Are Forums still a thing in 2021??

[ratiw]

Hello all, new member here :)

are forum still used in 2021? the trend has seen them dying for many years now, I believe new generations never even visited one let alone registered to one, this trend is due to the fragmentation of the web, years ago you had mostly one program...ooops...app to enter the internet: the web browser, nowadays there are so many applications, especially mobile apps, so they diverted people from what were once the main virtual meeting points, the forums. What's your view?

[Arika]

5 minutes ago, ratiw said:

are forum still used in 2021?

You know where you are right? 

[WereCatf]

2 minutes ago, ratiw said:

this trend is due to the fragmentation of the web, years ago you had mostly one program...ooops...app to enter the internet: the web browser, nowadays there are so many applications, especially mobile apps, so they diverted people from what were once the main virtual meeting points, the forums

No. There are millions more people online nowadays, Internet-access is extremely easy with all the different devices we have and full Internet-connectivity is now possible entirely wirelessly as well -- if anything, there's WAY MORE people and WAY MORE ways of accessing forums now. The issue is that people simply want a more visually-pleasing experience along with more social features and more attention-grabbing items; they simply don't want basic forums, they want more than that.

[WhitetailAni]

9 minutes ago, ratiw said:

Hello all, new member here 

are forum still used in 2021? the trend has seen them dying for many years now, I believe new generations never even visited one let alone registered to one, this trend is due to the fragmentation of the web, years ago you had mostly one program...ooops...app to enter the internet: the web browser, nowadays there are so many applications, especially mobile apps, so they diverted people from what were once the main virtual meeting points, the forums. What's your view?

Given that the "Total User" count on this site has been going up (it's at ~715K, and was at ~650K when I joined 6 months ago), and that we had another "most consecutive users online" milestone on March 23rd, 2021, I'd say that they're still used quite a lot.

[Moonzy]

15 minutes ago, ratiw said:

What's your view?

[Eschew]

3 hours ago, ratiw said:

Hello all, new member here 

Hey there! Warm welcome to the forums.

3 hours ago, ratiw said:

are forum still used in 2021? the trend has seen them dying for many years now ... nowadays there are so many applications, especially mobile apps, so they diverted people from what were once the main virtual meeting points, the forums. What's your view?

Methinks forums are currently relevant, yes. Especially for a tech-related forum like LTT. New advances in tech are made every year and there's always something to discuss, sooo I don't see this specific forum dying out any time soon.

 

For forums vs. apps, the way I see it, forums are very open, very public platforms for in-depth discussions. If I want to engage with a larger pool of people and gather cohesive and thorough thoughts from others, or if I want to contribute my lengthy opinions to someone else's existing topic, then methinks a forum is a good place to start. Topics on troubleshooting and asking for general guidance immediately comes to mind; tapping into other people's experiences and perspectives often sheds new angles/approaches to the subject the poster might not have considered before.

 

Then there are places like Discord and Instagram for other types of content and purposes -- mostly instant messaging and sharing media/art/photography respectively. A quick comment, a casual gathering of like-minded peepos, to broadly advertise a person/brand's online influence, a place to simply consume eye-catching content, so on and so forth.

 

Not to mention that the text editor/upload features of a forum versus an instant messaging app are quite radically different. Limited/unlimited character input, embeds, limited/unlimited media sharing/storage/supported file types, HMTL/BBCode/LaTeX/markdown formatting etc. Certain features may be included or cut out from a platform based it's particular needs and purposes.

 

TLDR: Different social platforms contain different types of audiences and are outfitted for different purposes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[rcmaehl]

3 hours ago, Moonzy said:

 

[rcmaehl]

Wait a moment...

 

[WhitetailAni]

Just now, rcmaehl said:

Wait a moment...

 

Posts on Off Topic don't count towards post count.

[resolve_beta]

9 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

light mode?

[rcmaehl]

Just now, resolve_beta said:

light mode?

Yes. I prefer my desktop light mode and my mobile dark mode.

[Drama Lama]

4 hours ago, ratiw said:

Hello all, new member here 

Hi

4 hours ago, ratiw said:

this trend is due to the fragmentation of the web

I'd say the opposite is true, more people are moving to central sites/apps like instagram, tik tok, reddit, insted of maybe  their own forum.

In relative numbers forums forums are definetly less relevant compared to the big platforms. Reddit and Discord especially are in some way doing the same thing that Forums do.

3 hours ago, ratiw said:

years ago you had mostly one program...ooops...app to enter the internet: the web browser, nowadays there are so many applications, especially mobile apps

technically you can use all the new social media with a web browser. The difference is that you know have dedicated symbols on your homescreen instead of bookmarks in your browser. There are also some Forums with their own App.

[minibois]

Welcome to the forum!

3 hours ago, ratiw said:

are forum still used in 2021? the trend has seen them dying for many years now

Sara Dietschy has a podcast, where she had Linus on as a guest and one of the things they talked about were forums and how specifically this forum is still growing so much:

The first half was about this forum, the latter half more on written vs. video content in general.

 

What Linus did mention was the core values of this forum, which are also put as one of the first points in our Community Standards:

Quote

"Don't be a dick" - Wil Wheaton.
"Be excellent to each other" - Bill and Ted.

https://linustechtips.com/topic/965477-community-standards/

 

It's all about creating a welcoming atmosphere for all people - including those newer to the hobby and the veterans of the tech space.

Together with LTT as a channel growing, this forum had stayed very strong, but many long time forum members have often admitted they don't watch LTT content anymore, showing this forum is a place to hang out, even if you don't indulge in LTT content anymore.

 

What has made me stay over these years, is the open atmosphere, the sense of community and being able to be inspired and informed by the others here.

Something like a forum just makes a lot more sense to me too, compared to something like Reddit.

Reddit is cool for certain niche communities, but it's definitely not what I would consider as a place for a broader topic - like this forum's broad topic of tech.

 

What I mean by that, is that Reddit is 2D, while this forum is 3D.

On Reddit, you have sub-forums and generally you hang out in one, which has a page of content. If I go to another sub-Reddit, I'm basically in a whole different website and community.

On this forum though, we still have different sub-forums, but they are interconnected, through many of the same members, the same profile, the same posting styles and layout, etc. 

 

It's the same as a messaging platform like a Whatsapp group vs. Discord server.

While a Whatsapp group is 2D, with just one constant stream of messages, while in Discord a server has many different channels, where you can have different conversations, but on multiple topics.

 

That's sort of my thought why I personally like a forum, over the alternatives.

[MultiGamerClub]

4 hours ago, ratiw said:

Hello all, new member here 

are forum still used in 2021? the trend has seen them dying for many years now, I believe new generations never even visited one let alone registered to one, this trend is due to the fragmentation of the web, years ago you had mostly one program...ooops...app to enter the internet: the web browser, nowadays there are so many applications, especially mobile apps, so they diverted people from what were once the main virtual meeting points, the forums. What's your view?

Reddits been a thing since what.. 2006?

 

It's gonna be a while before tech-people deploy their findings virtually trough your mind.

[Vishera]

6 hours ago, ratiw said:

Hello all, new member here 

are forum still used in 2021? the trend has seen them dying for many years now, I believe new generations never even visited one let alone registered to one, this trend is due to the fragmentation of the web, years ago you had mostly one program...ooops...app to enter the internet: the web browser, nowadays there are so many applications, especially mobile apps, so they diverted people from what were once the main virtual meeting points, the forums. What's your view?

Reddit is the biggest forum on the internet.

[King of Memes]

6 hours ago, ratiw said:

Hello all, new member here 

are forum still used in 2021? the trend has seen them dying for many years now, I believe new generations never even visited one let alone registered to one, this trend is due to the fragmentation of the web, years ago you had mostly one program...ooops...app to enter the internet: the web browser, nowadays there are so many applications, especially mobile apps, so they diverted people from what were once the main virtual meeting points, the forums. What's your view?

Um, duh

[tkitch]

2 hours ago, minibois said:

Welcome to the forum!

Sara Dietschy has a podcast, where she had Linus on as a guest and one of the things they talked about were forums and how specifically this forum is still growing so much:

The first half was about this forum, the latter half more on written vs. video content in general.

 

What Linus did mention was the core values of this forum, which are also put as one of the first points in our Community Standards:

https://linustechtips.com/topic/965477-community-standards/

 

It's all about creating a welcoming atmosphere for all people - including those newer to the hobby and the veterans of the tech space.

Together with LTT as a channel growing, this forum had stayed very strong, but many long time forum members have often admitted they don't watch LTT content anymore, showing this forum is a place to hang out, even if you don't indulge in LTT content anymore.

 

What has made me stay over these years, is the open atmosphere, the sense of community and being able to be inspired and informed by the others here.

Something like a forum just makes a lot more sense to me too, compared to something like Reddit.

Reddit is cool for certain niche communities, but it's definitely not what I would consider as a place for a broader topic - like this forum's broad topic of tech.

 

What I mean by that, is that Reddit is 2D, while this forum is 3D.

On Reddit, you have sub-forums and generally you hang out in one, which has a page of content. If I go to another sub-Reddit, I'm basically in a whole different website and community.

On this forum though, we still have different sub-forums, but they are interconnected, through many of the same members, the same profile, the same posting styles and layout, etc. 

 

It's the same as a messaging platform like a Whatsapp group vs. Discord server.

While a Whatsapp group is 2D, with just one constant stream of messages, while in Discord a server has many different channels, where you can have different conversations, but on multiple topics.

 

That's sort of my thought why I personally like a forum, over the alternatives.

I'd say that Whatsapp is 1D, vs Discord which is a weird hybrid of 1D and 3D.

[minibois]

15 minutes ago, tkitch said:

I'd say that Whatsapp is 1D, vs Discord which is a weird hybrid of 1D and 3D.

The reason I called Whatsapp and Reddit 2D, is because the stream of messages/posts go one way (up/down), but through different chatgroups/sub-Reddits they added another dimension.

This forum/Discord is 3D, because there is:

- A stream of messages/posts (on Discord/this forum respectively)

- Multiple channels/sub forums

- Interconnectivity between all of these

You could say Discord is 4D, if you count the different servers you're in as another dimension, but because there is no interconnectivity, I didn't count that.

[tkitch]

10 minutes ago, minibois said:

The reason I called Whatsapp and Reddit 2D, is because the stream of messages/posts go one way (up/down), but through different chatgroups/sub-Reddits they added another dimension.

This forum/Discord is 3D, because there is:

- A stream of messages/posts (on Discord/this forum respectively)

- Multiple channels/sub forums

- Interconnectivity between all of these

You could say Discord is 4D, if you count the different servers you're in as another dimension, but because there is no interconnectivity, I didn't count that.

Reddit has different thought processes kept separate by topics.

 

Discord Channels are way more stream of consciousness, and going back more than a few dozen messages is...  less than pleasant.

 

Maybe Discord channels are similar to subreddit topics

[Unhelpful]

To actually give my opinion on the question instead of memeing with "yOu'Re oN oNe rIgHt nOw":

 

I don't think they're necessarily dying, but independent forums certainly aren't as notable or as important as they used to be. Reddit, Discord and the like have filled a lot of the role of traditional forums for the mainstream.

 

Nowadays if you are buying a product most moderately-internet-savvy people will google "product x reddit" and go to the dedicated subreddit for that specific field. Typically these subreddits have a >50% population who falls at the 1/4 point of the slope of enlightenment (see below) whose confidence is bolstered to slightly-beyond-appropriate levels by internet anonymity and the last of real-world consequences with making a bad recommendation. At the end of the day, the consumer winds up with a range of non-specialized decent recommendations, and life is good since that's all most people need.

 

It's once you fall down the rabbit hole of a specific product or field that you begin to find the more niche communities. These communities typically have a lot of overlap with reddit, but happen to have a few individuals who live in the plateau of sustainability that the more seasoned forumers will defer to. These people will ask you an array of questions prior to actually providing their input. I'm sure any of you can think of several such people on our own little corner of the internet.

 

Beyond a general sense of community with people who share your hobby, that is the role that forums play. I sincerely doubt this paradigm will shift in any meaningful way in the near-medium term future.

 

Spoiler

 

Also, yes I know that reddit is a forum. I'm trying to separate general boards with little-to-no meaningful measure of "reputation" on that board with laser-focused forums.

 

Edit to add additional thoughts:

 

An issue with forums that have a massive population that prevents actual experts from being heard is that you basically need to sort posts by upvotes to see anything, sorting by "new" or chronologically on such high-volume threads makes it so that conversation is borderline impossible. As a result of organizing posts by upvotes these forums are massively susceptible to armchair-experts appealing to the "yeah that sounds right" feeling that everyone likes that makes us all feel smart. Typically the more probing, in-depth, and inherently complicated answers scare people. These people won't downvote because they can probably recognize an attempt at being helpful, but they'll absolutely upvote suboptimal responses. I'm sure we've all done it.

 

TLDR: LTT-like forums aren't dying, but reddit is awfully damn attractive to people who don't want to dive deep into topics. Subject-specific forums will always be the home of experts, even if they never get a fraction of the web traffic that the same subject subreddits do. 

 

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on literally anything except for my career field, I'm basically brain dead. These are just my thoughts and observations over the last decade. I have zero data to back any of it up.

[Beerzerker]

9 hours ago, tkitch said:

Reddit has different thought processes kept separate by topics.

 

Discord Channels are way more stream of consciousness, and going back more than a few dozen messages is...  less than pleasant.

 

Maybe Discord channels are similar to subreddit topics

This.
Any info that's useful just disappears into the void in Discord, no hints aside from the individual channel topic itself it may even be there to find.
Most forums are way more useful since by topic things can be found.
This forum is an exception because of the huge volume of posts that takes place and makes threads disappear quickly, but even then it's still not too bad if what you are looking for isn't that old.

[Mark Kaine]

5 hours ago, Beerzerker said:

Any info that's useful just disappears into the void in Discord, no hints aside from the individual channel topic itself it may even be there to find.

Actually I'm in a couple of discords that are mainly for information,  they have like "stickies" you can look things up, download spread sheets etc and also ask immediately if you need more info  (RPCS3 discord for example)

 

It's all a matter of maintaining and presentation...  former depends on the people responsible for the server,  latter is a discord thing and rather sub optimal in my opinion and can easily lead to the impression things get lost in the 'void and often they are,  but that again depends on the people. 

 

But mostly discord is just like a massive meme generator ngl

 

 

[resolve_beta]

21 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

Yes. I prefer my desktop light mode and my mobile dark mode.

okie

[Smartninja365s]

On 4/14/2021 at 7:09 AM, ratiw said:

Hello all, new member here 

are forum still used in 2021? the trend has seen them dying for many years now, I believe new generations never even visited one let alone registered to one, this trend is due to the fragmentation of the web, years ago you had mostly one program...ooops...app to enter the internet: the web browser, nowadays there are so many applications, especially mobile apps, so they diverted people from what were once the main virtual meeting points, the forums. What's your view?

Why not technically youtube comments are a type of form thats super unorganized and as one user said you know where you are right?

[ratiw]

I must admit that by reading an above average number of reddit-style-oh-I'm-so-smarty-and-edgy-and-so-pungent comments it almost makes me wanna leave immediately, but I'll just stay for the other replies posted by mature users.