Has anyone noticed a decline in forums?

[BassMan]

XenForo admins, let's export all our databases into a single one hosted by Xenforo as a new forum, and we'll get one big happy family with millions of users and posts. The stats will fly and only the sky is the limit

Some already stated a few posts back, that comparison with social media platforms is not fair nor relevant. I believe most forum admins don't want their forum to look like Reddit.

 

[Mr. Jinx]

XenForo admins, let's export all our databases into a single one hosted by Xenforo as a new forum

Or, to start with, implement XF Single Sign On so you can login on any XF forum with one account.
Kinda like Tapatalk (sorry!). You select some nice category and end up on someone's forum, using the same credentials.

 

[Dad.]

I believe most forum admins don't want their forum to look like Reddit.

My argument here is "too bad". Thats what users want. You cant not offer what people are expecting AND complain about the decline in your activity and user engagement.

That said, there is a happy medium that exists.

 

[imno007]

What are your ideas for reinventing and revitalising forums?

You know, transform them so that they're not really forums any more, but more like the thousand great CMS platforms already out there, but just with maybe slightly better integrated forums.

 

[djbaxter]

My argument here is "too bad". Thats what users want. You cant not offer what people are expecting AND complain about the decline in your activity and user engagement.

That said, there is a happy medium that exists.

I suspect the response to your comment from many who have posted in this thread would be, "Hold my beer...".

 

[bottiger]

It's a dreadful interface and layout, with barriers in place to unregistered visitors, extremely difficult to search for content, and the vast majority of content and replies are fluff and nonsense.

I absolutely agree. To me reddit is inferior in every way except for the threaded and voting system.

But when I look at my forum, I notice that it is only the old people such as ourselves that are still using it. It is mostly people over 30. Everyone that is younger is on discord or reddit.

I think many of us cannot face the fact that our preferred style of forums is not what most people prefer anymore. I really don't believe that reddit is succeeding in 1000 different niches because of factors other than the software.

As for what exactly should be done, I don't exactly know. I believe that burden falls on Xenforo mostly since we are all outsourcing our forum development to them. Having threaded discussions is one possible idea, but I don't know if it is enough or just 1 of many.

 

[imno007]

I absolutely agree. To me reddit is inferior in every way except for the threaded and voting system.

But when I look at my forum, I notice that it is only the old people such as ourselves that are still using it. It is mostly people over 30. Everyone that is younger is on discord or reddit.

I think many of us cannot face the fact that our preferred style of forums is not what most people prefer anymore. I really don't believe that reddit is succeeding in 1000 different niches because of factors other than the software.

Likely in 10 years, mostly only "old people" will be using Facebook, and the young people will have flocked to whatever the newest "hip" social media platform is. To a large degree, this is just young(er) people being young(er) people and being attracted to whatever the newest shiniest thing is that is most popular with their peers, and then they will in turn coax some of the old fogies in. I'm just not sure how you're ever going to compete with that kind of thing, or why you would even make the attempt, unless maybe you have some serious money backing you up. Unless you have the money and/or you get really lucky, you'll likely have to content yourself with being a small fish in a large pond.

 

[Mr. Jinx]

Sadly, this is what I'm seeing too. Mostly older people enjoying the classic forums.
Every time I want to introduce some new feature, they will complain about it.

Sometimes a facebook user joins by accident, thanks to connected accounts. Having no clue what they are doing.

My stats from the past 3 years are not looking good

 

[rosal]

Insta, tiktok, facebook, etc.. its hijacking all traffic.
We must adapt!

 

[bottiger]

Likely in 10 years, mostly only "old people" will be using Facebook, and the young people will have flocked to whatever the newest "hip" social media platform is. To a large degree, this is just young(er) people being young(er) people and being attracted to whatever the newest shiniest thing is that is most popular with their peers

I don't think it is a fad. Facebook is too old to be a fad now. Reddit is older than xenforo...

Forums just haven't evolved enough, or their evolution is reddit and companies selling forum software haven't adapted fast enough.

Also many people here seem to rely on forums as their primary business/income, xenforo included. And for many, their numbers are approaching a big fat ZERO. Take a look at all the dead forums and dead domains here https://xenforo.com/community/forums/forum-showcase-and-critiques.53/

My 3 year old discord server has 2x the registrations and 7x the daily active users. And I've literally spent 1/100th the effort on setting up the discord.

 

[Paul B]

old people such as ourselves

Hey!

I resemble that remark.

 

[Dad.]

Its not a perfect build or demo, but Ive been toying around with UX for XenForo, this is where Im at right now: https://gaming.audent.io/community/

 

[imno007]

I don't think it is a fad. Facebook is too old to be a fad now. Reddit is older than xenforo...

Forums just haven't evolved enough, or their evolution is reddit and companies selling forum software haven't adapted fast enough.

Also many people here seem to rely on forums as their primary business/income, xenforo included. And for many, their numbers are approaching a big fat ZERO. Take a look at all the dead forums and dead domains here https://xenforo.com/community/forums/forum-showcase-and-critiques.53/

My 3 year old discord server has 2x the registrations and 7x the daily active users. And I've literally spent 1/100th the effort on setting up the discord.

Well, I guess it depends partly on your definition of a fad, how many years something has to last online befoe it can no longer be considered a fad. Ten or 15 years doesn't seem that long to me in the long run. Friendster and Myspace and others used to be big once upon a time, but those times are past. I can't tell you how popular FB or Twitter or Ticktock or whatever will be ten years from now, but I do know that one thing they have in common is a lot of money behind them, that keeps them churning on. Money that most of us don't have.

 

[Dad.]

Well, I guess it depends partly on your definition of a fad, how many years something has to last online befoe it can no longer be considered a fad. Ten or 15 years doesn't seem that long to me in the long run. Friendster and Myspace and others used to be big once upon a time, but those times are past. I can't tell you how popular FB or Twitter or Ticktock or whatever will be ten years from now, but I do know that one thing they have in common is a lot of money behind them, that keeps them churning on. Money that most of us don't have.

Im curious to see how these new data protections coming out of EU mostly and California will play into their longevity as well. "Too big to fail" maybe, but this whole Web 3.0 idea seems to not be something that will revert any time soon.

 

[bottiger]

Well, I guess it depends partly on your definition of a fad, how many years something has to last online befoe it can no longer be considered a fad. Ten or 15 years doesn't seem that long to me in the long run. Friendster and Myspace and others used to be big once upon a time, but those times are past.

Friendster and myspace both lasted less than 10 years by my estimates.

 

[imno007]

Friendster and myspace both lasted less than 10 years by my estimates.

So, what, FB and Twitter being around a few years longer proves they' won't suffer the same fate? Again, maybe they won't, but never say never. It would not surprise me in the least to find in 20 years that FB will be discussed as something that "used to be very big." Whatever, it doesn't change the fact that there's no reason to believe that anyone here will ever be able to come close to being able to compete with them, or whatever might replace them.

 

[bottiger]

So, what, FB and Twitter being around a few years longer proves they' won't suffer the same fate? Again, maybe they won't, but never say never. It would not surprise me in the least to find in 20 years that FB will be discussed as something that "used to be very big.

Everything dies eventually. Sears lasted 100 years. Would you have told mom and pop department stores to just wait 100 years for the sears "fad" to pass?

I don't know about you, but I don't have time to wait 20 years for FB or Reddit to die. I've already waited 10 years.

 

[djbaxter]

I don't know about you, but I don't have time to wait 20 years for FB or Reddit to die. I've already waited 10 years.

Dang impatient teenagers with their hoodies and their pants down around their knees annoying people at convenience stores and strip malls.

And where did you get the impression that waiting for another platform to die so yours can ascend to fill the space was a reasonable strategy for promoting your site?

 

[bottiger]

Dang impatient teenagers with their hoodies and their pants down around their knees annoying people at convenience stores and strip malls.

And where did you get the impression that waiting for another platform to die so yours can ascend to fill the space was a reasonable strategy for promoting your site?

I'm not sure what the point of your reply is.

I'm making the point that it IS NOT a reasonable strategy but @imno007 is saying they are just fads that will die out in 20 years.

I don't know why you think active promoting is going to get you anywhere. If you've done any research you will see reddit and discord beat out traditional forums for 1/100th the effort and money.

 

[Wesker]

Like I said, it comes down to the industry you're in and what specifically your forum brings that is appealing or has its own uniqueness. If you're not unique, you'll die fast. Our industry, forums are doing just fine and Facebook Groups are not.

There isn't anything the XF team can really do to change industry changes other than create something brand new and innovating which is probably the route I would go when the day comes that you launch XF3.