forums

[rrats]

I love browsing and chatting on forums. Sadly, as the times passes by, more and more of them die. There are probably less then 100 active forums these days. What might be causing this?

 

EDIT: also I am happy to join another active forum.

[suedseefrucht]

15 minutes ago, rrats said:

What might be causing this?

There are big social media platforms nowadays with tons of people.

They make groups with people interested in the same topic.
So if you can do it there for free, why pay money for a website with a forum?

 

Maybe because you can make your own rules.

 

If you want to go old school, try IRC channels.

Welcome to the forum.

[adarw]

because of reddit.

[Dedayog]

24 minutes ago, rrats said:

I love browsing and chatting on forums. Sadly, as the times passes by, more and more of them die. There are probably less then 100 active forums these days. What might be causing this?

 

EDIT: also I am happy to join another active forum.

Did they die or move to a larger platform and become a subforum?

 

Consolidation is natural, it happens.

[minibois]

Hey there, welcome to the forum!

 

The reason forums aren't as ubiquitous are they were in the past (in my opinion), is because both the forums themselves and their members have moved to a different style of conversing with each other.

 

Instead of blog posts and articles, nowadays everything seems to either be a YouTube video, or a heavily condensed Twitter post. It seems like getting people to read large text posts is more difficult, which goes hand-in-hand with forums being replaced with a social media presence.

As well as many communities moved away from a forum and a TeamSpeak server, to an approach of having a singular Discord server, which serves both as a hub to post news/upcoming events/etc. and also a place for generally people to talk (whether it be in text or audio form). That means a forum became sort of obsolete for many of the uses people had for it. 

Gone are the days of every gaming clan having a forum, instead having moved to Discord servers, which are better suited for their needs.

 

So while Discord has eaten away from forums, so has Reddit, which I would almost describe as a conglomerate of forum-like communities. Instead of hosting a website yourself - including all the work behind it - it's much easier to open a sub-Reddit (and maybe Discord) and just working from there.

 

Linus talked last year about why the Linus Tech Tips forum is still growing however:

It comes down to sort of atmosphere wanted here,  outlined in the Community Standards. It is expected that anyone - regardless of their skill-level - can ask questions and they shall be answered in constructive and nice ways.

I've encountered it myself with other forums, looking up questions online, finding their forum through results in a search engine and just seeing people be elitist against people of a lesser skill-level (telling them stuff like 'just Google it').

The rules here are setup to minimize that type of behavior. To give everyone a way to ask their question, no matter how complex or simple.

 

Of course it helps too that this website is attached to a very large and growing YouTube channel, showing more-and-more new eyes this forum!

But that is just my personal experience/opinion on it.

[SorryBella]

35 minutes ago, minibois said:

To give everyone a way to ask their question, no matter how complex or simple.

Honestly speaking, amen to that. I love "read FAQ and old thread first before posting" rules, but when theyre actually heavily enforced the fun just died off, by that point you gonna have impractical, borderline karmawhoring or just straight unsolvable without hard reset question left on the table.

[IPD]

I feel it is cyclical, and I hope that things will eventually come full circle--forums will blossom again.

 

It really has to do with social media.  Reddit doesn't help either.  No social media format--nor Reddit--is conducive to archiving data.  If I want to post a detailed how-to on teardown/rebuilding a 351 Windsor, forums are an ideal place to put this info.  It can be sticked, organized into specific "how-to" sections--and a whole lot more.

 

Social media, just like Reddit, is pretty much geared to "next topic, please!"  Info gets buried and becomes impossible to find.  Users then keep asking the same questions over and over because they are either unwilling or unable to find it.

 

Reddit should have died off years ago--yet much like 4chan and The Chive, it refuses to freaking die.  Horrible interface.  Horrible content delivery.  And everyone conveniently forgets how it got thrust into the spot light on the back of 50,000 bots creating fake content.

[rrats]

Reddit is the least helpful place ever.

 

Apparently, subreddit is supposed to act like an entire forum. Everybody can make subreddits. Because of that, there are either small subreddits dedicated to one thing or big, multi-topic subreddit that has questions mixed with previews of X and memes of X. People who came there for the memes of previews will get questions in their feed too, and will probably try to answer it, almost certainly telling you a non ideal solution. Small, dedicated subreddits are, well, small, so it's not uncommon to ask a question and be left unnoticed, with 0 comments and 1 upvote. Oh yeah and the votes, the worst idea ever. You can't have your opinion because of it. Content is valued by the thoughtless people who spend their entire day in front of the computer screen (or friendless teenagers).

 

Reddits search feature is also terrible. Reddit search option can turn a scrutiny into hours long search

[Guest]

21 hours ago, rrats said:

I love browsing and chatting on forums. Sadly, as the times passes by, more and more of them die. There are probably less then 100 active forums these days. What might be causing this

Discord has largely taken over the Forum space.

Reasons that I have noticed.

• People find forums harder to navigate
  • I've met a few people who just freak out when they see one. My wife being one of them. When everything is presented in front of them, the amount of content and options just seems to overwhelm them. People like simple.
• People prefer real time interaction.
  • If you post something in a Discord channel you are liable to get a few people instantly chatting back and forth in real time.
    • This is something that has always been true. Back in the day we used to embed resource heavy chatbox's into the forum and offer a real time voice server like Ventrilo.
  • On a forum, it's typical to post something and have to wait a few minutes to days to ever get a response.
• Video and Voice
  • Discord offers both of these just right in the app, you don't need a second platform.
  • People like the idea of being able to start a conversation and just pushing a button to spin up a Video or Voice Stream.
• Mobile Apps
  • going back to real time interaction
    • people like receiving alerts regardless of what they are doing.
    • People like being able to respond on a mobile device as if it were just another text message.
• Desktop Apps
  • We have reached a point where a lot of people actually hate using the web browser. Everything now is hey "whatever" search for this or just opening up a application.
    • This is a real thing. You might actually be amazed on how many apps are actually just a embedded web browser, probably built with the Chromium Embedded Framework, but there is a high demand for it.

My problem with Discord taking over this space

• No Organization. You have Categories, but that is it
• Content constantly gets push up moving it out view.
  • If someone has a question and someone has a answer, it just gets lost as chat continues.
• Discord Controls Discord, meanwhile a forum can be setup and controlled by the team behind it. So what Discord gives you is what you get. And I do not consider "bots" to be a adequate way of implementing features. Modifications and commands are just janky.

[IPD]

and it doesn't work for a worldwide audience ^.  You aren't going to get tips on replacing your spark plugs from a guy in OZ who has the same car, if you are reliant upon being on at the same time.