Are forums on their death bed?

I don't think forums can ever die because to give & get help you must need to communicate and forums are the best source of communication, for any category.

 

I think your answer is correct.

For those who believe sites like Facebook are taking away traffic from forums -- please elaborate. Unless you have a ton of friends on Facebook who all happen to be interested in the same niches at the same intensity as yourself, you will always need forums to reach out and communicate with the web community. This is why I can't see forums dying out.

 

Forums are more popular than ever. I have yet to see a facebook page come up for search results when I need help.

 

I don't think their on their death beds, I think their are still some extremely active forums out there, but it's up to the ones that aren't to encourage users to stay and of course bring in new ones.

 

I do see some of our forum's members using facebook now, but I agree with what you say. I personally prefer the forum environment for asking questions and discussing issues.

 

I don't see a lot of facebook results when doing searches for help.

 

Well, it's ok to criticize forums but do you propose any better alternatives?

Before forums and site BBS existed the standard email newsgroups, which they still exist but fallen out of grace.

A facebook forum is not the same as a normal forum except if you're competing for things that are already offered by a social network.

As far as knowledge is concerned, forums are a good way to raise it.

Some of my forums have been doing very well, we're surpassing the competition (~20k Alexa) because it demands a good amount of daily work.

Newer forums are harder to get started. You can't do everything on your own and when you ask people to join in they'll just be worried about how much money they'll be making even before getting to work.

I remember that on my first forum it took me almost 3 years before it could become profitable. Takes time and work, most people nowadays just want money right now with the laziest effort possible.
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Also, if forums are on their death bed, what are we doing on this forum?

 

facebook and other social network are some new evolution of some forms of forums.

 

While there is a growing lack of interest as far as user contribution is concerned, I don't think it's the end for forums in general.

 

I'm surprised by the results.

Are you?

 

I'm not sure how you can say forums are on their deathbed when they are some of the most relevant results in a lot of search queries, especially queries for real world problems and long tail ideas.

Yeah, plenty forums/niches are on their way out. But what's also on its way out? Most websites, youth, and the resurgence of denim hotpants.

 

Specialized forums can survive but forums as a general point of meeting are fading out.

Facebook is ranked on #2 at Alexa and we can only imagine how many messages are exchanged there on daily basis.

 

There has never been a forum in top 100 as far as I know. Social networking sites are not replacing forums. They have just gained notoriety because each one appeals to a mass audience while forums are niche markets. I'm sure if you added up all the traffic on the top 1000 forums it would do better than the top 1000 social networking sites. Gaia Online has 40,000 people on it at any given time. I'm sure the numbers for 4chan are just as impressive.

My own forums continue to grow just fine.

 

Alexa rank as we know is very inaccurate lower down the scale but higher up e.g 1000 and under it is very reliable. DP is 180 ATM, so it shows you something.

 

I'm sure if you added up all the traffic on the top 10 social networking sites they would do better than the top 1000 forums. Facebook alone has over 400 million active users per month. Do you really want to add up the next social networks in line like orkut, hi5, msn live, twitter, youtube, linkedin, qq and so forth?

Sure they are. People are shifting from sharing their stories on forum communities to sharing stories with communities composed with their friends of real life (or not). As a social way of talking with other folks, we (as forum owners) have already lost that war and will never reach the same scale as they do.

We're just lucky that most social networks are closed and require membership otherwise we'd also be losing search engine ranking as well.

Like I've said before:

Were living in a transition. Happened before with mailing lists and bbs. Forums are losing relevance as a meeting place and social networks are the next thing in line.

 

My forum is Alexa 5k. I'm definitely in the top 1000 forums. I had 10% of the signups that Facebook had this month and FB is the #2 website on the internet. FB had an actual decrease in new membership the past 2 months. I've had an increase. Many of these social sites are fads. I'd hate to see the number of new members that Myspace gets now. I bet I do better at Alexa 5k.

Social sites come and go. Just look at Digg. However forums have lasting power of a strong niche community. People join and stay for years at a time and participate daily. These social sites are nothing more than complex geocities sites. Everyone gets a page to show themselves off. That's about it. You can be competitive and evolve social sites but forums are the bread and butter of communities. They are the staple.

Companies have not yet mastered communities imho. FB is close but without incorporating a forum structure you're leaving out the glue that binds a community.

And one other thing: http://forums.myspace.com/
The Myspace forums has over 50 million posts. And that's without a direct navigational link.

 

I think not at all. I notice that people goes to more popular forums, compare to those small ones.

 

Perhaps some are but it is the easiest way to communicate and ask questions and answer them. This medium is going to die for a long, long, long time. There well be huge changes in how it works but it isn't going to die.

 

I think Sandy meant to say this medium will NOT die for a long time. I have to agree.

While sites like FB will undoubtly garner the lion's share of social networking, forums fill a need for centralized and moderated discussions based on a common theme. The key is to find a niche market that people are passionate about and want to discuss with like minded indivuals. Plus the hierachical structure of staffing on a forum also fulfills a need for recognition, respect and the desire to help others.

Another consideration is an increase in competition. Just look at the drastic decrease in hosting fees over the past 5 years. Forum software has also become easier to use, thus prompting more sysops with less technical experience. Add to that the ad revenue gold rush that drew many a user to DP. It should be expected that forums will become harder to establish and maintain market share. Especially with SEO techniques becoming increasingly competitive.

This is the natural evolution of the internet.

 

i think forums are great.

they will not die till they are made for good purposes.

forums and social networking are growing according to me.