13 steps

Are forums dead?

Written on Oct 12, 2006 // Thoughts.

That’s a question that’s been on my mind a lot recently. At first I thought it was just our forum, but when I had a look around I see nearly all the traditional sites with forums struggling to keep the damn things alive.
Maybe it’s part of the whole 2.0 (r)evolution, as much as I hate the buzzword there’s no denying it does signify a lot of changes that have been going on over the past year. Longer really, but it’s especially in the past year that 2.0 has taken over. When I look at the sites I visit on a daily basis it’s all blogs and newssites, or newssites using a blog mechanism. I’m quite surprised seeing as my daily routine used to consist of mainly forums which I’d visit and where I’d contribute. But either they’re gone, or they’ve gone stale, or maybe I’ve just moved on. In which case I can’t help but wonder where did the sense of community go? Yes Digg can be amusing, in a 3 second attention span kind of way, and yes you can comment on Flickr and other 2.0-ish sites, but I have yet to find something that compares to a forum in terms of building a community spirit. The idea of getting to know people and looking forward to their posts and replies feels lacking from most places. Sharing your hobbies, random thoughts about common interests or even mundane happenings.
So where does that leave this place which was very much built around the idea of a forum as central heart of our community?

Possibly sometimes maybe related posts:

4 responses so far, say something?

CommSie
Oct 12, 2006, 14:37
People seem to be very lazy, give no effort and or doesn’t have any type of honor, sense of belonging anywhere anymore, I guess.

Just me me me ME.
And get whatever you want and go.

Even torrent sites where a sort of forum-y reply is appreciated are annoyed at silent fleeing leechers.

Big fansubbers forums are pretty small core it seems as well.
Kaos
Oct 12, 2006, 17:47
i’ve been to some forums.. and yes some are dead and some are still pumping with life.. I can only hope that my j-rock community, once the doors are open, i can keep it alive. Since i _know_ that there are J-rock fangirls/guys >_> everywhere.. I just have to pin point the members who are willing to return to a stylish j-rock forums. The hard part is trying to come up with some sort of content to keep them returning..

*yawns for the 20th time* gahh.. im going back to bed.. already got 8 hours.. apparently i need more sleep.. (>z_z)
Travis
Oct 12, 2006, 3:07
Nice entry XIII, it sparked some thoughts.

I too want what you want, a strong community. I don’t care if it’s only 10 members, if there is a strong sense of some kind of relationship and people that get along normally and talk about interesting stuff on a regular basis, that would be great.

The forum that I co-administer is an off and on deal. We have a fairly solid member base, but they post infrequently. Sometimes we get influxes of new members that are highly talkative, but the content amounts to crap (crap being offensive stuff, which includes being mean to other members, “tough love,” spouting dogma that isn’t meant for discussion, etc).

Sometimes I’ll survey members about their inactivity. It is always, with the exception of a personal crisis, due to “lack of time.” Most of these people are sort of lying, as after stating that I see them posting madly on another forum. It actually reminds me of online dating. I’ll send a girl a PM, and I don’t get a response. Finally, after a long period or from me calling on them not responding, I get “Sorry, I’m so busy! Work, school, etc!” Then I see when they post two 80 question questionairres about useless personal info and how they’re bored… I don’t think it’s a lack of time, it’s a lack of interest, which could be applied to our forums.

I think one reason, is that while both of our forums have a central topic (mine being Jedi, yours being Anime/Videogames), they aren’t hugely popular topics, at least to talk about anyway, and seem to occur in niches. We also both have several areas of other interests where people can engage in conversation. But let’s face it, the people that go to the Jedi site go there for info on Jedi stuff (they read Academy info, check out the blogs) and the people that go to your site go there for the anime and videogame stuff (read reviews, blogs, etc). So I agree too, that many people simply look to other sources like blogs. I think this because, I’ve found that the “other topics” just don’t seem to spark as much conversation. Topics that get a lot of people going are stuff like martial arts (yeah… people love to talk about how to fight others for some reason… lots of advice to be found in these places), religion is a huge one (for example, a christian group that shares concerns, experiences, etc), and maybe politics.

I’ve found that a lot of people online like to give “advice.” There seems to be a “helping” epidemic when it comes to forums, and forums that are dedicated to this sort of practice thrive at an alarming rate. I don’t know, maybe they have something to prove or want to be seen as an expert, but it gets really crazy sometimes. Members like these, and members that have a poor attitude or poor communication skills, have undermined many decent discussions and turned topics into 20 page slug fests (not on our watch of course! But I’ve seen this happen at a surprisingly large number of places). My experience has been, that when it comes to forums, at least 50% of the member base is these people! Hot-headed, quick to judge/blame/tell people what they should do, etc, it is just crazy. I guess what I’m trying to say is: It’s hard to get good members.

What can we do? I don’t know, after rambling all that I got nothin’, haha. The communities that I’ve seen thrive the best have low moderation… which leads to frequent posting, but what does it matter if it’s all crap? I think the very nature of “online” is a good incentive for a lot of people to act differently, as in blunt and mean. It’s easy to act certain ways when the other person isn’t really in front of you. Moderating takes that away from them, it makes them remember “Oh yeah, it’s a real person, not just pixels on a screen.” For some reason, a lot of people don’t like that.

Travis
CommSie
Oct 12, 2006, 11:33
Our gen. has moved on, content providers are awayz and our content is too little of everything, I guess.

Nobody likes a sloppy jack of all trades.
*goes sobbingly away*