Forums are dead

Those numbers do not equate to quality or value of members or content. Member numbers do not equate to activity. How many are fake profiles from bots? How many are actually posting and being active out of the 900 you showed? I suspect if the top 5 posters stopped posting, forum activity would tank. How about you stop posting threads and posts for a bit and let the members pick up that heavy lifting for a bit and see what happens.

Like I have stated previously, I visit a forum with over 50K members from time to time. Any given day you are lucky to see 50 posting. That is abysmal. And most posting are the same ones that frequent the forum and not new members.

Do a prune of members that have not been active in the last 60 days or have had less than 2 posts in that time frame. Then tell us what those numbers are again. I suspect those numbers again would drastically drop.

I know a forum that routinely pruned accounts. Their actual forum growth was significantly slower than it appeared.

And what you see as a 'productive discussion', others may see as just idle chit chat with no meaningful discussion once the original purpose of the thread was met.

So if I make a thread asking who the first president of the United States was, and someone responds with the correct answer of George Washington right away, the rest of that thread no longer serves a purpose other than idle chit chat. Especially if no other question was asked. I would then not hold that thread as a quality thread with valuable content.

If someone makes a thread talking about the latest movie, odds are that thread served it's purpose once it veers off into discussions about anything else and is no longer a quality thread. It's a common things for forums. Including this one and this thread. Thus degrading the actual quality of the thread and content.

Many forums won't prune inactive or fake or duplicate members because they think a bigger number entices people. Makes them think the forum is bigger and more active than it actually is.

So here's a challenge. Prune your forums of people that have been inactive for 60 or 90 days. Show a before and after picture of the results. I suspect your number likely would be cut down to AT LEAST 1/4th of what you showed or what anyone showed. Possibly less if it's just the same handful or even dozen people posting.

For example you showed 900 members with 1,686 threads. That equates to less than 2 threads per member. And my hunch is it's primarily the same group of people making the threads and posts.

Long story short forum owners trying to share numbers many times are just just partaking in useless peeing contests as they are most times just showing a fictional number not based in the reality of their forum. (Doesn't help when there are plug-ins to create fake numbers too.)

The numbers are deceptive to say the least for most forums. Because if all 900 members were actually posting, or even if a quarter of them were, the thread and post counts would be significantly higher. But they aren't. shrugs

It seems your primary purpose of your recent posts is rain on his parade. He's happy with the progress of his forum, and that's what matters.
 
Anyway, if you want to claim 1st amendment protections, you'll need the government to create or nationalize a social media platform.

I'm quite aware of how it works. :-) Facebook (and any other private entity) can censor all the want. The Constitutional (1A) protections do not apply.

UNTIL... they become an AGENT of the government. Even a private entity can become an agent of the gov't. And, they have. By the admission of BOTH sides (FB and the current administration). They announced it on TV! The WH press secretary openly admitted, "We are working with Facebook on what to delete."

So, until THEN.... it's all Constitutionally moot. But, as soon as the gov't gets involved.... we've got a problem, Houston.

You are mistaken that it requires that the platform be created or nationalized by the gov't. When the gov't is DIRECTING or influencing the private entity to censor... then it's VERY MUCH a Constitutional issue. And, they haven't been coy about it. They outright announced it. And, that's when I left Facebook.

Anyhooooo.... Carry on.
 
But are there puppies? 🐶 :ROFLMAO: (Sorry, I'll let that tangent die in peace now)

Sure! Here ya go!
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not just zealously censoring on their own accord
There's a difference between moderating and censoring.

I think it's more about advising because of harmful misinformation about COVID. Free speech does not mean people are free to say what they want.
but doing it on BEHALF and behest of the U.S. gov't
I get the impression it's more about helping them with information rather than dictating to them. But I'm sure there are some conspiracy theories that say otherwise.

On my forum we moderate stuff that could be harmful health information or advice, and will continue to do so. We also moderate hate speech. But there will always be people who will use inflammatory language such as censorship, or misuse the term freedom of speech, to belittle a platform's right to carry out moderation under its own terms.

But I also think you may just need to get used to the fact that the term patriot is now toxic to a lot of people. Sad but true.
 
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There's a difference between moderating and censoring.

I think it's more about advising because of harmful misinformation about COVID. Free speech does not mean people are free to say what they want.

I get the impression it's more about helping them with information rather than dictating to them. But I'm sure there are some conspiracy theories that say otherwise.

On my forum we moderate stuff that could be harmful health information or advice, and will continue to do so. We also moderate hate speech. But there will always be people who will use inflammatory language such as censorship, or misuses the term freedom of speech, to belittle a platform's right to carry out moderation under its own terms.

But I also think you may just need to get used to the fact that the term patriot is now toxic to a lot of people. Sad but true.

I will not get into a Constitutional or political debate here. I happen to be very well-versed on the subject. But, yeah... not going there... here.

If "patriot" is "toxic" to weak-minded people, then I will wear it even more proudly. Truly.

I served my country (Persian Gulf veteran) and took my oath to defend the Constitution (with my very life) seriously.

I now contribute to our way of life (Freedom) by owning a business, creating jobs, voting, raising a good family, and advocating for the Constitution (by educating myself on it constantly) and spreading the message of Freedom.

I will neither comply with compelled speech, nor will I even acknowledge the constant woke moving of the linguistic goalposts. A patriot is a patriot and what a patriot has always been. Nothing is inherently offenSIVE. But people can choose to BE offendED. That's their problem, eh?

Lastly... Forums are not dead! They're alive and on the cusp of a renaissance! That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it! And, with that... I'm out of this one.
 
I will not get into a Constitutional or political debate here. I happen to be very well-versed on the subject. But, yeah... not going there... here.

If "patriot" is "toxic" to weak-minded people, then I will wear it even more proudly. Truly.

I served my country (Persian Gulf veteran) and took my oath to defend the Constitution (with my very life) seriously.

I now contribute to our way of life (Freedom) by owning a business, creating jobs, voting, raising a good family, and advocating for the Constitution (by educating myself on it constantly) and spreading the message of Freedom.

I will neither comply with compelled speech, nor will I even acknowledge the constant woke moving of the linguistic goalposts. A patriot is a patriot and what a patriot has always been. Nothing is inherently offenSIVE. But people can choose to BE offendED. That's their problem, eh?

Lastly... Forums are not dead! They're alive and on the cusp of a renaissance! That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it! And, with that... I'm out of this one.
Whilst I agree with the majority of what is said there, the word "woke" literally makes my skin crawl. :D
 
If "patriot" is "toxic" to weak-minded people, then I will wear it even more proudly. Truly.
No, it's also toxic to strong minded people. No need to be insulting to people who have merely observed that the word seems to have been abused lately and used to excuse acts that seem to be far from patriotic to a lot of people.

I agree it is not a good idea to get into politics, but can we just keep the discussion free of such insults as weak-minded. Some people might consider that ad hominem. I appreciate a good and healthy debate as long as it's kept civil.
the word "woke" literally makes my skin crawl.
Me too. Like political correctness. It's used as an insult to people who merely want to be nice, or thoughtful about the feelings of others, especially if they are disadvantaged through no fault off their own e.g. disabilities, race or sexuality. Let's just all be tolerant, polite, courteous and compassionate.
 
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not want 100% control instead of depending on a fickle 3rd party?
You don't think that already somewhat exists in your current environment? What do you think hosts your site. You don't think that they are subject to outside persuasion or that they don't base their choices of what they allow to "live" there upon "community standards"?
And those standards change.... when I first got into law enforcement shouting the "F" word out in public was a quick trip to jail.... now it is protected speech.
 
Not my opinion.

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and how much of that is because it's "streamlined" and how much of it is because they have a decent cellular app that allows you to particpate while sitting in a Dr's office, in a tire shop waiting on your tires to be put on, etc?
I can promise you.. neither FB, Twitter, Instagram or any of those other "biggies" would have NEAR the popularity if it wasn't for the convenience for most of it being on their victims phone.
 
and how much of that is because it's "streamlined" and how much of it is because they have a decent cellular app that allows you to particpate while sitting in a Dr's office, in a tire shop waiting on your tires to be put on, etc?
I can promise you.. neither FB, Twitter, Instagram or any of those other "biggies" would have NEAR the popularity if it wasn't for the convenience for most of it being on their victims phone.
When you say decent, you are largely referring to the streamlined layout. But, you are right that being on mobile was a big contributor to their success. The aggregator app model that Reddit has (one app, multiple communities/subreddits) was also a big contributor.

The closest working thing we have to Reddit in the forum community is TapaTalk. Yes, to siphon off content was abhorrent. Things like that aside, they made the right streamlined layout, on the right platform, at the right time.

I developed a mobile app for XF several years ago, and tried everything I possibly could to make it work (obviously other than siphoning content), but it was just a money sink without a big distribution channel and aggregation.

The XF team has the biggest distribution channel, and they could theoretically cut out TapaTalk's legs from under them whenever they want. I can only guess they haven't done so because their workload is already too high.
 
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The XF team has the biggest distribution channel, and they could theoretically cut out TapaTalk's legs from under them whenever they want. I can only guess they haven't done so because their workload is already too high.
It is (a mobile app) a core failure to pursue to help increase and enhance participation. The current "solution" is a band-aid.
The problem with a mobile app is it will need to be able to encapsulate many 3rd party add-ons.
Like for my site, without Classifieds, ShowCase and Link Directory (as well as XFMG and XFRM) you kill a large portion of the site benefits.
The fun will be WHAT 3rd party add-ons to be able to use.... little "junk" ones like "make my smiley animated" or stuff like that... or more core features. Emulating the website itself will be almost impossible... that is the benefit that FB, Instagram, Reddit and such have... they are a controlled ecosphere... and THEY control what you can "have", and there is only one version of it.
 
I was in the same camp as you with regards to 3rd party add-ons. Then I launched that mobile app, and realized that not having them was not an impediment to members using forums, and most admins have mostly style customizations.

Anything else that's really needed across the board can be added by the aggregator app. To take it a step further, think of an XF "app" add-on which works on the app, rather than the website, but is programmable with PHP.

That way, the momentum of the existing developer base is carried forward instead of kicking them to the curb like vBulletin did. It could be another key tool to trounce TapaTalk, and other platforms, really.
 
I was in the same camp as you with regards to 3rd party add-ons. Then I launched that mobile app, and realized that not having them was not an impediment to members using forums, and most admins have mostly style customizations.
Yeah... I don't think an "aggregator app" (if referring to the typical aggregator that simply GATHERS news) or simple style app will cover this

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The ONLY thing that is extraneous here is the "Members" and possibly the "What's New". All others are integrated (and targeted) as a vital part of the site...loss of them is will be like chopping off arms and legs.. yeah, you may be left with he head, but it can be kind of boring.;)
 
Are forums dying? What are your thoughts? Personally, I don't think they are. I know of some forums that have thousands of members still to this day.

I still love to use them and think they serve a purpose. How do some of you promote your forums and are they actively growing?
 
 
I'm reminded of the Mark Twain (mis)quote: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
 
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