Are forums slowly dying out?

Lysander

Lysander

Lysander

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Yes, OCUK seems as popular as ever but this is a computing forum so let's discount that. I'm talking about all the others.

Over the past couple years I've seen forum activity on forums lessen more and more. A lot of people I know are in agreement as well. Most people seem to be using Facebook or Twitter or other means of getting their information.

The imageboards are still as popular as ever, if not more, and I imagine this is due to their anonymity. But for those boards that require registration, these days people don't seem to care about counts and rankings as much as they did.

So has anyone else noticed a downward trend? Or are people just scurrying like cockroaches from the forums I attend?
 
Most certainly agree. The forum I used to hang out on for 5 years has almost died (unfortunately) despite meeting some brilliant people, it seems as though there's a shift from lots of forums, to just a few big ones. The big ones, such as OCUK, are getting bigger. More people = More knowledge.
 
I never cared about counts and rankings.

I use forums because they're designed for threads of posts with a reasonable size limit, i.e. they allow debate between numerous people. Twitter can't do that at all and Facebook can't do it well. I've also found that forums generally have a higher standard of literacy, which would explain why many people nowadays go elsewhere. Reading a complete sentence is an onerous task to a growing number of people.
 
Pav89 said:
Most certainly agree. The forum I used to hang out on for 5 years has almost died (unfortunately) despite meeting some brilliant people, it seems as though there's a shift from lots of forums, to just a few big ones. The big ones, such as OCUK, are getting bigger. More people = More knowledge.
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This is pretty much it, I think. There's no point in people starting up their own tiny community anymore, people just go to the much larger ones with the wide knowledge base and faster response time. So maybe it's just the smaller ones that are dying. Esp if the larger ones start incorporating niche boards.
 
I know a DVD forum that was AS popular and busy as OCUK now is a shadow of its past. It is a shame really.

But most hobby forums are still as strong, you can't been a good message board, not even Facebook.
 
I have been a member of plenty of forums in the past which have died a death. All for the same reason. They became to 'cliquey'. People got to know each other too well and became less welcoming to newcomers. Much like a crap local pub or suchlike.

For a community to thrive it needs to have acceptance to new members, one which this very forum seems to have.
 
a forum does not die out because its a forum, its due to the internal on goings which determine if a forum is successful or not. There are so many things which can effect a forum. IE Be to strict or to lax and it will fail.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
I know a DVD forum that was AS popular and busy as OCUK now is a shadow of its past. It is a shame really.
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Yeah, it used to be popular, especially the bargain forum. Then all the bargain stuff moved to MSE, and now its moved to HUKD. Hardly ever browse HUKD as its so busy these days. MSE has some people who go all the way just to save some pennies and full of people who use those acronyms: DD, DH Dx.. argh.. who cares!
 
Why would forums die out?

I personally cannot even begin to comprehend how on earth you would arrive at this idea when you have no way to measure its so called "demise"?

Do you know how many subjects covered by how many forums exist on the internet today with x number of visitors over x numbers of hours over x number of minutes over x number of days at x rate?

Nope, neither do I, this renders this thread in the same vein as declaring, "Say, everyday I see the colour grey at least once, but today I saw it less"
 
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I think maybe news aggregator sites are killing the immediate-ness of forums?

Take, Reddit, it's like a world wide forum that has crazy bandwidth, and pretty much anything there trickles here (and everywhere else). With the increase of bandwidh, maybe image board are the way forward?
 
PapaLazaru said:
I have been a member of plenty of forums in the past which have died a death. All for the same reason. They became to 'cliquey'. People got to know each other too well and became less welcoming to newcomers. Much like a crap local pub or suchlike.
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I think this is one of the reasons too. Some forums I've been on has had groups leave to create their own. Or as you say, new members aren't welcome therefore in the end there is no one left.
 
Being technical the only social network (quoted) that may destroy forums is Twitter, essentially because you can search and hook up with any word or phrase, but the internet still reins supreme, the real question in my mind is: do you not think that the internet is destroying physical communication, one to one, talking, community spirit? my neighbour can be 3000 miles away right now but my immediate neigbour I do not care for, at all.

Its all digital

But I don't personally have a problem with that at all.....
 
It's difficult to tell if they are 'dying out' but there is definitely a trend towards 'social media' where there is a pre-existing member base.

It is extremely challenging to start a standalone forum from scratch these days. In my opinion it mostly only works if it is in conjuction with maybe a content rich website or a business with a repeat customer base, or perhaps something technical. In my experience it is much easier for a small business to interact with their customer base via Facebook or Twitter. I recently closed a forum on one of our websites recently in favour of our Facebook page.

On the other hand I think it is possible that social media is simply capturing the people who wouldn't normally sign up to a forum anyway. Personally I do think forums will become increasingly less popular but for the hardcore forum user it's a tough addiction to break. :p
 
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