Are Forums Dead?

[TheLastSuperman]

Originally Posted by RichieBoy67

This one is.

Some of us still whisper!

[socialteenz]

Originally Posted by TheLastSuperman

Some of us still whisper!

But IB should do something about this tbh.

[TheLastSuperman]

Originally Posted by socialteenz

But IB should do something about this tbh.

This is and always has been an entirely volunteer community. Even those who were on staff for vB/IB when they were also on staff here, were not paid for their time spent here.

Furthermore, I didn't realize for some time they removed the ability to use vB3 and vB4 when you purchased a vB5 license: https://forum.vbulletin.com/forum/vb...o-new-licenses

So all the ways of importing older forums software using Impex, into vB3 first, then upgrading to vB4, then finally upgrading into vB5 is no longer possible. A lot isn't possible anymore based on that change alone, I can understand not wanting to support or maintain vB3/4 but removing them entirely sort of made this forum a mute point in a sense, aside from the information related to vB5. They should have retained the downloads, with a clear notice and consent before downloading that it's use at your own risk etc. Many still run older forums, and have secured them by patching issues, and some even pay to have people convert everything over to be compatible with PHP8. It's not the first time we've seen a change made, that was more along the lines of cutting off your nose to spite your face - whether they realized it when making the change or not, is certainly something we can discuss and debate but it was their prerogative when doing so.

If I had more time to commit, I surely would but alas, time does not permit. We certainly encourage and welcome more community members who want to become more involved and help on a regular basis, if you can please do so! If time does not permit, then so be it .

[Prince]

Social media killed forums, they're dead except for very niche boards especially with topics that are "censored" by social media such as anabolic steroids.

Originally Posted by Toplink

Hi,

This is not meant to be an inflammatory post, but is a serious question.

I've had a forum since 2005, and it's been quite successful in it's niche. But over the last 2 years and last 9 months in particular, it's declined.

it doesn't seem that dead but i think its probably declining. the website looks pretty... old so i guess people are less inclined to join because of that? idk im new

[lange]

It depends on the niche and your goal.

Make a general public forum like in the past, forget it, people are on social media.

Making a private, invite-only personal forum with general content for friends or those who share your interests makes more sense. On the other hand, it must be developed to make it sufficiently interesting to retain membership. It's not easy too.

I think forums might not be as famous as they used to be. The Facebook era killed a lot of them. Nevertheless, I still find myself searching for answers here.

[linuxvorpal]

Originally Posted by daisysmithh

I think forums might not be as famous as they used to be. The Facebook era killed a lot of them. Nevertheless, I still find myself searching for answers here.

Forum searching is annoying. Results are not useful for content that is more than a year old. Most searches just return old and now irrelevant content. Forums are filled with that kind of stuff.