Is Facebook killing forums?

[Nuke]

Maybe we just need to find better ways to compete? Or maybe forums are just unknown to lots of people on there. I asked some random kids at school if they knew what forums were and they said they didn't know what they were. I also conducted the same test on an IM service that has a list of users online in the client and got somewhat similar results. (Despite this IM being downloaded off of a forum topic :lol: )

Well, anyway, probably forums just need better ways to compete. Indeed, most successful forums are corporate. And corporate forums tend to be much larger, resulting in a community that ends up being messed up. This discourages people from joining the smaller forums.

Thoughts?

 

[XcapeX]

I hardly ever use Facebook and find it near pointless..I usually use Twitter on my Blackberry.

Forums I use for promoting websites I make, so really, I don't think they'll die.

 

[Nuke]

Forums are too decentralized to die altogether; anyone ever heard of Usenet? It's still around, somehow...

I had to actually teach someone what a forum was recently. It was funny. I ended up telling him/her that it was kind of like Google Groups and then he/she figured it out.

But yeah...we're not too common. Think 10K...Out of about about two or three billion Internet users...are members of FP. Although forums are probably more than a few million people in reality.

 

[Deleted member 1609]

It will balance out in time. Forum's are for information as well as socializing. If you turn on your computer and get a BSOD are you going to get your answer on Facebook?

Another thing that forums have that social networking never will is the ability to be "anonymous." Of course, you're never actually anonymous on the internet. However, you can use a pseudonym on a forum, making it slightly safer to talk to and discuss things with strangers than it would be on a social networking site.

 

[Fait]

Facebook is just for friends! Have you noticed when you go and add someone it clearly says *Make Sure You Know Facebook Username Personly*
otherwise you can be violating their TOS

But with forums theres lots more to it you can invite your firends over & even create a serious communnity just like facebook has (800 Million) the choice is yours

And also unlike facebook you get SQL access to your data (unless your using a free host)

 

[Wrecks]

Personally, I feel Facebook can be used for so much more then just keeping in touch with friends and family. It helps you make new friends, make connections with people you might never have thought would have been possible otherwise. I think there's a few reasons these days other then Facebook for why it seems less are using Forums.

1 reason is due to possibly being un-able to afford a Net connection. And I was running a forum myself for the past 2 years. Even with promoting it on Facebook and Twitter and a few other places. I never had a whole lot of success. Granted the forum is for a website.

And after a few weeks of the place being practically near downright Non active. Myself and the Owner decided to just shut it down and set up a page on Facebook. But is Facebook really killing forums? I don't think it is, it might be slightly harder to start up a forum these days cause of it and other things.

But I don't think it is outright killing Forums.

 

[etc]

With Facebook now offering the option of creating groups/pages which have a discussion page, what is going to happen in the future?

they now have discussion page in fanpages. in a way they're killing forums but i don't think they really will be successful with it.

 

[froggyboy604]

Could Search Engines be killing forums more then Facebook since people can easily use a search engine to look up information found on a website in the search results instead of posting a topic in forums asking for an answer to a question?

Plus, in my experience, not many active forum members who joined my site are from search engines. Most of my active forum members are online friends, members from other forums, and people I encounter via Myspace, Facebook, and other similar sites.

 

[Fait]

You are lucky my firends are that dumb they carnt even join my forum and post gosh

but you have a point

 

[Sam]

I personally prefer forums, but you can always attract facebook users by integrating a facebook login onto your site- so they have no need to sign-up.

 

[Fait]

I think Forums are on a complety diffrent line, Facebook was mainly invested to connect with friends, while forums are designed to discuss about your favouite topics.

 

[froggyboy604]

I think Facebook can still be a good place to get traffic for your forum by buying Facebook advertisement for your forum, telling your online and offline friends about your forum, starting a Facebook page about your forum, and regularly posting informative posts to your page to attract new users.

Most people on Facebook know enough web skills to join a forum, make topics, and reply to topics since they know how to make an account on Facebook, post status updates, post in discussion forums in Facebook pages and reply to status updates which is not always true for search traffic and refferal traffic since people who use search and other website may have less web skills like very young kids (under 10 years old), internet newbies, and people who don't know what a forum or social network is.

 

[Poopy Head]

Probably, because FaceBook is a huge social network created by a teenage webmaster, it's actually talking to people you know and stuff. On the other hand, some people haven't even heard of forums nor want to participate in them, so I assume yes and no.

 

[froggyboy604]

Facebook now created Facebook Open Graph which is some sort of user generated search engine which ranks pages when people Facebook Like your page, so Facebook Open Graph can help out your forum if all your members actively "like" new pages which mean it will appear in Facebook search rankings and other areas of FB like maybe suggested sites.

The Open Graph Protocol enables you to integrate your Web pages into the social graph. It is currently designed for Web pages representing profiles of real-world things — things like movies, sports teams, celebrities, and restaurants. Including Open Graph tags on your Web page, makes your page equivalent to a Facebook Page. This means when a user clicks a Like button on your page, a connection is made between your page and the user. Your page will appear in the "Likes and Interests" section of the user's profile, and you have the ability to publish updates to the user. Your page will show up in the same places that Facebook pages show up around the site (e.g. search), and you can target ads to people who like your content. The structured data you provide via the Open Graph Protocol defines how your page will be represented on Facebook.

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph/

Facebook can be used to help smaller sites get notice base on how many people liked the site which affect the open graph ranking instead of automated ranking algorithms by search engines computer programs which usually favor big brands, and big media companies like AOL, ABC, CBS, BBC, etc or people who build tons of links by buying links, spamming, or posting tons of low quality post on forums and blogs to promote their link instead of smaller quality blogs, and forums with less content, but more unique content with different points of view which more people will like.

 

[HawkPokemon]

Yeah faceboook is for people you know, on forums you can talk to anyone.

 

[justrune]

I dont think so. I think its helping them in a way. It spreads the word of your forum to everyone.

 

[IAAM Radio]

Do not think so either, FB if used correctly can improve your forum's visit stats. We have a FB page forour music site and we have found FB of value along with Google +. It's all in how you use it.


Embeding Google +1 and FB Like buttons in your forum is also a good tool as mentioned a few post above.

 

[wyldeflower]

I think Facebook ,twitter and my space are all spoiling forums not quite sure why as they dont have the same homely feel to them..My facebook page is such a mess i cant find a thing on it..I have gained a few members from Facebook but i have to keep advertising to do it and in the right places.I like forums better as long as they dont have over bearing admins or staff then i would soon skip off as i am not back in school..LOL..

 

[BuyFacebookFans]

No, I think forums are still popular (maybe there will be a resurgence!) Facebook is good for some things but forums are a different world altogether.

 

[IAAM Radio]

I think forums are killing themselves. Too many out there that have little to know content, poor management or self appointed experts offering substandard service what happens then is people simply stay away from them.

Social sites like Facebook and Google+ we have found to be an asset but may not be the case for others.

Doubt forums will die off completely but there is a lul right now.