Is Facebook killing forums?

[Lone Wolf]

I recently read a thread on vBulletin.org:

I have noticed lately users prefer just to click in "I Like" button instead engaging in active conversations. People prefer to answer by Facebook than login and answering by forums. What to do about this? Sure, some will say forums are a different thing, and bla bla bla, but you cannot deny the fact that Facebook is slowly driving away the interaction from forums, mailing lists and so on (I say this because I also manage a mailing list and the interaction has dropped about 50% since last year). Because people use everytime more and more their time for Facebook, so there is less time to spend in other sites (e.g. forums, etc.) Your thoughts?

Here is what one person actually said:

I have been trying desperately to get my forum off the ground for a few years, and it seems nearly impossible and almost pointless. I think Facebook is too powerful and I continually wonder if there's any point in continuing the efforts. Even forums I used to visit years ago, that were doing really well, aren't doing so well, and I think it's because Facebook has everyone on it and it offers so much easy interaction. Anyone else having extreme difficulties?

I for one have noticed that forums I used to visit are not doing so well, yet the active members who used to be there are now active on Facebook.

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

 

[Jay]

I personally don't think so. I prefer forums over facebook and forum's allow me to do many things that facebook really doesnt. I have more fun on forums that I do on facebook.

 

[Deleted member 7467]

I use Facebook for my personal life, and forums for discussion among complete strangers.

I use both, but for different reasons. So, my activity on forums won't dwindle simply because I'm addicted to Facebook (which I am).

 

[Lone Wolf]

There are a few people I've talked to on Facebook and I asked them: Would you rather give up forums or Facebook? Most of them said forums.

 

[Justin]

I use Facebook for my personal life, and forums for discussion among complete strangers.

Quote of the century.

I don't think so either. My facebook friends aren't my forum friends. Those two are VERY different :lol: I think forums need to take some large evolutionary step forward, kind of like what facebook did. They popularized the "Like" button and so many other things. Forums need to be right up with them.

@Lone Wolf, the reason they prefer Facebook over forums is because facebook isn't just a come on and see random stuff site, it is where people connect. You talk with family and it is a more personal site. Forums on the other hand are just like Bad Bieber said.

 

[Luke]

Forums are better than Facebook 😀

 

[AnAccount]

I don't accept friend requests from people I don't know in the foruming world. I use Facebook to keep up with my real life friends, so I don't think Facebook is killing off forums at all, as I'm sure there are a few people who use their Facebook pages more for personal fun than getting on with total strangers.

 

[Lone Wolf]

I don't think anyone has realised the impact Facebook has had on some forums. I've seen forums go from being an active community to a practically dead one and why? Because it's users went on to spend so much time on Facebook (even keeping in contact with family), that they didn't spend the time they used to on those forums.

So you see, even if it's just to keep in contact with friends, the world has a great number of unemployed people, and if those people went on to Facebook to stay in contact with family or older friends, they could be on there for hours on end and then they end up forgetting forums they have actually been active on. It's even worse for workers that want to use Facebook to keep in contact with friends, many of them use it to share gossip and what have you and end up forgetting to log into the forums they are on. Because after work, they want to relax and have dinner etc so it's usually 8-9pm before get online, so you only have a couple of hours before going to sleep again.

 

[BrydoRX]

I'm a user of both, but I don't think Facebook is killing innocent forums. Facebook is really made to keep in touch with your real-life friends whereas forums are made for interacting with new people.

 

[Fangs]

I am a member of a very active parenting forum and there are a bunch of about 15 of us who have been very active there for around 5 years. But about 30% of my friends on FB are people from that forum and I have noticed that we tend to chat to each other a lot more on FB and the forum seems slower. It still gets plenty of posts every day but the more regular members seem to post more on FB now.

 

[Fait]

I Perfer Forums🙂

 

[Lone Wolf]

I Perfer Forums🙂

I didn't make this thread as a 'What do you prefer?' topic 🙂

but the more regular members seem to post more on FB now.

This is what I'm talking about.

 

[tutorials4all]

Forums are the best. Nothing can take place of forums. 🙂

 

[barutiwa]

All of my people who want to communicate with me online must contact me via my forums. I limit my participation on Facebook and direct traffic to my own venue. Don't give the power to Facebook they're not all what they pretend to be.

 

[Hobbies230]

Facebook certainly hasn't driven me to participate less in forums, nor has it had that effect on anyone else I know. This is mainly because, like some others have stated, Facebook is far more personal than forums, and is usually only used for interaction between real world friends and family. It's probably not inaccurate to say that the growth of Facebook has had some sort of effect on forums, however I would definitely not go so far as to say that Facebook is killing them.

People that visit forums regularly are well aware of the different uses of Facebook and forums, so Facebook is no replacement for forums.

 

[Deleted member 1609]

I only have a few online friends added as friends on Facebook. Forums are better for debating, meeting new friends, working on projects, etc. Facebook is more for keeping in touch with real life friends and family. You can't connect with strangers as well on Facebook except through pages, and I honestly never see much one on one interaction happening on Facebook pages. People usually only like them for updates. Forums also have a high amount of permanence because they take more of an "archive" approach. Forums can also be searched much more easily.

 

[MissTake]

I HATE Facebook!...It has a lot of things to answer to not just killing off forums, it's making us become lazy, in a lot of aspects of our lives, it's all to easy to sit there and click a "like" button, what happened to the good old fashioned actual conversations with people?

 

[Pinky]

I've been on forums for 10-11 years and for the first 6 years every forum I went to was full of life, busily buzzing with people chatting in topics. The past 3-4 years I have noticed a great decline in that with forums closing down all the time and forums emptying and lack of people using them.....is it FB the cause or is it people's attitudes to forums at fault here? Who knows for sure?

I think it has gone so much harder to enrol members that stick around forums these days and trying to keep members interested in what you have added to the forum with some great features or many topics of interest, it doesn't always seem to be enough.

I'm not a fan of FB and have a closed account of there. So many millions of people like it and also so many millions like forums too but I know one thing for sure is that FB does seem to bring people together more......Some of the latest forum software have integrated FB, some people have said it works for them for bringing in new members but do they stick around or stay with FB, I don't know.

I think it's a losing game for forums but I wouldn't like to give up. Will people's attitudes change again for forums over FB, who knows?

 

[Nuke]

Forums are better than Facebook 😀

Agreed.

So I take a survey of the kids at school to see if they know what forums are.

I get cursed out.

It was last year XD

But yeah, I think that Facebook, through the monopolization of internet media, is slowly but surely killing foruming. Quite sad, seeing as forums are much better IMO.

Forgot to mention - The people I know that use/like forums and Facebook are usually loyal to 4chan, and usually denounce other forums.

 

[cpvr]

Forums are better than Facebook 😀

Agreed.

So I take a survey of the kids at school to see if they know what forums are.

I get cursed out.

It was last year XD

But yeah, I think that Facebook, through the monopolization of internet media, is slowly but surely killing foruming. Quite sad, seeing as forums are much better IMO.

Forgot to mention - The people I know that use/like forums and Facebook are usually loyal to 4chan, and usually denounce other forums.

Facebook isn't killing anything, its showing those webmasters who don't know how to run/manage online communities that they shouldn't belong. I've been around with online communities since 2004, I was there for the rise and fall of Myspace, it didn't kill forums.

Forums will always be on top, who cares what Facebook is doing? Focus on driving their users to your communtiy, get involved on fb pages, and groups = win for you, same with Twitter. If a forum is dying, its not our fault, and facebook shouldn't be blamed.

Ridiculous, truthfully, because a forum is apart of social networking, and as long as we have the web, forums, and the other social networking sites can survive just fine.

So, why talk about facebook killing forums, when its not?