Do you think forums are dying?

MasterA Level 1

June 7, 2016, 4:40 am

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Do you think forums are dying?

Some forums seems to be getting less active these days. People seems to be moving to social media and less people are participating in forums. Forums are still very useful resources but I see that there are some forums with very little activity these days. Of course, there are still active forums but it seems like only the very big forums are doing well. The smaller and middle-sized forums seems to be struggling. I won’t name any forums here but I do see a lot of forums losing activity every day.

Do you think forums are dying? What are your thoughts about the future of forums?

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robertman11

robertman11

I remember back a few years ago (2010 and prior) when you would search for a question on Google and you'd see mostly forum results. You'd usually get an answer or could at least join in to the conversation. I remember also seeing a lot more Yahoo Answer results as well. I believe Google doesn't index them as well and with the rise of social media platforms, they are taking the place of forums.

Now I usually see more corporate blog posts and other types of websites.

I think forums will continue to exist in some small way. I actually prefer them over corporate blog posts/answers to my questions. I like to hear from real people, not an editor who did research on a topic.

8 years ago

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MasterA

MasterA

I agree with you. I prefer reading from forums more than corporate blogs as well. For example, when I search for hosting reviews, I always look at forums as you can always see different people’s opinions rather than a blog review of just one person. However, the problem is that forum posts tends to be less detailed and some are very short. I think this is one of the main reasons that blogs are getting ranked better than forums these days as the content on blogs are generally better. This is damaging forums but unfortunately, you will hardly see forums that have 500 words per post.

8 years ago

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hitmeasap

hitmeasap

I use multiple forums each day in my business and I would agree with you. There are less activity, new members and new content on most of them. Even in "the biggest" forums you can still see a huge difference, but that doesn't affect the forum as much as it does on the less crowded. Forums won't go away but all the social media platforms plays a major role in the "dying" forums. They attract more and more people each day and Forums "has always been there" so to speak, which is why people are looking elsewhere. At least that's what I personally believe. I hope forums continue to grow in members and content and I believe they will recover a bit further on.

8 years ago

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anwebservices

anwebservices

I guess that many smaller forums are dying, and even large forums are in risk if they are not moderated correctly. A lot of people was spamming forums with a lot of unneeded information, so if it's not moderated right, when you need good info, it's like searching for needle in haystack. So simple said, quality forums will survive for sure and grow even more, while others can day because of bad moderating.

8 years ago

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ajlancer

ajlancer

Hi I do agree with MasterA and anwebservices opinion. Yes some small forum going to inactive due to spammer user activity. And even some big forum now suffering against spammer. Very large number of spammer too much active on forum thread for personal interest. And forum owner now get in trouble to take action against spammer. Yes some small forum will die but another one will grow up. And personally I believe forum never be die anyway. For getting resource and discussion anything directly user to user. still I prefer several forums. And my suggestion all forum owner must to need take some action against spammer and make always useful content according to user interest.

Thanks by Ajlancer

8 years ago

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MasterA

MasterA

According to a Forrester Research, Inc. report on self-service, online forum and community use jumped from 31 percent in 2012 to 39 percent in 2016 among US online adults.

Source: https://www.zendesk.com/blog/profiles-in-help-center/

According to this article, online forums are still active and actually has a rise in usage so maybe only the smaller forums are dying but bigger forums are actually seeing a rise in members. This is not surprising though as forums has been used for ages and with the popularity of start ups of new forums, there is more competition. Newer forums will die out due to a weak foundation which makes it seem like forums are dying.

8 years ago

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MendasDigital

MendasDigital

Reddit is essentially a forum re-imagined, and presently Alexa has it ranked as the 27th most popular site in the world. I do see less forums now adays, and I think part of the reason is more people using social media instead, but also Wikis and Q&Q sites.

8 years ago

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peachpurple

peachpurple

I had just joined forum site this year, so I don't know about others. But I do noticed that a couple of forum sites that are paying members had stopped paying because lack of traffic. The only two that are paying now, which i am sure you know which sites are still active.

7 years ago

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augusta

augusta

I don't think so, despite the fact that we have blogs and social media booming now but I still believe that forums are still very active. I'm a member of more than 4 forums and it has so many members and visitors daily, so I don't think forums are dying at all.

7 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

My take on the issue is a yes and no. Some forums are giving way to Facebook Groups and Facebook Pages because I had seen some local forums that closed in favor of Facebook. Their reason is the free use of Facebook hence no more expenses for the domain and hosting. But some forums are still vibrant. I guess it is on a case to case baiss and we cannot generalize the condition of the forums.

6 years ago

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