Forums and Social Networks in 2020
- Thread starter Ghost
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Some I do agree that social media has killed Forums for discussions and sharing your stuff online.
Thanks buddy! I think that forums should always connect to whatever social networks the admin and members will actually use. For the forum referenced in the article (Code Forum), it appears that Reddit was a good way to engage users. It's not so much about just being on the social networks... it's about engaging the public and bringing in new members. If you can't commit to be an active Facebook user, then don't use Facebook. That said, I would think most forums should use at least 1 main social network that is popular with their target audience to be successful.
I think the reality is that social networks that are popular have redefined what a forum or community for discussions and sharing your stuff online should look and feel like. I have faith that "old school forums" can adapt to be more like social networks. As for social "media" - everything you share on a forum, including this article and my reply, is a social response. Social media was circulating the very first forums, IRC, AIM chat rooms, MySpace, Friendster, MyYearBook, FormSpring, and many other social networks before Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Snapchat etc came along. Before TikTok we had Vine. Before that we had a giant collection of sites, networks, and apps that supported short style videos. Social media IS forums... but how we SEE a forum has changed. Deep down I have realized that the only thing that social networks in their modern form have done is change how a forum looks. A traditional forum has a selection of categories to choose from on the home page, a search bar and maybe a few interesting plugins like a live chat box, or a collection of most recent or popular posts. A social network has a collection of most recent and popular posts, live chats, a search bar, and pre-defined categories/groups/pages to visit. When you REALLY think about it, Facebook is just a massive worldwide forum with a cool theme installed and a preference for trending posts and forced logins rather than an old school forum style of category links on the home page and post counts.
My mother recently started a new business for her parent coaching and therapy sessions. It revolves around online sessions because of the coronavirus pandemic.
She has created 1 main Facebook business page, 1 private Facebook group for her parent workshops, and 1 static HTML website. She has content releases and announcements, discussions, a community, private messaging, Like buttons, and other features to help her run her business and plan her workshops. She has more at her fingertips with Facebook than most forums do, as far as quickly starting a community. Can she upload a custom theme? No. Logo? Yes. Banner? Yes. Announcements? Yes. "Categories" ? Yes, she has "units" that she can release on her group page to categorize her workshops, downloads, discussions, etc. My mother has effectively started a "forum" community on Facebook. That's what this article is about - the realization that it's possible we have gotten the whole idea of "forums" wrong for years. Perhaps social networks are actually what gave forums life to the whole world rather than the killer of "forums". Once you start asking yourself what a forum really is and forcing yourself to understand that a forum is not just how the data and information is presented or designed in a theme... you start to understand that social networks and forums are pretty much the same thing with different overlays.
I think social media hasn't fully killed forums but it certainly has made it a lot harder to run a successful forum.
I know some of my users just use social media now to connect to others and don't bother with forums.
I know some of my users just use social media now to connect to others and don't bother with forums.
With the rise of social media, plenty of forums have become inactive wastelands. I would argue that it's typically been the forums that aren't niche specific though. You see lots of forums with very general topics really struggle (general, gaming, sports, politics, technology, etc), but then you see forums that are honed in on a very specific discussion topic still hang on. Some examples that come to mind would be a gaming forum dedicated to a specific video game, a sports forum dedicated to one specific team, or a general forum dedicated to one very specific hobby.... And then Facebook Groups were invented, and now I don't know what the future holds for forums as a whole. All of those niche specific forums now have a dedicated Facebook group for that particular discussion topic.
I honestly don’t see why? FB is just awful... everything about it... almost all social media is..
I don't think social networks have killed forums. There are still lots of forums who are doing great and helping millions of people with quality discussions and useful information.