The END of Message Boards And Discussions Forums As We Know It?

mjp said:
It's Internet History 101: something becomes popular and people flock to it, then just as quickly abandon it, at which point it becomes insignificant at best, or at worst, a historical footnote. People who believe that Facebook is too large to die just aren't looking at history. Or hundreds of years of human behavior (see: Stonehenge, the Facebook of its time).
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This is something a forum software company needs to do one of these days: Take a really big risk on their investment and start pushing the envelope by making forums popular again. The problem is that you don't see too many forum software companies in Silicon Valley, which is where most of these "juggernaut" companies come from.

I'm sorry, Internet Brands, but you're not a Silicon Valley company.

And xenForo is based in United Kingdom.

IPS, Inc. is based in virginia...

It's very hard for companies that aren't based in California to thrive on the venture capital opportunities. Especially when it comes to advertising, and marketing.

This thread re-affirms my belief that news companies are very stupid, and ignores a lot of the facts that are right in front of them. And likewise, it makes me sad that companies shun message boards, and forums altogether like this. Honestly, there's this voice in the back of my head saying "Your company needs to get into forum software to do something about it." So, as of right now, I am making one thing clear in my entire business future: Make at least one board really big, and popular. My end goal now is making one of the world's largest forum. It does not matter which industry.

What got me started in message boards was coming into a news website in the first place. Without it, I wouldn't have been connected to many gamers that I have been over the last 10 years now.
 
Carlos said:
there's this voice in the back of my head saying "Your company needs to get into forum software to do something about it." So, as of right now, I am making one thing clear in my entire business future: Make at least one board really big, and popular. My end goal now is making one of the world's largest forum.
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If anyone has the skill and the insight to single-handedly save the forum as we know it, it's you, my friend.

I'm not afraid to say that when I read your inspirational words, I shed a tear or two. I thought to myself, "Carlos? Carlos is going to step in? Oh my god...everything's going to be all right!"

Thank you, my friend. Thank you...(oh - here come the tears again...damn it!)
 
mjp said:
If anyone has the skill and the insight to single-handedly save the forum as we know it, it's you, my friend.

I'm not afraid to say that when I read your inspirational words, I shed a tear or two. I thought to myself, "Carlos? Carlos is going to step in? Oh my god...everything's going to be all right!"

Thank you, my friend. Thank you...(oh - here come the tears again...damn it!)
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Oh, Sarcasm. Real fun.

Ya know, an hour ago I was frustrated with your post because you're just like the haters. Pessimistic. Hateful of what the other person is thinking. And we have 4 people rooting you on. Like they're on a bandwagon of sorts.

3 years ago, I had negative people like you. They said I could never do it. Now I'm very successful. Collectively, 4 of my websites are bringing me more than 30 thousand visitors, and over 50 thousand pageviews. So, line up on the losers side! :)

C'mon everyone, bring on the hate. BRING IT!
 
Dean said:
Please don't. There is already enough hate in the world.

There is no reason this thread cannot contain well thought out posts & good opinions without people putting down other peoples opinions.
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People just love to hide behind a anonymous username and press the like button on everything they think is against people's opinions. Like this: I forsake that train of thought.
 
I have notice a huge decline in activity on all my favorite forums. But I don't think forum are going to totally die in a few years. But I am willing to bet 50%+ of the forums out there right now will close up shop by then. Many people open a forum and expect posts just because the forum up and running. They don't make any effort on their part to boost activity.

My forum is slow and I am trying everything under the sun to boost activity. In a two week period I managed to triple my forum traffic. Now the trick is to turn them into posters. (y)
 
I really do not see how Forums will not have a role in the future...we run this thing ;). Made a quick post about it on my blog lulz...w/o forums there would be no internet, end of story :giggle:
 
My thinking is that just with any media, networking or information sharing platform you have to evolve with the times or die off. Message boards are no different. I can see and do see how much Facebooks and Twitter like options will decrease the number of Forum users because of how global they are. Why sign up on 10 different forums related to topics of interest when you could simply click Like on a page and you are instantly in the mix.

All of that aside, I believe forums will always have a place in the world thanks to webmasters who cultivate their boards in a way that invites membership. If the board adds value to someone's life or to their wallet people will keep it alive.
 
Dean said:
I fully understand your frustration, but ignoring is a valid approach to some situations. Just my 2 cents.
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Not necessarily speaking about why you posted this but the contents of your message is GOLD! (y)Seriously, if more webmasters enforced etiquette within its board as well as mandated that posts add value to the thread or be deleted, there would be more boards out there now with growing memberships.

In my opinion one of the main reasons boards fail, and why the forum model has some serious flaws, is that we as forum admins at times get too caught up in the # of users and active users we have. Sure we all want to be a big board, but sometimes trying to achieve that goal leads to sacrifice in quality and user experience. This leads to quality members leaving and if unchecked total anarchy.

Like I said before, it is the forum admins (webmasters) who will keep the Message Board form of networking alive. There are too many bright and creative people out there who know the potential for this type platform and through their (our) efforts it is here to stay.
 
To inject another thought here, with the roll out of the 'new' WordPress forum plugin I am actually anticipating a spike in the number of message boards out there. You literally can 1 click install a functional forum on any site. It is very basic in feature and can't compete with the likes of Xenforo but think of how many people with no money to spare who can now instantly build a forum. This could really be a boom for the platform.
 
joX said:
To inject another thought here, with the roll out of the 'new' WordPress forum plugin I am actually anticipating a spike in the number of message boards out there. You literally can 1 click install a functional forum on any site. It is very basic in feature and can't compete with the likes of Xenforo but think of how many people with no money to spare who can now instantly build a forum. This could really be a boom for the platform.
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Where is this? I mean is there a plugin to install? If so what is the name?
 
joX said:
To inject another thought here, with the roll out of the 'new' WordPress forum plugin I am actually anticipating a spike in the number of message boards out there. You literally can 1 click install a functional forum on any site. It is very basic in feature and can't compete with the likes of Xenforo but think of how many people with no money to spare who can now instantly build a forum. This could really be a boom for the platform.
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How many of these forum owners wanting this WordPress close integration with XenForo, actually use WordPress now. And I mean use it, not just having it installed sitting there doing next to nothing? And them that don't use it, why is that? Most don't because a lot of work is involved with running a Blog, people tend to install it and try, then later down the line realise they aren't using it like they first thought they would. It's sunk home it's too much hard work adding content compared to on a forum.

Things will be no different even with an XenForo/WordPress combo, you still need to add lots of content to promote the Blog (side of things), it won't work miracles for your forum with nothing posted on one.

Not trying to be funny or anything here, just that it makes me laugh at times because people talk about WordPress being this great thing you need, but they seem to forget it's only as good as the content you add on it. And that means you then have both a forum and blog to write for.
 
Tried BBPress as well, more than once. The idea of using an official forum board add-on seemed good, sadly it doesn't come up to scratch in my opinion. My view, don't waste your time on it.
 
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