Social media is on the way out in a similar way to "American Idol" and other shows dying. The novelty ran high, but it's not sustainable. IMO all it does is generate mass fatigue, I even call it "like fatigue". I notice many of my facebook friends rarely post these days and I can't be bothered with the endless information and endless scrolling when I do manage to check in (most of which is useless info). Who has time for this??? Now they want me to 'like' stuff AND tag it with emoticons. At least with forums I can visit a site dedicated to the topic, then drill down into that topic. I've even had users revolt over enabling 'likes' on my site so at this point all social media functions are disabled by popular demand.
The future of forums (vs social media)
- Thread starter drastic
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TPerry
Well-known member
That's the biggest complaint I'm getting from new users that are coming in from a vBulletin 3.x series site. They are used to the layout of vBulletin and the simple difference of XenForo has some of them confused. I could imagine what it would be like if it was a "blog like" appearance. People want to create the "next facebook" but they don't have any idea what it should/would look like.
Well, in my mind the future of forum software is to give the user a massive amount of choice to configure their own experience, but in an easy intuitive way. There should be a 'look & feel' preferences area that can let you choose pre-defined designs, for example basic BBS feel, Traditional Forums feel, Social Media feel, customise your own look and feel. If you want it to look and feel like a forum fine, or wordpress or facebook, etc. The system should let you make the forum look and function however you want it to. This also includes what content to show, what alerts, how to show those alerts and much much more.That's the biggest complaint I'm getting from new users that are coming in from a vBulletin 3.x series site. They are used to the layout of vBulletin and the simple difference of XenForo has some of them confused. I could imagine what it would be like if it was a "blog like" appearance. People want to create the "next facebook" but they don't have any idea what it should/would look like.
teletubbi
Well-known member
This can be done for users who adopt this things easy.
I can speak only from my experience. Users who are not very well in computing don't like it to make the platform look like they prefer by their own. Doesn't matter how easy it is.
They want only use a platform.
Xenforo is already easy to use. A lot of things self explanatory.
But even with this in mind there are users who have problems to find pm, upload pictures (also drag and drop), yes in fact ask how to post an entry in a thread.
We had users who thought the profile messages (status) is same like pm so they wrote things there what normally should be keep private.
Others got pm with content what belongs normally to a thread.
I don't say these users are stupid. They are just not this kind of tech nerds. This kind of user will never find a way to change the look and feel by themselves.
So at the end I have to decide which kind of Frontend i provide as a standart.
On the other end how will you manage that all this changes from forum to blog to Facebook lookalike can be done at user side?
I am not a programmer but I think this need very extensive css/PHP. Don't know about the impact of speed for such a platform.
I can speak only from my experience. Users who are not very well in computing don't like it to make the platform look like they prefer by their own. Doesn't matter how easy it is.
They want only use a platform.
Xenforo is already easy to use. A lot of things self explanatory.
But even with this in mind there are users who have problems to find pm, upload pictures (also drag and drop), yes in fact ask how to post an entry in a thread.
We had users who thought the profile messages (status) is same like pm so they wrote things there what normally should be keep private.
Others got pm with content what belongs normally to a thread.
I don't say these users are stupid. They are just not this kind of tech nerds. This kind of user will never find a way to change the look and feel by themselves.
So at the end I have to decide which kind of Frontend i provide as a standart.
On the other end how will you manage that all this changes from forum to blog to Facebook lookalike can be done at user side?
I am not a programmer but I think this need very extensive css/PHP. Don't know about the impact of speed for such a platform.
Divvens
Well-known member
It's the other way around in my community, members who register say they use the forum more than FB/Twitter etc. It's also a matter of "connections" on sites, once people start getting social, make friends, build relations they get dragged deeper into your community and get attached, that is only built in time and nothing but time.
teletubbi
Well-known member
This is the big difference from all the other platforms.
The others are build for fast communication. Have a lot of **** chat that in fact nobody wants to read.
Enguerran A
Well-known member
I think the fact that we can have this kind of discussion going here and not on Facebook just prove that forums are not dead, yet 
One of my close friend who was part of my staff runs a facebook group about watercooling. It's so big that they got sponsored by some famous brands and they even send him some hardware to try and review, on his facebook group. I tried to get these guys into my board long time ago and most of them didn't want to switch from Facebook to my website (or an other) because it wasn't that convenient -> phone notifications, etc...
One of my close friend who was part of my staff runs a facebook group about watercooling. It's so big that they got sponsored by some famous brands and they even send him some hardware to try and review, on his facebook group. I tried to get these guys into my board long time ago and most of them didn't want to switch from Facebook to my website (or an other) because it wasn't that convenient -> phone notifications, etc...
drastic
Well-known member
Social media is not on the way out. Just because your friends don't use it much anymore, doesn't speak for the rest of the planet and next generation growing up on it. Social media is like the ocean of stupid and useless information, but it's an extremely massive ocean full of potential customers.
You know where to find good information and how to use forums, but there's a new generation of users who could care less about forums.
We're going to have to make adjustments if we want to tap into social media make the next generation become our own members.
What kind of niche forum do you run? How old are the members? I could see a forum of 30 year olds wouldn't care for the social media aspects, but what happens if you're trying to capture the 18-25 crowd? They're all about the social media because that's all they really know.
Anyone under 30 probably didn't get to hear the sound of a modem logging on thanks to 500 AOL CDs in the mailbox.
drastic
Well-known member
That's a great example of a potential user base, but how the hell do we cross them over!?
Martok
Well-known member
Social media isn't on the way out but it's changing. Whilst we might use Facebook and Twitter, the next generation aren't really using this so much and are using other platforms such as Snapchat, Yik Yak and other new and emerging software (I know this from e-safety work based around teens in schools). The purpose of these platforms is very different from forums - it's typically for quick messages often about the person posting them. Forums are usually based around a theme of some sort (gaming, Formula 1, software support etc) and are primarily for discussions around those themes, some quick and some more in-depth.
Whilst there does need to be some integration between social media and forums and forums should be made easier to use, we shouldn't be aiming to make forums *like* social media. Forums have their purpose and the general way they work suits their purpose, just as the way social media works suits its purpose. We wouldn't dream of using a forum for social media, it wouldn't really work just as using social media as a forum wouldn't either.
drastic
Well-known member
You missed the point. We need to make something totally game changing that suits this new breed of Internet user who has the attention span of a fish.
People who are used to forums are getting older and will eventually use them less. How can we harvest this next generation?
Is it possible that the next XF platform can be a game changer? Why does it have to strictly be a forum? Why not be an easy way to communicate (forums communicate all the time) that mimics some of the easy to use aspects of social media, yet be powerful like the forum script already is? Some sort of hybrid that meets the needs of forum users while meeting the needs of our younger audience.
We've got to capture them somehow. I just don't know how to do it with this current set up. I am seriously having a really hard time trying to convince anyone from Facebook to come over to the site - not even my own friends use it!
Few of them said "get an app" but they still want the desktop easy to use version too.
This shouldn't be a discussion of how it won't work, but rather throwing ideas together to come up with something unique that we could all benefit from.
People who are used to forums are getting older and will eventually use them less. How can we harvest this next generation?
Is it possible that the next XF platform can be a game changer? Why does it have to strictly be a forum? Why not be an easy way to communicate (forums communicate all the time) that mimics some of the easy to use aspects of social media, yet be powerful like the forum script already is? Some sort of hybrid that meets the needs of forum users while meeting the needs of our younger audience.
We've got to capture them somehow. I just don't know how to do it with this current set up. I am seriously having a really hard time trying to convince anyone from Facebook to come over to the site - not even my own friends use it!
Few of them said "get an app" but they still want the desktop easy to use version too.
This shouldn't be a discussion of how it won't work, but rather throwing ideas together to come up with something unique that we could all benefit from.
Martok
Well-known member
Not at all. I agreed that changes need to be made but you missed the point about social media. That is constantly changing and what we use isn't what the youth of today use (and what they use is constantly changing).
Not all new Internet users have a short attention span. Anyway I think it's less about something whizz bangy (though improvements and ease of use changes are important) and more about the content and purpose. Users won't come to a flashy forum if the content isn't of interest to them, just as users will leave if it's incredibly difficult for them to do stuff on the forum.
Speak for yourself! I (and may people of a similar age to me that I know) will not be dropping forums just because we're getting old.
Floyd R Turbo
Well-known member
Social media is so simple to just take a pic and post from your phone.
On XF mobile here is the process
Start a thread/reply
click "upload a file"
on overlay, click "choose file"
[on iOS] click Photo library then Moments/etc, then select the photo
Once uploaded, you have to insert it. Seems simple enough, right? But what you have to do is tap in the reply field and position your cursor. Then scroll down without screwing up that spot, then select "thumbnail" or "full pic" (or whatever) and then it inserts it, and maybe you can see the cursor, maybe not. If you don't hit enter on either side of it, your text pushes the pic out of the way. Trying to navigate around this issue is just a learning curve but...
most people just move on.
This to me is one of those "little things" that everyone (admins or seasoned users) just say "learn how to do it and then it's simple" but that is the completely wrong attitude if we're going to stay with the times. Make the system work the way that social media works SO WELL and makes things SO EASY related to this issue.
There has to be a way. Make it happen and this would be huge in my book. We have users who are on the mod team and are on FB more than our forum because it's just all right there and so easy to do. Why can't a forum be that way? Because "we're not facebook" or whatever? Seriously? Take a page from that book and make it work.
On XF mobile here is the process
Start a thread/reply
click "upload a file"
on overlay, click "choose file"
[on iOS] click Photo library then Moments/etc, then select the photo
Once uploaded, you have to insert it. Seems simple enough, right? But what you have to do is tap in the reply field and position your cursor. Then scroll down without screwing up that spot, then select "thumbnail" or "full pic" (or whatever) and then it inserts it, and maybe you can see the cursor, maybe not. If you don't hit enter on either side of it, your text pushes the pic out of the way. Trying to navigate around this issue is just a learning curve but...
most people just move on.
This to me is one of those "little things" that everyone (admins or seasoned users) just say "learn how to do it and then it's simple" but that is the completely wrong attitude if we're going to stay with the times. Make the system work the way that social media works SO WELL and makes things SO EASY related to this issue.
There has to be a way. Make it happen and this would be huge in my book. We have users who are on the mod team and are on FB more than our forum because it's just all right there and so easy to do. Why can't a forum be that way? Because "we're not facebook" or whatever? Seriously? Take a page from that book and make it work.
Martok
Well-known member
I don't think anyone would disagree with you that uploading a photo on XenForo should be as easy as it is on the likes of Facebook. What some of us are saying is that the structure and organisation of Facebook wouldn't suit that of a forum. It's a nightmare to find previous posts on your own Facebook wall let alone posts on other people's and the News Feed is only useful to see what's been posted in the last few hours, whereas on a forum you can pretty much find anything you want and there's a better structure on forums for discussions than there is on Facebook.
teletubbi
Well-known member
The best way is with content.
For our forum, we have about 9k users, most of them 40-50+ I can say that we see an increase of new users who are in the 20. So the dice keeps rolling. If you offer information for a special subject you will always draw attention to new users.
It is because they find a lot about what they interested in.
In my country we have 3 main forums with the same subject. All of them running for years. And a lot of users are using all 3 forums.
The start is sometimes slow with the younger, but if they dig deeper and if you protect them a little from the old users (everybody know this problem with old users and newbies) they become part of the community.
They bring fresh ideas and share their point of view. You have only to listen to them. Till now nobody, even not the younger one, complain about missing interactions with social media. (we don't use Facebook or any other from inside the forum)
Floyd R Turbo
Well-known member
Oh there's no doubt about that at all. I hate FB for that reason. FB groups are useless in that regard. It's like a mega-thread that is 10k posts where someone asks the same question over and over again, except that every single topic is the same question answered over and over again. After a few months of this it's like "friggin google it". I'm big into reef aquarium keeping so a newbie comes on and asks why their brand new tank has algae in it and it's time to throw up the same block of information you typed up 1 month ago for someone else all over again, can't just share a link to a previous FB post or anything like that.
I'm just saying that people gravitate to FB because of the sheer stupid level ease of use, esp on mobile. Big downfall for all current forums. Fix that downfall and you're one step closer to pulling those people in.
Floyd R Turbo
Well-known member
I can only partially agree. Content is great, but functionality being useless for the mobile generation kills that. When I say "useless" I mean it's not super easy and therefore it just gets passed by without a chance. If it is passed by without a chance, it was useless to that person.
That is what, IMO, needs to be focused on with this battle.