Are Forums Dead?

[RichieBoy67]

oh yeah, I am not saying all forums are dead... just that it is more challenging now for most. Many are thriving for sure. Mine is doing well also.

--------------- Added 02 Jul 2014 at 11:26 ---------------

Originally Posted by Spangle

Thats not strictly true, whilst Google and Facebook had a disagreement which led to Google no longer taking it's traffic into account, Google still does monitor Twitter traffic wise as a popularity parameter.

That may be true, I would like a source for that info but either way Google does not index links in Twitter or Facebook or use them for ranking keywords, etc..

[Dave]

Originally Posted by RichieBoy67

Some are, many actually.

Alright let me rephrase myself, my gaming forum is certainly not dead*

[Zachery]

Its harder now than ever to setup a website around a common theme when you have 0 content.

If you want to build an active, successful forum, You need CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT, and then 10x more content.

Things, that people want to read and view.

Eventually, you can hit a critical mass where your forum will sustain itself. reaching critical mass takes SERIOUS hardwork and dedication.

[Max Taxable]

Content is king.

[RichieBoy67]

Originally Posted by Zachery

Its harder now than ever to setup a website around a common theme when you have 0 content.

If you want to build an active, successful forum, You need CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT, and then 10x more content.

Things, that people want to read and view.

Eventually, you can hit a critical mass where your forum will sustain itself. reaching critical mass takes SERIOUS hardwork and dedication.

Hitting critical mass is tough and it depends on your members and niche. I sure would like to have that happen! It is great though when members add the content for you. Unfortunately for me my members do not always do so. I am constantly adding articles, event news, etc.

[Toplink]

Originally Posted by Zachery

Its harder now than ever to setup a website around a common theme when you have 0 content.

If you want to build an active, successful forum, You need CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT, and then 10x more content.

Things, that people want to read and view.

Eventually, you can hit a critical mass where your forum will sustain itself. reaching critical mass takes SERIOUS hardwork and dedication.

Mine had reached critical mass, with a lot of very active members. Then it died........rather quickly. Still trying to discover why.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by Toplink

Mine had reached critical mass, with a lot of very active members. Then it died........rather quickly. Still trying to discover why.

Sudden upgrade?

[Dave]

I also want to say that on my gaming forum, the activity rates go up a lot when there's a chatbox. Without a chatbox some people don't even bother staying online for > 15 minutes.

[RichieBoy67]

Originally Posted by BigJimTheLug

Forums are not dead.
Facebook, and Google have not killed forums.

All Facebook, and Google did was take away all the young kids, and centralized their social media habits. This is really great since young people tend to type horrific English, which in turn, hurts your website overall.


Forumming is not dead. If your traffic is down, you have to find a way to revitalize your niche either using artificial means such as artificial intelligence combined with algorithms, or other tricks of the trade to start dynamic discussions and build a user base.

Social media will never destroy niche forums.

I agree that forums are not dead and in general will never die but it is much more challenging these days to start and run one. As for taking kids away I disagree. There are more forums relating to kids then ever before, minecraft forums, etc. Not only that but people of all ages use FB.

--------------- Added [DATE]1404384443[/DATE] at [TIME]1404384443[/TIME] ---------------

Originally Posted by Dave

I also want to say that on my gaming forum, the activity rates go up a lot when there's a chatbox. Without a chatbox some people don't even bother staying online for > 15 minutes.

While a chatbox may keep people on your forum it is not really adding any useful content in terms of search rank so it is not getting anyone knew to your forum. Also, those people who are chatting in your shoutbox are most likely not posting as much in your forums.

It could be good though as you said to keep people there longer and maybe it helps keep the gossip out of the forums too. I guess on some sites they may work well but I just have never had any luck using shoutboxes. The added resource usage was just never worth it and I always saw a decline in forum posts. I could see it working well though on a gaming forum.

[Toplink]

so...Forums ARE dying.....