Do you envisage Social media changing the future of Moderated Forums?

I wonder if the new member uptake is on a slow decline, because I can't see the generation who grew up with social media at its peak signing up to forums like this in the same numbers as the generations before them and actively participating.

Forums and IRC chatrooms were the cornerstone of the internet when I first got online nearly 20 years ago, they are most certainly a dying breed now.
 
No, for specialisation forums will remain supreme.

OCUK is slightly different in such that aside from solid IT advice about buying PC hardware it has somehow morphed into the last defence of Mumsnet IDC IFSF GOS PC GPUTROLLLOL etc etc.
 
AiiR said:
I wonder if the new member uptake is on a slow decline, because I can't see the generation who grew up with social media at its peak signing up to forums like this in the same numbers as the generations before them and actively participating.

Forums and IRC chatrooms were the cornerstone of the internet when I first got online nearly 20 years ago, they are most certainly a dying breed now.
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Pretty much what i was thinking as i can't see a generation that has got used to being unmoderated suddenly being attracted to lots of rules and moderation on bulletin style forums.
 
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Ice Tea said:
Pretty much what i was thinking as i can't see a generation that has got used to being unmoderated suddenly being attracted to lots of rules and moderation on bulletin style forums.
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If they continue using social media they'll have to get used to be more tightly moderated than many forums are today. But with much less transparency. People get suspended or permabanned from social media without even being told why. It's often impossible for them to even speak to a human moderator. The situation will probably get more extreme now that it has been established that new social media platforms aren't allowed unless they're heavily moderated or maybe not allowed at all.
 
Do I see a general resurgance of forums? Not really but as long as social media is more interested in telling you what you're going to see than just presenting what's there there will always be a place for more specialist forums.
 
Yes, particularly reddit, it already has tbh...

But frankly, I think this sort of forum/bulletin board format can be much better, especially for specialist topics etc..
 
The change already happened, kids growing up with social media won't be using forums the same way we did. They'll just adjust social media to make it less toxic and use that.
 
Social media is a complete cesspit. My email has a sponsored newsfeed banner which used to just show stories from around the world, usually American celebrity crap, but now it's started summarising Reddit, ******* and Farcebook threads of the 'Am I The A-hole?' type.... yawn!

In places like this we are far more moderated and so far more civil... yet we also have the freedom to say we don't like trannies or something, without the world publicly tearing our careers and our lives to pieces just for expressing an opinion with which others disagree.

For this, and the many other advantages that forums provide - I don't foresee any changes.
 
I don't think social media can really ever replace the community feeling of belonging to a forum, but future generations are unlikely to experience a forum so I'd imagine they are on the decline which is a shame.

I guess discord pretty much replaced forums even though they aren't really as good
 
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Forums are old hat. Most of the younger generation talk on Instagram, Discord, imageboards, Twitch etc. Even Facebook is looked on as being for boomers.

Forums will be around for a while though, though less utilised than they were. I think they're mostly for the older generations these days. They're a relic of the pre-smartphone era.
 
Depends on what the next generation wants out of their online time, i think. So a bit of a guessing game there.

Short one sentence posts without onward discussion appears to be how i perceive social media, which requires little effort and thought. Easy ability to post up pictures and videos and have feel good responses such as "likes". Likes are low effort and therefore quite meaningless, but people seem to relish it?

I like the interface of forums, simple and everything laid out. I can read everyone's thoughts and opinions without being force fed them. I dislike having posts hidden or posts being ordered in non chronological ways.
 
Social media just needs to die. Some clueless people want to actualy BAN anonimity online because of social media and the "trolling" on it. If they just banned social media the problem would solve itself.
 
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