, or mainly posting things about your life for your friends and family to see. They're called online communities for a reason, they build communities through the growth of many different means and techniques, not just people clicking an "add friend" button.

The days of meeting over a hundred random people at once may be gone, but our hearts will never betray forum communities. 💙

Reddit is the only social media I actively use and that is only sparingly. I think forums can have benefits over social media, such as more tight-knit communities that aren't full of countless people who post their opinions or discuss something and never see them again, or mainly posting things about your life for your friends and family to see. They're called online communities for a reason, they build communities through the growth of many different means and techniques, not just people clicking an "add friend" button.

 

Online communities gave rise to social media, and without them, I don’t think we’d have sites like Reddit. Is it safe to say that Reddit is just one massive forum?

 

 

The community aspect of forums is what has allowed them to flourish over the years. Many people have grown to love forums and remain loyal to them over social media.

 

While the rapid growth forums experienced in the past has slowed, their endurance and longevity remain strong. They may break or falter, but they always find a way to come back!

There are many interesting takes on the place of forums in our day and age. Nowadays, there are so many services and platforms available, that it's hard to find a proper one, let alone, one that won't prevent your community from thriving and growing.

 

Here's how I see some of the services mentioned above.

 

Discord: It's a cool chat platform that's been trying to become a forum as of the last year (or last 2 years perhaps?). Sure, it has threads now, but it's not its core feature. Its core feature is chat. And in the chat, you can't have a long-form discussion. And you often get ignored. So if your forum is well-suited for long-form discussion, you shouldn't have to worry about Discord taking over your niche. Perhaps you may even want to add it to your offer, as a way to offer a good chatroom to your members.

 

Reddit: This is an interesting one that's been slowly replacing forums here and there. I remember noticing about 10 years ago that more and more videogame companies were closing down their official forums in favor of a subreddit. I think it's a good use case. But moving a forum like Administrata, or mine, to Reddit? Don't think so.

 

What's special about Reddit is that once you're registered, you can take part in any community, which is nice.

 

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter: Sure, they harm forums. X threads, Facebook threads, Facebook groups, etc. I know I'm annoying, but I'll mention long-form discussion again. Twitter and Facebook aren't made for long-form discussion. Posts and comments aren't the same thing as a discussion with actual replies. It's therefore important to focus on the primary advantage your forum has over those social media sites. Your members' ability to engage in...? You guessed it! Long-form discussions! :)

Edited October 18, 2024Oct 18 by Num7

Social media platforms have absolutely changed the landscape of the internet, but I don't think that's anything new. I think what we as "golden age of the internet" veterans are seeing is another version of Eternal September, but perhaps in reverse.

 

Back in the days of BBS systems when it was mostly colleges campuses that had access, students would flood those communities every September disrupting the established culture with their lack of experience. Today, the influx is from social media with the low-effort replies, but it has also shifted the focus away from more structured, long-form discussions that forums excel at.

 

I've seen firsthand why forums remain irreplaceable. They offer something social media can’t which is permanence and continuity. On social media, content is buried by algorithms that prioritize quick interactions over deep conversations. Forums, on the other hand, are a slower, more deliberate exchange of ideas which is crucial for places like TTI where discussions are theoretical, speculative, or archival in nature.

 

Platforms like Discord are great for real-time, but they can't replicate the ecosystem. Forums provide a space where ideas aren't discussed briefly and forgotten but built upon over time. That's something I will always value.

On social media, content is buried by algorithms that prioritize quick interactions over deep conversations.

Mastodon says hi.

Edited October 18, 2024Oct 18 by Bryn

Reddit is just one massive forum?

It does seem that way and I think people treat it as such, but for the most part, it's still a social media site where the masses follow. It doesn't have the "tight-knit" community feel that a forum has due to its massiveness and the fact that people come and go on the site more frequently.

Anyone remember myspace? It was supposed to replace forums. Forums survived it and even came out stronger. Forums will always be relevant.

 

The future is not what we have now. It is what Reddit offers. Software wise the linear layout we have now is dated and is part of the reason forums are not as popular as before. The interface is too cluttered. You have to drill down to get to the content you seek.

 

The search on forums is basically useless. You get results that are not even close to what you're looking for. This is a software problem.

 

With Reddit the content is right in your face. Pick a topic and there are the threads and replies right there. No categories, no drilling through pages to see what you want.

 

Forum software has to evolve. Discourse is what software has to turn into. Invision introduced a threadlist style in 4.0. It is being refined in v5. I have the default on https://www.forum-forum.com set to threadlist main page.

 

So what is dying is the linear style of xenforo, mybb, vbulletin and the rest. Forums will remain forever.

Anyone remember myspace? It was supposed to replace forums.

Really? Well, that's news to me... I just thought it was some tacky website where emo bands try to make it big there... oh, and Tom being your first ever friend also. Who can forget Tom, eh? :P

Here's the thing, there's a whole huge set of rose-tinted glasses that we conveniently overlook, mostly because it's easier to forget it and just blame social media and Discord for eating forums' lunch.

 

Back in the day there were a lot of things that probably shouldn't have been forums but were forums anyway because it was the best tool we had at the time. And that's OK, but it also hugely distorts the perception of 'forums are dying' by misrepresenting how big they were originally.

 

Now, this is not to say there isn't a decline but I think we overegg how big that decline was, in a market-correction fashion.

what is dying is the linear style of xenforo, mybb, vbulletin and the rest. Forums will remain forever.

I have never read forum analysis as good as this one. When you have pointed out the major issues with the software, and I do not have any reasons to disagree, I will add one more point, forums do not have search friendly content. If you search online, do you see any forum topics appearing on the search results? Game is a popular niche for forums, how many times do you see forum topics appear on search results when you search for game related topic. However, you might see Reddit and Quora frequently appear on search results page. We need to create topics that will get ranked on search engines.

I have never read forum analysis as good as this one. When you have pointed out the major issues with the software, and I do not have any reasons to disagree, I will add one more point, forums do not have search friendly content. If you search online, do you see any forum topics appearing on the search results? Game is a popular niche for forums, how many times do you see forum topics appear on search results when you search for game related topic. However, you might see Reddit and Quora frequently appear on search results page. We need to create topics that will get ranked on search engines.

 

Forums are appearing in search engines and have been for quite some time. However, there are forums that struggle with visibility because they aren’t building enough links to their content.

 

Also, forums that answer user’s questions and go in depth are the way to go. This is one of the main reasons why Reddit and Quora have been so successful on the search engines lately.

 

Google recently added a “Forums” tab to their search engine, which should help boost forums’ visibility over the next few months. They’re also linking forums in product-related answers.

 

Forums may appear more frequently in AI overviews, especially for Q&A topics. For example, if you search “what’s a webmaster forum,” you’ll see relevant forum topics on the first page.

Google recently added a “Forums” tab to their search engine

If Google adds such a feature then I think it's apparent some forums are still booming.

Well, I was not aware that Google has added a “Forums” tab to their search engine. If they have done this I think forums will have some kind of advantage to get high ranked. But the forum topics should still provide value. Instead of information, most forums provide opinionated content and search engines favor information over opinion.

I don't believe that. Reddit is big, and that's technically a forum. If you build something cool, you'll get members.

Reddit is the internet. There is very little you can't find on Reddit. The requirement for just one account to access pretty much anything you want to talk about is a difficult thing to defeat - or even compete with. This means forums need to offer something different. If anyone can tell me what that thing is I'll love you forever.

This is something I've been wanting to ask... at what point did forums in general suffer a decline in popularity? I might take a stab in the dark and say the late 2010s or perhaps the start of this decade (even if they become more busier during the early phase of the pandemic).

This is something I've been wanting to ask... at what point did forums in general suffer a decline in popularity? I might take a stab in the dark and say the late 2010s or perhaps the start of this decade (even if they become more busier during the early phase of the pandemic).

The decline started about 2007. Established forums were going strong. Start ups had to work hard to get going. Then about 2010-2011 forums overall started to lose traffic and users. Many established communities had already sold out to big corps. Start ups struggled to get going and most quit.

 

The decline had nothing to do with forums themselves. It had to do with the software. It never evolved. New forums on platforms like Discourse are gaining popularity again.

 

The users that prefer the old dated linear layout are dwindling fast. Us as forum owners have to adapt.

This is something I've been wanting to ask... at what point did forums in general suffer a decline in popularity? I might take a stab in the dark and say the late 2010s or perhaps the start of this decade (even if they become more busier during the early phase of the pandemic).

Reflecting on the experience we had on ZetaBoards and InvisionFree, we were somewhat insulated from the wider shifts happening in the online world. Our own decline kicked in around 2010 indeed, and honestly, I think Brandon could see the writing on the wall even before then. That's likely why he ultimately sold out to Tapatalk. Looking back now, from a business perspective, it was probably the smart move. He definitely broke a lot of loyalty in the process—and it stung—but let’s be real: loyalty doesn’t always pay the bills. I get why he made that choice, even if it didn’t sit right with everyone at the time.

 

 

Cloaked makes a fair point too; the decline might have started outside our own “snowglobe” even sooner than we noticed. Forums were built around a certain community culture and pace that social media and newer platforms just don’t prioritize. The slow shift away from that style probably began long before it became obvious to us.

The decline started about 2007. Established forums were going strong. Start ups had to work hard to get going. Then about 2010-2011 forums overall started to lose traffic and users. Many established communities had already sold out to big corps. Start ups struggled to get going and most quit.

Well, I'm really shocked at that... especially when I launched a forum in 2008 and got myself a good member base over the next couple of months. Guess you can call it luck I suppose...

I'll agree with 2010 as the tipping point.

 

I don't agree with the reasoning. I have a much more wild theory: that it's nothing to do with the format, but the content.

 

Forums tend to focus on a single subject and the subject matter around that subject. Social media lets everyone focus on themselves, and then showing them more content like that directly tying to their interests. Combine that with the inherent need to keep people 'engaged' rather than actually having conversations and you have a recipe for disaster.

 

I don't believe the issue is really that forums haven't evolved as much as it is that forums are fundamentally less interesting to most people because it doesn't inherently try to tap into the dopamine feedback loop. And worse, forums are never, ever going to be able to catch that up without becoming something else.