[RichieBoy67]

It also doesn't help that Google does not consider results in Facebook and Twitter which would help many forums get some of this traffic back.

I think social media has had an impact but all the algo changes have also had a large impact, larger in my opinion. Forums generally are filled with gossip which dilutes the good content you have. Google does not see the good content as it used to do but rather looks at the entire site. Yes it looked at the entire site before but it views keyword density in a different way now.

And also there is much more content out there on "the webs" and more forums which means more competition. We all get a smaller slice of the pie then we did back in 2005.

I agree with the above posted that focusing on seo should not be the only or even the main concern. Content is still king and good content will bring traffic. With forums though traffic is not the only concern. We want forum activity and unfortunately articles do not usually result in tons of forum activity, posting etc but they do get people to your site.

Running a forum is a challenge for sure these days. Hopefully when some start giving up those who stay with it will reap the benefits of those casualties.