R.I.P. The Golden Age of Forums

[Forces of Steel]

Forums used to be a quite popular communication medium on the Internet in the 2000s, but as social media and other rivals jumped on the scene, many forums have taken quite a heavy toll. A lot of our favorite places are now e-ghost towns. Forums are much quieter these days. Even Forum Promotion has lost a good chunk of activity over the years.

Forums are dead and never coming back. The new generation either doesn't know how to properly run a forum or couldn't care less for it. Everyone is on their phones, and they seek gratification through their new selfies on social media. Forums are now a graveyard of information for lurkers and other leechers to copy from, but never to participate.

 

[Poser]

Somehow I can say that this is true. I can still remember the days when a gaming forum turned into more than a discussion forum because of its active members, and that being recognized in the gaming forum is far better than being recognized in-game.

Wish we could have those back today.

 

[Murder he Wrote]

Forums are dead and never coming back.

Do you mean the forums you visit are dead and never coming back?

The new generation either doesn't know how to properly run a forum or couldn't care less for it....Forums are now a graveyard of information for lurkers and other leechers to copy from, but never to participate.

It really annoys me that you mention 'a new generation', as if having a bulletin board is some kind of ancient skill that is passed down hand-to-hand. Forums are simply a place for people to convene and share content around a common purpose, exactly like any other social media outlet but laid out differently.

I wrote about this in more detail over here, which also addresses the decline of FP. In short though, the owners here paid for a busy forum without knowing how to maintain that activity. If you're using their experience and FP's decline as a basis for the future of forums across the whole internet, you are wayyyyy off the mark.

 

[Forces of Steel]

Nothing to do with the forums that I frequent. It's been happening to nearly all forums. If you think that forums "couldn't be more alive than ever" in 2016, then maybe you're the one who's "wayyyyy" off the mark. Fact is that forums are much quieter these days. As one person stops contributing, two more follow suit, and then three, and then the rest...

When I said "new generation", I was obviously talking about most people who didn't get to grow up with forums, and are oblivious to the fact that the Internet existed before 2000. What else do some people have to offer other than skid forums and general discussion forums?

The thing is that "conversing" is quite forced these days, even on the really big forums. I don't count "lol" or random pictures as part of activity. Post count means nothing, when there isn't any significant content.

Reddit and social media in general have rendered most forums useless to a lot of people. Fecalbook groups actually have more conversing than most forums I'm seeing nowadays.

Most people nowadays, regardless of age or what-have-you, would rather just have their faces plastered on their mobile screens, constantly browsing social media feeds. Those have infinitely replaced forums for many of them.

 

[Deathstarr]

Facebook will eventually die out also just like myspace, Foursquare and others,

 

[John]

I'm still a member of plenty of active forums. They aren't dead, they just aren't advertised on FP anymore. Christian has been hitting the hammer dead on the nail with his posts.

 

[Cryckit]

Every forum that I've been on over the years is now gone, except for Forum Promotion. I'm a member of some younger forums, but they have been struggling very much to stay open. I know of several other forums that are going through the same thing too. I've seen so many forums close (both old and new) lately like never before. I love forums, but the truth is that they are on the decline. Inactivity is at an all time high. I remember when Forum Promotion had so many members active a day that it was hard to keep track. Many people are into social networking now, which is a major factor of forums being on the decline. There are still forums out there that are going strong and that is due to creative minds and continuous teamwork involving their staff members. I hope that more people will start choosing forums, as opposed to other types of interactive sites again. Only time will tell.

 

[Murder he Wrote]

Nothing to do with the forums that I frequent. It's been happening to nearly all forums.

Most people nowadays, regardless of age or what-have-you, would rather just have their faces plastered on their mobile screens, constantly browsing social media feeds. Those have infinitely replaced forums for many of them.

These are some pretty extraordinary claims. Can I ask on what basis you're making them? The reason I ask is because unless you've been active at every forum on the internet long enough to gauge its activity, it would be impossible for anyone to say that all forums are dying.

Check out: http://www.thebiggestboards.com/ , looks like the bulletin board format is alive and well to me

remember when Forum Promotion had so many members active a day that it was hard to keep track. Many people are into social networking now, which is a major factor of forums being on the decline. There are still forums out there that are going strong and that is due to creative minds and continuous teamwork involving their staff members.

Exactly! FP isn't dying because Facebook turned up, it's dying because its owners (whilst they appear to be nice people) don't know how to drive unique traffic or retain users after they've made their 5 posts and advertised their forum. When forum owners innovate and give their users a reason to stay good things happen. In FP's case asking the community team to fill the forums with dead-end survey topics and giving every user who stays longer than 10 minutes a staff position won't satisfy this criteria.

Christian has been hitting the hammer dead on the nail with his posts.

Aw, shucks

 

[Cierra]

I don't think forums are dying/dead at all, but I do think they're not as popular as they once were. While social media probably does play a small factor I don't think it's as big as people make it out to be. Just even in the type of content posted forums are drastically different.

 

[LostOne1]

They are still golden. Check out these forums and register.

 

[KnownSyntax]

I don't think that forums are dead, they are just a platform that isn't being used correctly anymore. Before social networks they were the only way to communicate (minus other chat sites such as IRC, Yahoo, AOL, etc.) however now with so many different options forums need to adapt. Instead of being the classic view that they are, they need to move more towards a discussion based system and not so much a topic/post based system if they are going to stay alive.

 

[Arch]

Some forums that arent developing are declining not forums as a whole! Take for example FP, activities dropped but we are not dead