[Toplink]

Originally Posted by Zachery

Its harder now than ever to setup a website around a common theme when you have 0 content.

If you want to build an active, successful forum, You need CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT, and then 10x more content.

Things, that people want to read and view.

Eventually, you can hit a critical mass where your forum will sustain itself. reaching critical mass takes SERIOUS hardwork and dedication.

Mine had reached critical mass, with a lot of very active members. Then it died........rather quickly. Still trying to discover why.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by Toplink

Mine had reached critical mass, with a lot of very active members. Then it died........rather quickly. Still trying to discover why.

Sudden upgrade?

[Dave]

I also want to say that on my gaming forum, the activity rates go up a lot when there's a chatbox. Without a chatbox some people don't even bother staying online for > 15 minutes.

[RichieBoy67]

Originally Posted by BigJimTheLug

Forums are not dead.
Facebook, and Google have not killed forums.

All Facebook, and Google did was take away all the young kids, and centralized their social media habits. This is really great since young people tend to type horrific English, which in turn, hurts your website overall.


Forumming is not dead. If your traffic is down, you have to find a way to revitalize your niche either using artificial means such as artificial intelligence combined with algorithms, or other tricks of the trade to start dynamic discussions and build a user base.

Social media will never destroy niche forums.

I agree that forums are not dead and in general will never die but it is much more challenging these days to start and run one. As for taking kids away I disagree. There are more forums relating to kids then ever before, minecraft forums, etc. Not only that but people of all ages use FB.

--------------- Added 03 Jul 2014 at 11:47 ---------------

Originally Posted by Dave

I also want to say that on my gaming forum, the activity rates go up a lot when there's a chatbox. Without a chatbox some people don't even bother staying online for > 15 minutes.

While a chatbox may keep people on your forum it is not really adding any useful content in terms of search rank so it is not getting anyone knew to your forum. Also, those people who are chatting in your shoutbox are most likely not posting as much in your forums.

It could be good though as you said to keep people there longer and maybe it helps keep the gossip out of the forums too. I guess on some sites they may work well but I just have never had any luck using shoutboxes. The added resource usage was just never worth it and I always saw a decline in forum posts. I could see it working well though on a gaming forum.

[Toplink]

so...Forums ARE dying.....

[BirdOPrey5]

People only have so much time to be "online" and more and more of that time is moving toward Facebook, Twitter, all the other social networks, apps, popular games like Farmville and Candy Crush Saga, online gaming, etc... They are the "new" internet... 3.0 if you will... Forums were 2.0. You can have successful forums but they are harder to grow and maintain than 10 years ago, it will never be the way it used to be again.

[dreads]

I just think forums have to keep changing and adapting! Overall, I believe forums that have a strong and vibrant community (in itself) definitely will survive and thrive.

For gaming forums, the ones with active clans (a great example) will definitely survive longer verse a gaming forum that doesnt offer much for its users.

[MRGTB]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

People only have so much time to be "online" and more and more of that time is moving toward Facebook, Twitter, all the other social networks, apps, popular games like Farmville and Candy Crush Saga, online gaming, etc... They are the "new" internet... 3.0 if you will... Forums were 2.0. You can have successful forums but they are harder to grow and maintain than 10 years ago, it will never be the way it used to be again.

It's true, trends have changed with what people want to use on web now.

Originally Posted by dreads

I just think forums have to keep changing and adapting! Overall, I believe forums that have a strong and vibrant community (in itself) definitely will survive and thrive.

Don't think that makes any difference, it's already happened with forum software adding social networking features to try and catch up and compete. But a person running a forum just can't match what the likes of facebook offers people for using.

[TundraSoul]

Originally Posted by Max Taxable

Content is king.

On the contrary, I believe users are king. Dedicated members are like fine tequila. I find many forums are crammed with content and information covering their niche but lack organized knowledge, an updated platform to display their content properly and usually a dedicated group of members to increase its value.

But to your point there's plenty of blame to go around. Start with a poorly developed platform. Move on the media companies monopolizing the various forum channels then letting their forum properties run on autopilot.

Follow that up with admins and companies whoring up domains then creating forums that they have zero interest in and tweaking the forum for no other purpose than Google rankings and Adsense cash.

Many niches are doing well depending on how active the dedicated admins are. For instance Automotive, Gaming, Photography, Howto, Outdoors, YouTube and a few others are usually doing well.

But at a minimum to do well you have to fine tune your marketing skills, become a dedicated all-involved admin and nurture those forum relationships.

[Outlaw Mantis]

Social media's the bane of the internet, the way I see it. Unfortunately, we have no choice but to utilise it if we want to promote our products or forums en masse. I call Facebook the Lazy Nation. People can't be arsed doing anything other than clicking "Like", posting short comments or posts (Twitter is the worst offender for this) and it's changed the internet for the worse. Small talk online has been on the rise for years now, and posting pictures of skeletons insinuating oral sex will get more attention than anything remotely intelligent.

[sub_ubi]

Yes, forums are dead. And whatever's left of your dwindling communities will be eaten up by Reddit.

There's a way to fight back, but don't expect Vbulletin or any company stuck in a late 90's vision of the internet to lead the charge.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by TundraSoul

On the contrary, I believe users are king. Dedicated members are like fine tequila.

You don't get users without content. Cart before the horse.

[Socialvb]

In itself, the forums aren't passed away. Probably is died a communication model, based on single-issue forums and the rest crumbs.

[TheAdminMarket]

Originally Posted by Max Taxable

You don't get users without content.

I'll agree with @Max Taxable. And not only content but if possible unique content. The question is where to find that magic unique content as there are 100's of similar topic forums.

Another problem is not the Facebook itself but the way that Facebook "teached" the users to work. Somehow it made users actind like robots. Just clicking likes. And this is the reality. I've some friends who really wanted to help me adding content in one of my forums. What happen? They were unable even to understand how to make a post, much more how to quote a post etc etc.

So you need to "fight" with 2 things:

1. Finding unique content
2. Finding users willing to spend sometime to learn how forums are different that Facebook

[Furcal]

Forums aren't dead in my world. I have a forum where we get over 100 active members posting a day. We also average around 1500-1800 post a day.