Are forums still actively visited and participated in?

[DudeThatsErin]

Hello,

I'm curious because I'm thinking about starting my own forum(s) soon and I want to make sure they are still actively used before I spend time and possibly money on a project.
Now, I know most forums won't be successful until months/years down the road but even still.

Do you believe that forums are still visited as actively as they used to be a few years ago?

 

[Thomasss]

Depends on the niche you're running, most are active if you run the community right and really invest on getting your community out there and active. Like you mentioned, it'll take time and that's the biggest issue with forums now a days, they do not stay online for weeks/months, they tend to die within months and not even last a year. Once you pass the year mark you might have a better chance at succeeding than others.

 

[DudeThatsErin]

That's a good point. Thank you. 🙂

 

[Cam]

Answering the general question in the title of your topic, plenty of forums are still actively visited and participated in. This forum is at least an example of that.

Still, I think it's more than valid to say that forums aren't as actively visited as they used to be a few years ago. That's the reality of the rise of social networks, especially in regards to Facebook groups.

 

[Carlos X]

In a word: Yes. But you'll have to be in it for the long haul. Don't expect anything to come into your lap out of thin air. You have to scratch, claw, persist, go through pain, sweat, and tears before you see money in your hands.

CODForums is the highest ranking Call of Duty Forum in the world today. But it didn't happen overnight. Took me years to get to 1 thousand, to 4 thousand weekly recurrent users every week. A few months ago, Activision shut down their forums, and now in a COVID19 world.... I'm reaping my rewards.



Usually, this only happens when a new Call of Duty title is about to release or is released. In my case it was days before Warzone was about to be released. In my case it was the same exact day that Season 3 dropped.



I also broke a new milestone on the user side of things...



The last time CODForums broke this record, it was when Call of Duty: Ghosts was released. I launched BlackOps3Forums/BO4F in between.



So, yeah... It can happen. But you have to be in a very, very hot niche.

 

[Jay]

I think it really comes down to the niche, and interest. Building a new forum from ground up may take some dedication, but it's possible to build a solid community. However bigger, more established forums have regular activity - you just gotta find one that speaks to you!

 

[DudeThatsErin]

@Jay @Carlos X @Cameron. @Thomasss

Thanks for all of your replies. I really appreciate it.

I'm thinking about bringing back my old forum, The Help Me Code Club and the URL would be helpmecode.club what do you guys think? I already have a VERY successful subreddit on this topic so I would just give people an alternative place to post.

 

[Katrina]

@Jay @Carlos X @Cameron. @Thomasss

Thanks for all of your replies. I really appreciate it.

I'm thinking about bringing back my old forum, The Help Me Code Club and the URL would be helpmecode.club what do you guys think? I already have a VERY successful subreddit on this topic so I would just give people an alternative place to post.

That sounds like a good idea if you have the time and energy to invest in it 🙂

My forum ebbs and flows with activity levels and I thought that the lock down from the virus would bring more people to it but that didn't pan out.

 

[Cam]

@Jay @Carlos X @Cameron. @Thomasss

Thanks for all of your replies. I really appreciate it.

I'm thinking about bringing back my old forum, The Help Me Code Club and the URL would be helpmecode.club what do you guys think? I already have a VERY successful subreddit on this topic so I would just give people an alternative place to post.

I think you could really move mountains if you were able to utilize that subreddit to promote your forum.

 

[TopSilver]

Forums are definitely still a thing on the Internet. It seems to be a good reason for this is quality software leading people to still create them so they are still known as a good place for people to chat and connect with each other. Like the above poster said though about the 1st year mark. That's really the time where you can tell if you are going to do well. My site is still new. I kept it up for a year then took it down for 10 months as I wasn't sure if it would succeed, however I put it back up about 3 1/2 weeks ago and the guest traffic seems to be double or sometimes triple what it used to be. I see that forum threads have more views then most websites. Which is a sign to me that if I don't give up on it then it might do well. It's only been up for almost a month since I took it down but I plan to get heavily involved in it in the future and I think we have a lot of potential. Some threads of 1k and 2k views for the year that it was online. That to me speaks that it stands a chance.

It's definitely not out of the realm to say that forums did better 5-10 years ago because they definitely did but not nearly enough to count out a new sites potential. Google seems to find itself giving new sites more of a chance to do well then most people think. It just takes content and keep that content available for users to read for an extended period of time. Linkage is often a key important aspect as well. If you have 200 threads it may not do as well then say if there were 1,000 threads and 6,000 posts or so in your forum. Because keep in mind each thread is a new link into Google and that's more of a chance for your site to appear in results.

I hope that helps with just a small bit of insight. Good luck!

 

[Carlos X]

@Jay @Carlos X @Cameron. @Thomasss

Thanks for all of your replies. I really appreciate it.

I'm thinking about bringing back my old forum, The Help Me Code Club and the URL would be helpmecode.club what do you guys think? I already have a VERY successful subreddit on this topic so I would just give people an alternative place to post.

I agree with @Cameron. on his comments. You CAN move mountains with Reddit, the issue is going to be on the mods side of things. I tried posting on Reddit even without advertising my site(s). No matter what I did, they've been shutting down my posts. I tried posting an innocent question to people of Reddit - immediately removed. I posted a few youtube videos on reddit - removed by Mods. And even if you get a thread posted, they're assholes. Unless they're trying to help you.

I cannot tell you how beneficial it would be if I posted a link to CODForums.com on Reddit. It would blow up my website, so much I would need a dedicated server. Put it that way. That's how powerful Reddit really is. The problem is more on the mods and users side of things.

EDIT: *scratches head* Why did Cam change his name to have a dot after his name...? WTF? I was tagging him, and it did not show up, until I realized what his username is.

 

[DudeThatsErin]

I agree with @Cameron on his comments. You CAN move mountains with Reddit, the issue is going to be on the mods side of things. I tried posting on Reddit even without advertising my site(s). No matter what I did, they've been shutting down my posts. I tried posting an innocent question to people of Reddit - immediately removed. I posted a few youtube videos on reddit - removed by Mods. And even if you get a thread posted, they're assholes. Unless they're trying to help you.

I cannot tell you how beneficial it would be if I posted a link to CODForums.com on Reddit. It would blow up my website, so much I would need a dedicated server. Put it that way. That's how powerful Reddit really is. The problem is more on the mods and users side of things.

It depends where you post it on reddit. Some places have better mods than others.

 

[veeprho123]

Forums are still search & visited as it is one of the platform to gain valuable knowledge.

 

[MrDawn]

Forums are still being used. Just not like they used to be since the rise of social media. Some video game corporations still use forums such as Bethesda and Sony for example.

 

[Maya]

Forums are still actively visited and participated. The main thing is it should provide value

 

[Nomad]

I think yes. If that wasn't the case Google wouldn't add forum category on its search page.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Forums are great for communities of people who need a break from or don't want to use social media.

But only if you (the admin) can facilitate that.

 

[cpvr]

I think yes. If that wasn't the case Google wouldn't add forum category on its search page.

You hit the nail in the coffin with this one.

Forums are still a thing, and will remain a thing going forward. I don't envision a day, nor age in this generation where forums will not be actively used.

 

[Page]

Forums are still used, just not in the same way they were years ago. They’re not as universally busy as before because a lot of discussion moved to Discord, Reddit, and social media, but forums themselves haven’t died. In fact, niche and well-run communities are still very active and some are even growing again as people get tired of social media algorithms and want proper discussions again.