Is Facebook competing against forums?

Is Facebook competing against forums? This is something I think Facebook has been taking a big chunk of traffic from. Facebook may be the reason Forums are becoming slightly less popular form of online community/social network.

Consider Facebook's layout, isn't it just a dumbed down version of a forum (wall posts) with some more personal info? My theory is forums will continue to be hurt by Facebook, but there are a few things that still separate forums that we can focus on such as more detailed niche information and marketplaces.

 

No, I don't think so, and for several reasons. First, forums provide a level of anonymity that you just can't get with Facebook. Despite Facebooks continued growth, many Internet users like that they can hide behind a made up name and avatar when discussing certain subjects.

Second, the ability to sort subjects is far more advanced in forums. Better organization leads to better information.

Finally, many of the forums are well established and "go to" type places. It's hard to see a forum dropping in traffic only due to Facebook.

 

Anonymity is a big plus but consider Warrior Forum where most users are rather public with who they are, even linking to their Facebook from their profiles anyways.

 

That's a fair statement, but can you imagine any Facebook page or group or wall delivering the sheer volume of useful information that is shared on WF. Or this forum, for that matter?

Of course, not all of the information there or here is completely solid, but you can generally weed through the junk and find the gems.

 

Use facebook to find members for your forum. I just started promoting through facebook (mainly by getting my members to like my site & share threads) and have already pulled in a few newer members. Not bad by my way of thinking.

THough, with FB lowering their privacy standards you may now likely see an upswing in forums where it's still 100% anonymous.

 

Yeah. You really can use Facebook as a gateway to many things.

 

Well of course Facebook is competing against forums, but what's to say you can tap some activity off Facebook?

 

Facebok doesnt give owners of communities enough powers to control a community and till this remains it cant be a competitor to forums

 

hmmmm I don't think so... Facebook is way different compared to forums...

Forums are full of content while social sites is full of trash hehehehe I mean profiles, pictures, and post, even games.

so I don't think it can compete on forums....

I rather spent hours of hours on forums rather than spending more than 20 minutes n FB. But I am not saying I never visit FB

 

There is an attempt to crossover forums with social networking sites. Mostly they fail imho. Either you're a forum or you're not. I don't feel FB is any type of competition to a forum. There is little content on a social networking site and it's just a lot of interactive fluff. FB would suck mainly if Zinga didn't have it's games there.

The failure of VB4 is proof that these two genres should not be intertwined.

 

But did you see the successful integration of the social media and IPB 3? That however was well-done.

 

I wouldn't really worry about it... there's literally BILLIONS of users online - not all of them are on Facebook, plus a lot of the core users (like teens) appear to be getting over the social networking site even as it takes hold with half a billion users worldwide. (see article here: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007808) ...plus I totally agree with @MarTh that being anonymous is still important to many of us.

Good Luck!

 

I don't think Facebook will overcome forum.

Facebook is more like socializing among the people you know.
And don't forget, you can only interact between your limited 5000 friends only.

While a forum, there's no limitation in interaction.
You can even post pictures, videos, and codes on forum inside the post while replying other people.

 

Any examples of a newer VB4 or IPB3 site? When I say newer I don't mean converted from VB2 and been around a couple years. I mean a forum started as a social networking forum hybrid that's a success. My guess is that many of these will fail and few will compare to the successes of forums like Gaia Online, Something Awful, or DP. Something Awful is still VB2 and has 100 million posts.

 

You are right, Facebook has already taken a lot of traffic from the forums as well as other advertising sites too. I too have around 60% of my daily traffic from Facebook and around 30% of sales from it too. Hope Facebook doesn't start charging members to maintain their membership on the site ... lol !!!