Internet forums becoming irrelevant?

Van Hellseek

Van Hellseek

Van Hellseek

Soldato
Joined
2 Jun 2004
Posts
18,423
In the good old days of the internet, 'forums' thrived. They were basically the only way a person could be part of an online community. But since the advent of social networking, forums seem to be becoming less and less popular, except where very specialist knowledge is required.

For most general topics, such as chatting and your favourite games & movies/music etc facebook & SN groups seem to be more convenient to the masses, since they only have to join one single place and have it all, without the need to register and partake in random sites.

The only exception is very large forums (most of which were started before the days of SN), and even those seem to be fast losing popularity.

Opinions?
 
I disagree. I use social networks to speak to friends about when we are going out and stuff. I use forums to get to know new people who have similar tastes to mine, and in a few cases (like computing) share our knowledge.
 
I don't do SN, so I've noticed my exclusion from things, but I'm also noticing the start of a movement away from SN... so perhaps SN will fade, and in 10 years time we'll have something which is a combination of what we have now.
 
Forums are the Hub of the internet in my opinion & are not valued half as much as they should be. Sure the new age surfer spends most of there time on Facebook etc but nothing of any worth comes from Facebook & most learn that Forums are where it's at. :cool:
 
Personally I adore forums, especially this one due to its central theme, computing. But also due to is sheer range of different subjects!

While everyone agree's they are here because of their pc/mac Im always astounded by the forums acceptence to include sub forums on every other hobby we seem to have, from cooking to sailing, cars to gardening(although that got closed :P) movies to stockmarket wizzes

cant get that on a social networking site...sure you can group people in their interests but you cant discuss them as easily.
 
I agree that forums have a use, but I fear the trend amongst the masses will be to favour SN over forums, unlike the old days where it was forums or GTFO.

Plus lets not forget, most posters here will be a little biased, for obvious reasons... :)
 
Em3bbs said:
In the good old days of the internet forums didn't exist and everyone used newsgroups. :)
Click to expand...

I had BBS access before newsgroup access.

I remember Fidonet fondly - being able to connect with other BBS users around the world was something else. This was early 90s and getting newsgroup access was tough. Even when I went to University only those studying Comp. Science or related disciplines were allowed email access never mind newsgroups.
 
I use Facebook for comunicating with friends, keeping in touch with family overseas etc and I use forums for my individual interests/hobbies. I keep the two seperate as I don't see FB as a tool for discussing my marine tank for example.
 
Van Hellseek said:
I agree that forums have a use, but I fear the trend amongst the masses will be to favour SN over forums, unlike the old days where it was forums or GTFO.

Plus lets not forget, most posters here will be a little biased, for obvious reasons... :)
Click to expand...

If forums ever die out for the likes of Facebook I will personally cut my internet line to pieces.
 
Web forums suck. Usenet was where it was at. unfortunately web forums is what 'the masses' are familiar with so that's what is generally used.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom