Forums are dying. Or something.

[JoelR]

Forums are dying, if you believe what forum admins have been saying for 10 years. 

 

There are definitely huge elements of truth. Forums are not as popular, they are not the first choice for many users who want to start new groups, and there are a lot of structural and technical drawbacks of forums.  

Rather than list all the reasons about why forums are dying, what are some reasons why forums can survive? 

From my vantage, many of the "weaknesses" can be turned into strengths. For example, the categories and boards that make the forum layout hard to penetrate for new users provide a strong sense of organization. I leaned into that sense of organization on my main community, and installed plugins that added alphabetical ordering, more advanced sort, and more advanced filtering.  

[V0RT3X]

In some niches, such as the support area, forums will probably never die, because they enable a better type of communication than groups in social networks. This is mainly due to the search functions and the possibilities of moderation.

But these are usually sites that are primarily used on desktop. Because all forums have one thing in common, be it IPS, XF or vB... not only do they look bad on mobile, but also the handling leaves a lot to be desired. They are designed for use on the desktop and a PWA can not keep up with a "real" app, but that's another story.

13 hours ago, JoelR said:

I leaned into that sense of organization on my main community, and installed plugins that added alphabetical ordering, more advanced sort, and more advanced filtering.  

Some screenshots of how you are using these plugins would be nice.

[JoelR]

11 hours ago, V0RT3X said:

Some screenshots of how you are using these plugins would be nice.

Very similar to this, but I had Adriano build me one for forum topics. It adds alphabetical ordering to forum topics, which can be used in boards that are almost like a directory.  

https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/9233-filter-by-first-letter-of-album-name

I definitely wouldn't recommend applying alphabetical ordering to your entire forum, but in selected boards that are highly-organized, this can be great.  

[dismalbliss]

I have 2 communities. One is doing great and shows no signs of slowing down. It's a niche community whose users are naturally weary of social media. Outside of some facebook groups, there is nothing like it on the internet. Even the reddit targeting the same group is dead as a doornail. We started this BEFORE the rise of Facebook and so maybe the early bird gets the worm.

In August I launched a second community going after a different niche and a different target audience. My odds are not stacked in my favor as there are numberous Facebook groups and Reddit groups catering to the same crowd. But the growth is similar to what site #1 was back in 2007-2009 so we shall see how it goes.

Are forums dying? Well if you don't update the software and don't personally put effort into building or maintaining the community, then you're in trouble. You have to be involved and promote that feeling of "family".

[Destiny]

I have heard this on many occasions, community admins saying that forums are dying out. 

From my perspective, I believe that as much as forums are struggling, they have not died out yet. Looking at what is trending and opening a forum following the trends has the potential to be a successful forum as long as you have the drive needed to ensure the content is there that users will be looking for. 

[Nomad]

I started posting on forums around 2012. Between 2015 and 2018, I was posting on over two dozen forums almost every day. Sadly, most of the forums where I was active back in the day are unavailable. I also believe that forums are not as popular as they used to be. However, I don't think they are dying. The major problem is people are unable to discover forums because of the popularity of social media platforms. Forum owners need to improve online visibility of forums.

[Jay]

There are quite a number of popular forums still.  However, of course, social media is way more powerful.  Anyway, in my situation I have invested a lot in both things.

Well, as an example, a popular guitar forum is TheGearPage.net and a popular drumming forum is DrumForum.org.   Do they look dead to you? 😄

Edited November 18, 2023 by Jay

[JoelR]

6 hours ago, Jay said:

There are quite a number of popular forums still.  However, of course, social media is way more powerful.  Anyway, in my situation I have invested a lot in both things.

Well, as an example, a popular guitar forum is TheGearPage.net and a popular drumming forum is DrumForum.org.   Do they look dead to you? 😄

It's so inspiring to see and hear forums that are thriving and doing well. I continue to believe in the value of independent communities that are passion-powered.  

One thing that I wanted to point out, however, is that many of these successful forums are already large.  They got big (and lucky) in the early years of forum growth.  New communities and forums have a harder time, but it's not impossible. 

[Toni]

As someone who has been active on forums for over 10 years now, most of the forums I used to regularly be active on, are now completely dead or have closed and never opened up again. 

Even now, as much as I am still active on forums, it is nowhere near as close to how many I used to be active on. 

It is a shame as I would much rather spend time on forums than social media. 

[Destiny]

Social Media has had a big impact on forums and it can be seen with the lack of activity many get. 

 

I don't believe they are completely dead as you do still have die-hard forum users who prefer to use forums over social media and that is keeping forums alive.