[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by 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.

The Ecig and vaping forums are another example of thriving niches in the forum world. Sometimes it really is all about the niche.

[TheAdminMarket]

Originally Posted by 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.

1 among ....???

Some days before last Christmas I had some free time and I decided to check how many of my clients sites, (for sales done at 2007-2008) are still active. So:

~ 70% were dead domains. No websites at all.
~ 15% were using different forum software
~ 5% were using Wordpress instead of vB (or any forum)
And only about 10% were still using vBulleting with almost a share of 50%-50% vB3 and vB4.

Then I did another test. This is a test that anybody can do. Try in some popular mods here and start clicking on website links in the first posts (means posts about 4-5 years ago). You can find the links in posts like "I installed it but I'v some errors in my site ....mydomain.com"... You'll get the statistics very soon.

[socialteenz]

From my clients forum, this is my understanding on how forums die/evolve.

Initially people open new forums for the hype of being an admin, if it goes well and if at all they make any income they continue to maintain their forum. I've seen people running forums even for a very close user group, just for the joy of maintaining a forum. If the activity of their forum drops down or if they lose interest they shut down their site.

Only focused people know what they are doing and still continue to maintain their forums & overcome the obstacles of social networks in a very smart way.

[cellarius]

Originally Posted by NickTheGreek

1 among ....???

Some days before last Christmas I had some free time and I decided to check how many of my clients sites, (for sales done at 2007-2008) are still active. So:

~ 70% were dead domains. No websites at all.
~ 15% were using different forum software
~ 5% were using Wordpress instead of vB (or any forum)
And only about 10% were still using vBulleting with almost a share of 50%-50% vB3 and vB4.

Then I did another test. This is a test that anybody can do. Try in some popular mods here and start clicking on website links in the first posts (means posts about 4-5 years ago). You can find the links in posts like "I installed it but I'v some errors in my site ....mydomain.com"... You'll get the statistics very soon.

This hardly is very telling. There always has been a rather high fluctuation on forums, and only a rather small percentage actually made (and make) it over the first, say, five years, or develop a large user base.

[HM666]

Originally Posted by socialteenz

From my clients forum, this is my understanding on how forums die/evolve.

Initially people open new forums for the hype of being an admin, if it goes well and if at all they make any income they continue to maintain their forum. I've seen people running forums even for a very close user group, just for the joy of maintaining a forum. If the activity of their forum drops down or if they lose interest they shut down their site.

Only focused people know what they are doing and still continue to maintain their forums & overcome the obstacles of social networks in a very smart way.

BINGO! That is pretty much exactly what happens with a lot people who start one. Then you have the ones who start it because "it looks easy enough" and then when they get into it and realize the costs, time & work that goes into quickly lose interest and the forum dies a painful quick death.

Originally Posted by cellarius

This hardly is very telling. There always has been a rather high fluctuation on forums, and only a rather small percentage actually made (and make) it over the first, say, five years, or develop a large user base.

Very true indeed. And to actually accurately find out what the stats are there would need to be some sort of development involved, but I know/realize that Christos was just giving examples and I do not think what he posted he meant was set in stone per se.

[CallieJo]

Forums are not dead. People are putting a higher priority on social networks rather than their own websites, is all.

{begin sarcasm}Sign in using this social network if you want to join a different website. If you want updates, follow me on this social network. Oh my goodness, I have 10,000 likes (yet none of them turned into sales or active members!) so I must be doing something right because people liked it.{end sarcasm}

Forums are still alive. Just not as alive as they use to be.

[HM666]

Originally Posted by CallieJo

Forums are not dead. People are putting a higher priority on social networks rather than their own websites, is all.

{begin sarcasm}Sign in using this social network if you want to join a different website. If you want updates, follow me on this social network. Oh my goodness, I have 10,000 likes (yet none of them turned into sales or active members!) so I must be doing something right because people liked it.{end sarcasm}

Forums are still alive. Just not as alive as they use to be.

Very true I have to agree.

[optimus.prime]

Yup, as we can all sadly see

[RichieBoy67]

This one is.

[lange]

Originally Posted by CallieJo

Forums are still alive. Just not as alive as they use to be.

[TheLastSuperman]

Originally Posted by RichieBoy67

This one is.

Some of us still whisper!

[socialteenz]

Originally Posted by TheLastSuperman

Some of us still whisper!

But IB should do something about this tbh.

[TheLastSuperman]

Originally Posted by socialteenz

But IB should do something about this tbh.

This is and always has been an entirely volunteer community. Even those who were on staff for vB/IB when they were also on staff here, were not paid for their time spent here.

Furthermore, I didn't realize for some time they removed the ability to use vB3 and vB4 when you purchased a vB5 license: https://forum.vbulletin.com/forum/vb...o-new-licenses

So all the ways of importing older forums software using Impex, into vB3 first, then upgrading to vB4, then finally upgrading into vB5 is no longer possible. A lot isn't possible anymore based on that change alone, I can understand not wanting to support or maintain vB3/4 but removing them entirely sort of made this forum a mute point in a sense, aside from the information related to vB5. They should have retained the downloads, with a clear notice and consent before downloading that it's use at your own risk etc. Many still run older forums, and have secured them by patching issues, and some even pay to have people convert everything over to be compatible with PHP8. It's not the first time we've seen a change made, that was more along the lines of cutting off your nose to spite your face - whether they realized it when making the change or not, is certainly something we can discuss and debate but it was their prerogative when doing so.

If I had more time to commit, I surely would but alas, time does not permit. We certainly encourage and welcome more community members who want to become more involved and help on a regular basis, if you can please do so! If time does not permit, then so be it .

[Prince]

Social media killed forums, they're dead except for very niche boards especially with topics that are "censored" by social media such as anabolic steroids.

[tomatomic]

Originally Posted by Toplink

Hi,

This is not meant to be an inflammatory post, but is a serious question.

I've had a forum since 2005, and it's been quite successful in it's niche. But over the last 2 years and last 9 months in particular, it's declined.

it doesn't seem that dead but i think its probably declining. the website looks pretty... old so i guess people are less inclined to join because of that? idk im new