I personally believe that social networks such as Facebook are seriously laying the hurt to forums such as vBulletin. I've been a member of message board forums of various types from Proboards to phpBB to vBulletin--and unless you got a head start in the early-to-mid 2000's, you're going to have trouble finding a user base.
Though I've run a collectors & fan website for many years off and on, I was never a "heavy hitter" when it came to traffic. Now that I've finally got something going that is becoming somewhat popular within my hobby circles, I've got a Facebook group with 350+ members and growing, while my forum has been around just as long and barely has 50 members. I just recently added some limited Facebook connectivity to my forum (the ability to link your vB account with Facebook as well as Profile Pic showing at the top of the forum), hoping it'll draw more people in knowing that they'll be able to use their FB login for ease of use. I've read some people's reactions in similar FB groups to mine that they much prefer Facebook over forums because "It's easier".
While a couple of the larger fan website forums I go to still seem to be going strong, many of the smaller ones I used to frequent are fading into the past, with only longtime users that are still stirring about. I'm sure eventually they'll leave for greener pastures as well.
If Forum software such as vBulletin is to survive, it may be time to license out to social networks such as Facebook and just create a vBulletin like atmosphere within Facebook itself--maybe make an app that has properties of Facebook groups, yet behaves like a vBulletin, all managed from Facebook rather than a standalone system like vBulletin. Just "connecting" to Facebook isn't going to be enough moving forward, full-on integration will most likely be the only way to go if you want any continued traffic.
10-11-2014, 10:03 AM
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