Anyone use a different term other than forums or community?

On one of my forums I use the tab title Discussion, because many of the people there would not know what the word forum means in this context.
 
The method of interaction there was so primitive that I never bothered with it at the time
I was on Usenet a bit at times, but was never fond of it. I've been doing forums for about 20 years. Started with some tabletop rpg forums c. 2002-3.
 
I was on Usenet a bit at times, but was never fond of it. I've been doing forums for about 20 years. Started with some tabletop rpg forums c. 2002-3.
Ah yes, that takes me back. My first experience of forums was when ExtremeTech started in 2001 and I was hooked immediately. The site looked very different to today, as you can imagine. I gave up on their forum when they changed the software to some abomination that ruined the experience. About 10 years ago plus, they retired their forums completely, making an announcement about it. Dunno why they did that. Still a decent tech site, though.

 
Agreed 💯 I have my own proverb: if a chicken crosses the other cheek to get into a glass kitchen he won't smell what the rock is cooking. :)

Your response is just so quintessential to the entire idea of lagging behind. "I'm right, you are wrong, but why won't anyone visit my dead forum" lol

Im not saying /forums is wrong, but the term is not commonly understood. The overwhelming majority of people will not click on a forum these days, all other variables constant. But using links, titles, landing pages etc with terms like community and social, people will understand.
This is also my experience over multiple communities I run or own. People under 25 do not recognize the term forum as much, and people over 45-50 (who are not usually involved with internet or technology) are also confused.

What really matters is how you're driving traffic to your site, not the name of the folder. Though, I agree that "forum" is still the common vernacular for..... you know.... forums. Go figure. If someone is searching Google for a ______ forum, they aren't likely using "community" or "social" as keywords. They're likely searching for a "_______ forum."

In fact, when I look up the search queries (keywords listed on Google's Search Console) used to find my site in Google, "forum" shows up. But, "community," "site," or "social" literally don't make an appearance on the list. Must not be "average" people using Google. Ha!

But, there's your proof. The FACT is that virtually nobody is using "community" as a search term to find an online special interest group. But, they ARE using "forum."


In any case, there are many other things that factor into attracting traffic that render the name of the sub-folder effectively moot.

I have seen the exact opposite, and even when I was offering services (and I'm sure Mike C has experienced it to a larger extent than most people here given the number of customers he has retained) that the trend for at least the last 10 years has been that forum has been less common vernacular and community has become more common. There is obviously still areas where there are standouts, and if you are already established as one you are going to see more traffic for forum, but that is not going to be the case for anyone newer.

You can also just use Google Trends and see how things have changed over time, and it is obvious that within the next few years (5, 10 at most) forum will be even less common.

This also does not mean forums are dead (as I'm sure someone will bring up that debate as well), but that forums are changing. It still doesn't mean that XenForo needs to be Facebook and Reddit, as that's still a stupid thought :LOL:.
 
There is obviously still areas where there are standouts, and if you are already established as one you are going to see more traffic for forum, but that is not going to be the case for anyone newer.

My forum is 6 months old. "Discussion," "site," "community" don't even make an appearance (not once) in the keywords used in queries landing on my site. But, "forum" does.
 
My forum is 6 months old. "Discussion," "site," "community" don't even make an appearance (not once) in the keywords used in queries landing on my site. But, "forum" does.
How much traffic, what type of site, and how have you branded the site?

Of examples I can use off the top of my head:

Site A (5 year) I mostly see community, with a small smattering of forum. This is also linked to a large Discord server, and when we tell people to look on the forum we get asked "what is a forum/where is the forum" in the age groups I mentioned previously. There are also a lot of non-Native English speakers.

Site B (10 years) has never branded itself as forum or as community, and just as its own thing. Community has trended upward for search results, and forum has declined significantly over the last 10 years. Previously it saw a lot of traffic as forum.

Site C (1 year) again has never branded itself as a forum or community, and sees more traffic regarding community than forum. It has a bigger focus on articles and information, but primarily content is based around the forum.

There are a number of sites I am also active on to help with (mostly paid positions) and those have mostly seen the same trend.
 
My forum is 6 months old. "Discussion," "site," "community" don't even make an appearance (not once) in the keywords used in queries landing on my site.
But why should they? Hardly surprising - I doubt anyone would use those terms in a search. Nobody is suggesting otherwise are they?
 
But why should they? Hardly surprising - I doubt anyone would use those terms in a search. Nobody is suggesting otherwise are they?

But, "______ forum" is a keyword being used to land on my site. One of many. But, it is one of them.

How much traffic, what type of site, and how have you branded the site?


In the last month:


1662153987474.webp

Forum stats:

1662154219239.webp

Branding comes from a variety of actions / activities. So I'm not sure which you're referring to. But, my short answer is yes.

I have a good domain name / forum name, which has keywords in it. That helps. I also have occupied a space that was vacated by another very popular niche forum that was suddenly shut down. So, that helps. I've promoted my forum on other forums that are peripherally related.
 
But, "______ forum" is a keyword being used to land on my site.
No surprise there, my post above was regarding the other search terms you mentioned, ie "Discussion," "site," "community". I think it goes without saying that forum is bound to be a keyword that will render search results for a forum. Those others as I said are possibly not great keywords for a search of a forum, especially site given that applies to every website.
 
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No surprise there, my post above was regarding the other search terms you mentioned, ie "Discussion," "site," "community". I think it goes without saying that forum is bound to be a keyword that will render search results for a forum. Those others as I said are possibly not great keywords for a search of a forum, especially site given that applies to every website.

The point being that, yes... people know what a "forum" is and use the term frequently. More importantly, they actively seek them out. My Google Search Console reports are evidence of that.

Forums aren't dead. There was a time when big tech social media sites (like FB) put a dent in forum activity. But, that pendulum is swinging back now. Big tech is falling on its own sword as we speak. Forums are coming back in a big way.

To borrow loosely from Mark Twain:

The reports of forum death are greatly exaggerated.

 
Suit yourself. There are none so blind as will not see. Have a good night. :)
actually he's kinda right. Most of your younger group have a minimal knowledge of what a "forum" consists of. It's simply us hold farts that are more familiar with it.
 
You should hear the really loud chugging sounds from the SCSI drive in it as it boots - glorious!
First system I had was an 8086 XT and used DesqView on little miniscribe HD.
Moved up in the world when one of my users donated a SCSI card and a 40MB SCSI hard drive (think it was a MiniScribe also, had to have it rebuilt before I could use it but was cheaper than buying new). Moved over to OS/2 and Maximus from a DesqView QuickBBS setup. Ran a 3 line system on that OS/2 Maximus/Binkley setup.
 
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My first system was an HP with NO disk drive (not a personal computer but a desktop computer for the lab at at work). It used cassette tapes as the storage medium, for backup, and for chunks of BASIC code which by swapping in and out of RAM allowed us to actually run statistical analyses like analysis of variance. :D
 
My first system was an HP with NO disk drive (not a personal computer but a desktop computer for the lab at at work). It used cassette tapes as the storage medium, for backup, and for chunks of BASIC code which by swapping in and out of RAM allowed us to actually run statistical analyses like analysis of variance. :D
The C64, my first personal computer, came with one of those cassette tape drives out of the box. A 5.25" floppy was an add-on. Later there was a small hard drive (10MB or something like that).
 
The C64, my first personal computer, came with one of those cassette tape drives out of the box. A 5.25" floppy was an add-on. Later there was a small hard drive (10MB or something like that).

Yep. Had one of those. The C64 was considered quite the advanced machine at the time.
 
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