Are forums dying or almost dead?

[Fait]

Hello,
These days we have social networks such as facebook,twitter and even google +, These sites allow you to create pages and groups which you can now also Admin.

Do you think forums are dying? or will be dead soon? (Say in 2024)

or do you think they will only get bigger and keep up with these sites and be more social.

I though about creating a social network for gamers but decided to go with forums to save time programming the site and forums over more of a discussion but I am not sure if social networks have Hi-Jacked as times are changing.
Thanks

 

[Joshua Farrell]

I do not think that forums are dying out. Infact if one notices various trends on social networking sites, when the group page isn't sufficient for what is needed, you tend to see the group migrate to a forum for better communication and discussion on their topics.

 

[Twisted Fairytale]

I do not think that forums are dying out. Infact if one notices various trends on social networking sites, when the group page isn't sufficient for what is needed, you tend to see the group migrate to a forum for better communication and discussion on their topics.

I've actually seen this first-hand. Forums (this one in particular) have lost some activity over the years, but there are just things that keep them alive. For instance, you have a community here that you couldn't host on say, Facebook, due to the size and expansiveness of our content.

 

[Fait]

And i think in Facebook Policy you are only a meant to use the site for connecting with real life people but with forums you can connect with real life people or randomly over the internet.

Since ive been on FP 4 years ago they have only lost about 20 active users difference but that should go up again 😀

I don't see how there dying but some say there pretty useless but hosting a discussion on fb would be un-organized.

 

[Sinion Kabe]

I have noticed a decline in the amount of people using forums but some of us are working to keep them alive. Social media seems to be taking over but I can't see forums completely dying out. Could make a comeback too at some point.

 

[D]

Forums will never be able to rival social media / network websites. They aren't very profitable and take up a huge amount of time compared to social websites.

Social networks can easily sell for millions of dollars or raise huge funding rounds. I have never seen a forum raise anything or even get close to a seed stage. Because they aren't deemed to be profitable.

Forums probably won't die out completely, they are great informational resources. But they are never going to rival social networks because of the huge amount of money that gets poured into them, Ever seen a forum owner spend $1 million on an advertising campaign? No? Me either. Because most forum owners are average joes who can't afford to compete with social networks.

Probably the only exception to this that I have seen is topix.com which raised 15 million in funding.

Why are forums not as big as social networks? Money.

 

[Fait]

Guess it really depends on Money like in a couple months I'm looking at spending a few hundred on advertising. But most forum owners do it as a hobby so that's probably why they don't spend as much.

When I think about it forums and social networks are completely different one offers more of a discussion while the other is for updating on what's going on in life and connecting with people you know.

 

[Cryckit]

I don't think that forum will every go away. They've been around since the Internet first started and they'll be around for years to come.

 

[froggyboy604]

There are probably more forums on the internet these days, so a lot of forums are seeing a decline in forum activity because members are starting their own forums, or joining other forums to post on as well instead of sticking to just one or two forums.

The forums who are on the top results of search terms on Google, Bing, and Yahoo would get more traffic than the forums on the second page. A lot of search engines like Google now makes it a lot harder to rank higher in search engines.

I think social networks are better for general discussions while forums are better for topics like Gaming, technology, cooking, and cars because you can make sections to organize topics, and post. It is also possible to pin important or popular posts to the top of the page to make it easier for members to find popular posts.

 

[Your Social Village]

Yeah, I think forums won't die anytime soon. As long as there's a community to make forums alive, then I see no problem. Not that I would know of, though. 🙂

 

[Fait]

I guess the question is solved 😉

If forums are dying then Mybb wouldn't be wasting there time to get 2.0 ready.

 

[tippie]

There is still a big amount of forum users which prefer communication through forums rather than social networking.
If you have something to offer then your members will keep on coming back.

 

[Fait]

Yep I agree with that, Fair enough facebook is huge and good but it's not the only site on the internet.

 

[froggyboy604]

In some ways, Facebook could be making forums more popular for some forums since some forums let people sign-in with their Facebook account to post instead of making an account.

Some forums and sites also trick you to use your Facebook sign-in e-mail address as the e-mail you used to register for forum, and you have to still make a user name, and password for the forum to post.

Social networks could be a good source of website refferal traffic if your fanpage, or personal page has a lot of fans, followers, or rank high in search engines.

 

[Fait]

You can also use facebook to get traffic to your forum and build a community a lot easily 😉

I have been debating to use a facebook connect plugin since I don't like involving other sites even though they huge but I am thinking about it.

 

[UnholyVision]

Based on how I see it forums will never die (unless SOPPA or whatever happens to everyone). It really comes down to the overall control you get from creating your own site. You literally can customize even a prebuilt forum structure to just about anything you like. Be that custom skin/theme or code to give the users a more unique experiences catered to their wants and needs. While having the ability to input user feedback. These social media hubs may have admin rights, but they just don't have that community personal feel.


Now, I have not ever implanted Facebook, Twitter, et cetera in a personal forum I have made. Nor will I ever really do the such, based on my type of forums I run. (Personal usage stuff and not widespread). The closes I have gotten to social media mods/plugins/et cetera would be Xfire, Steam, or Raptr. However, they are not login based and are more for status ques & game collection or playtime status.

 

[Fait]

Was just worried that they where lol, Glad there not going to though 🙂

 

[The Governor]

I do not care what anyone says, foruming has died out over the years, and it is very obvious. FP's decreased inactivity over the years is half the fault of foruming dying out. Yes, there are still a lot of people who make forums or are on forums, but it's not nearly the same amount as there was several years ago.

Personally, I feel the hype of forums has died down, which has resulted in the severe decrease in activity. I remember back in 08 or 09 there were two forums that rivaled mine. One was pretty big, the other was about the same side. When I go back and look today, both are dead, which honestly seems impossible considering just how active one was back then.

Those aren't the only ones. Most of the forums I visited back then have died or are hanging on by a limb, and it's not because the owner or the staff sucked, it's because people just stopped using forums.

 

[Fait]

I am not sure but IGN Boards are still huge having sometimes 1000 members online at a time, I'm not completely sure but it might be certainties forums then.

 

[The Governor]

I am not sure but IGN Boards are still huge having sometimes 1000 members online at a time, I'm not completely sure but it might be certainties forums then.

I really wouldn't count the IGN forum. Yes, it's a forum, but it's for an official company, and IGN is massive, so of course it would still be active.