Are Forums Slowly Dieing Out?

[Taz]

Just Be Unique & You be Right

 

[Fait]

Same with social networks you need to be unique and you be right🙂

 

[The Elite]

Ridiculous, forums aren't dying out. It's quite clear, just because your forum and your friends aren't growing at the high-rate you expected, does not mean others aren't.<br /><br />-- 27 Aug 2011, 06:53 --<br /><br />

I'm more inclined to say that social networks are keeping the next generation from discovering forums.

Excuses excuses. Are you trying to say that people who use social networks now, if they weren't here 5 years ago, they'd be using forums then? No, they simply wouldn't have been online at all.

 

[Gimgak]

Eh, it makes some sense, people use what is easier. I use forums instead of usenet, same as I use bittorrent instead of direct connect. If these easier options weren't available I'd use the less convenient ones.

 

[etc]

as long as the posts are unique and the forum. it wil be fine

 

[kavin]

Same with social networks you need to be unique and you be right🙂

Nah. Social network needs tons of things than just an unique idea.

 

[Fiona1964]

As long as the forum is Unique then it will be ok

 

[AnAccount]

I don't think forums are dying out at all, to be honest. They still seem to be the in thing. The only problem I'm finding at the moment is uniqueness. Everyone seems to love ripping older forums off, and it's insane, because as we all know, copy forums are never half as good as the original, especially if the owner of the copycat forum doesn't have a clue what they're doing. Sure, you don't see too many forums being advertised these days, but that doesn't mean the fad is dying out. Sometimes interest lasts for a long time, others last only a while.

 

[Bluezone777]

I think the problem most are facing is the bar has been raised significantly over the past few years so what was acceptable then is no longer acceptable today. I would think another issue I noticed is a lack of content. Content is the driving force behind any forum and if you aren't creating content then you are ensuring your failure as a forum owner. Content means a lot of things depending on board genre but most don't want to do the work that goes into creating content and get a string of fail forums as a result.

Another issue is the fact that there is a lot more you an do online today that you couldn't do a few years ago which is taking away free time that might have went into posting on a forum which is probably another reason for the decline people see.

 

[Webcrafter]

The average person usually doesn't go on forums, just social networking, IM, etc. Their not going to die out from people like us but soon the majority of people who are coming, will not use forums.

In my opinion you are correct, keep in mind though that a majority of the people that are currently only going to social sites like Facebook were not avid forum participants to begin with so not much was really lost. At the same time it is probably true that for those that are seeking opinion and information will still be going to search engines typing in the question and then ending up where they think they get the best answer or hold the best opportunity for quality response...this of course is usually a web forum.

If someone for example is looking for a new way to put a drop down menu on their website using CSS the chances they are going to stay on their social site and ask those that they have in their friends list is unlikely, for one, those that are to put it as above "normal users" never think of that, it is a socializing and game playing avenue not a learning or support avenue. For two the likelihood of them finding a response that really addresses the question is more likely someplace other than with their friends.

I know I used an example of a website development issue but the same holds true for many different subjects from gaming and cheats to what wines are the best. When looking for more than conjecture or opinion forums and the like are always the best avenue and people realize that most of the time.