What advice would you give to a community owner/leader wanting to give up?

[Davyc]

Do it because you're passionate about your creation. If the passion has gone, then look elsewhere to love what you do. I've been using forums since the days of the old BB's and forums have evolved incredibly since those good old heady days. The problem with inactivity is not because of the software, it's people. Today's world is all about instant gratification for mere seconds. What they say or show is gone in a fleeting moment and no one really cares - those who stick with forums are more about leaving something tangible behind that remains to be found. You can twiddle and mess with the software and change its functionality, but you will find it much harder to change the way people act.

 

[Ricsca]

It must be difficult for you to manage 2 forums when you find it archaic and pointless. Courage!

When you comment against the evidence it always makes me smile! It's clear that 99% of forums are dead but there's always someone who says it's not true...

 

[Mr Lucky]

A good administrator can tell when a horse is actually dying or dead.

 

[Deleted member 184953]

What makes me smile are people who think their opinion is law.
You are convinced that the forums are dead, fine, we are the living dead then.

 

[Ricsca]

I must be doing it wrong, then. My forum started 29 months ago.

View attachment 306858

So, about 1,968 messages per month, averaged out. This is all organic growth. No paid ads anywhere.

Evidently you have a forum on a topic that cannot be covered well on Facebook.
Can you provide us with your forum URL?


If it's a competition to see who has the most posts and subscribers in a forum, I'll copy the statics of my 1 forums...

I'll also copy some screens from a group of mine that has been open for 9 years (I took one of my various groups on Facebook at random) which has 4399 registered users of which (as you can see from the screens) 3379 have been active in the last 28 days...
512 posts and 5853 comments have been written in the last 30 days...

 

[Ricsca]

What makes me smile are people who think their opinion is law.
You are convinced that the forums are dead, fine, we are the living dead then.

Instead of defending the indefensible... you have to give me examples of your forums that are very active...
99% of the forums you visit are dead and you claim the opposite...
Ok, go ahead and argue the opposite if it fools you...
The only forums that have traffic are those that have a topic that cannot be discussed on social media... People are very active there..
I attach the statistics of a xenforo forum which is very active... it is a porn forum so it is very active because obviously porn on Facebook (and other social networks) is banned and in porn people want to be anonymous and therefore the forum goes Well...

 

[Forsaken]

What makes me smile are people who think their opinion is law.
You are convinced that the forums are dead, fine, we are the living dead then.

Arguing with them is pointless, because they ignore anything anyone else says. They make this same argument almost every time they start to get active again, so throw them on ignore and enjoy the peaceful threads that don't go as off-topic.

As far advice I'd give someone: don't go by 'community leader' as it makes you sound like a pompous ass.

Also don't do pointless non-content questions that most people pretty obviously do not take seriously.

 

[Deleted member 184953]

Is it forbidden to speak about Mickey, Daisy and Donald on Facebook?

DIS Disney Discussion Forums - DISboards.com

Disney Discussion Forums and Message Boards - DISboards is the ultimate Disney planning community and resource for Disney World, Disney Cruise Line and Disney Vacations, including news, rumors, park hours, theme park descriptions and strategies.

www.disboards.com

Or maybe it's forbidden to speak about TV, Hi-Fi devices?

Forum list

Home Entertainment resource for home cinema, movies, games and gadgets news, reviews, articles and forums

www.avforums.com

Or Mac & Apple?

Trending

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Ricsca]

Is it forbidden to speak about Mickey, Daisy and Donald on Facebook?

DIS Disney Discussion Forums - DISboards.com

Disney Discussion Forums and Message Boards - DISboards is the ultimate Disney planning community and resource for Disney World, Disney Cruise Line and Disney Vacations, including news, rumors, park hours, theme park descriptions and strategies.

www.disboards.com

Or maybe it's forbidden to speak about TV, Hi-Fi devices?

Forum list

Home Entertainment resource for home cinema, movies, games and gadgets news, reviews, articles and forums

www.avforums.com

Or Mac & Apple?

Trending

forums.macrumors.com

I'm answering you for the last time because I don't want to waste time with those who don't want to listen...
Macrumors and avforums are 2 forums from 2001 so they are 23 years old and having many registered users it is normal that it is a little active but the fact remains that 99% of the posts and subscribers will have been made in the first 15 years.
In the last 10 years it will have had, at least, a 99% drop in registrations and posts.
He continues to deny the evidence...
Unfortunately xenforo doesn't provide public statistics but I'll paste you the statistics from the official smf forum... look at the decline over the years...

Fourms in 2024, unless they deal with topics that cannot be discussed on Facebook, are dead...
I also attached (in the previous post) a fb group of mine which is 9 years old (therefore old) and which with 4399 registered users has 3379 active users in the last 28 days...
Find me a forum that has more than 85% active users that isn't a porn forum.

 

[Ricsca]

I attach the screen of the latest discussions on MacRumors, a forum which with 1,121,831 registered users, had 21 new threads yesterday...
If for you a forum where 0.00187194% of users decided to write a tread in 48 hours is an active forum... we have a very different concept of an active forum...
So go ahead and bully and make fun of the girl but the reality is very different...

 

[Davyc]

I believe that 'dead' is a relative term and needs to be placed into context. So, by 'dead' if the context is based on contributed activity, that's a fair point; a lot of people today are so immersed in Social Media sites that they don't really understand the value that a forum delivers, so they don't join and become active contributors. Now, let's shift the focus slightly and change the context for the term 'dead' - as I mentioned, it's a relative term depending on your viewpoint. My Movie site has zero contributed activity, but it is well patronised by an unquantifiable number of people and I base that activity on the number of views each topic has received; which averages out at around 300 views per topic and there are 1362 movies/topics which equates to around just over 400,000 views. It would be folly to say that the site is 'dead'.

Of course, it would be nice to have a bunch of active contributors, but I believe we all know that's unrealistic in today's market, but it doesn't mean a site is dead.

When it comes to customer service sites, they will only be active when someone has an issue they want resolving. If they don't have an issue, then they won't be active on those sites, but it doesn't mean they are 'dead'. I would use the term 'dormant' in terms of active contributors. Not every metric has to be measured by active contributors, or how many people have registered. There is a usage value beyond those metrics.

It all boils down to what YOU want from your site and whether it is delivering what you want. If it is, great, if it isn't then move on. The Internet is a vast ocean of information compared to what it was several years ago, and people can find just about anything they want to know from Google. The magic bullet is finding that 'something' that is unique to you, and only you are delivering it; that's a nigh on impossible ask in today's world.

As for Social Media, it is 'of the moment' a fleeting second of minutia that disappears as quickly as it is formed. Here and gone in a flash, and no one really cares because all they are interested in is their own fleeting moments. I find that sad, but it is what it is and if that's what the masses want, then they have what they want, and if that makes them happy then good for them.

I'll stick with forums any day of the week, and if people want to join up and become active contributors, I'll make them feel very welcome and help them as much as I can. If they just want to come and look around and consume the information that's there, then fine, at least I can take some comfort in the knowledge that someone, somewhere, has gained something from their visit; or at least I would like to believe they have, lol.

 

[Ricsca]

A forum is a place where users must interact by writing treads and comments, it is not a static site...
If one has an old forum it is normal that it has many posts written many years ago and therefore has a minimum of views which are however very different from the views of a wordpress site with articles.

My forum, which is 20 years old and has 738.5k posts, makes me earn much less with Google Ads than my WP blog which has 50 articles...
It is very difficult today to have a new user sign up to a forum and become active, almost everyone writes a few posts and then disappears and it is equally difficult for an admin to contact them and involve them (because the forums do nothing to evolve in this direction). ..
As I showed in the previous screens, a 9 year old (i.e. old) Facebook group with less than 4500 users has more than 3300 active users in the last 28 days which corresponds to more than 85%

I am very fond of forums but I admit the reality of the facts that, with rare exceptions, they are no longer attractive to users and the fault lies largely with the program builders (smf, xf, invision, mybb, phpbb etc.) who are practically stopped for 20 years in a world that is constantly evolving!

I've been trying for months to make bounce emails work (which I must admit only offers xf) and I can't... this option must be the basis for every admin who has a forum and instead nothing is done to make it use and easily set to everyone!
Forum programmers don't understand that if forums work poorly, they will be used less and less...
If we take 100 forums created with so their forum will be even more unusable when they want to try to involve old users...
I hope I can make myself understood but I use google transalte...

 

[Deleted member 184953]

Facebook is one entity, you can't compare it to hundreds of thousands of independent forums, it doesn't make sense. It's like saying restaurants are dead, they serve 30 seats a day while Mac Donald's sells 500 million burgers every day, be fair in your statistical analysis and don't lie to yourself. Like I said if you think the forums are dead then you are walking dead. And we all are.

I'm answering you for the last time because I don't want to waste time with those who don't want to listen...

This is wrong, you are too presumptuous not to speak last.

 

[Suzanne O]

Do you consider Redit as social media or forums?

Reddit is social media.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Do you consider Redit as social media or forums?

It's all social media. Forums, reddit, Facebook, X. It's media and it's people being social (but at times unsocial). ie it's Johnny Public saying stuff on the Internet (with or without cat photos, memes or whining about people wanting to swap seats on an airplane)

 

[Suzanne O]

It's all social media. Forums, reddit, Facebook, X. It's media and it's people being social (but at times unsocial). ie it's Johnny Public saying stuff on the Internet (with or without cat photos, memes or whining about people wanting to swap seats on an airplane)

Forums are private and usually amongst your friends.
Social media are all public that have plenty of trolls making inappropriate comments about you or your comment.

 

[CTS]

Run and seen a few forums since my start in the IPB1.4 days. I feel comfortable talking about forums and

I remember when everyone had forums, variety and artistry were awesome. (speaking of all sizes of course)

But then everyone needed google ads all over to score that 100 bucks a year. And I feel (especially the last 10 years) rules and structure seems to be getting out of hand. And then came the political pundits to squat on everything everywhere.

Yeah, I can see why its better to be lost in a crowd at X or FB or whatever, than to be beat up in a forum.

But I am a forum person. I like the whole concept, and I like the communities. I only have one right now though. Low traffic and conversions for sure. But it is severe niche. And I am cool with it for now. But I am already stewing on a concept that I will certainly enjoy building out. Of course I hope it would be attractive for visitors in purpose. But I am not in it for the money or popularity. I just enjoy making and operating them. I quit chasing seo a long time ago, and I quit chasing traffic to decide what my forums should look and act like.

This isn't really that much of a polarizing thread when you step back. Its all common knowledge to regular admins.

And in the end it boils down to,.... do you enjoy it. And if you don't, you shouldn't be trying to.

But if you do enjoy it, like myself, then have at it.

(this obviously doesn't apply to super big boards)

 

[ForumFan]

Evidently you have a forum on a topic that cannot be covered well on Facebook.
Can you provide us with your forum URL?


If it's a competition to see who has the most posts and subscribers in a forum, I'll copy the statics of my 1 forums...

I'll also copy some screens from a group of mine that has been open for 9 years (I took one of my various groups on Facebook at random) which has 4399 registered users of which (as you can see from the screens) 3379 have been active in the last 28 days...
512 posts and 5853 comments have been written in the last 30 days...

I'm not going to reveal my url here, for a number of reasons I also won't get into. But ultimately, it will have no benefit to do so.

Facebook has plenty of groups on my topic. Dozens and dozens if not hundreds. There are also other forums... some quite big... on the broader topic, though mine focuses on a niche of that topic. My forum is teeny tiny small potatoes by comparison. For now. We'll see. Time will tell.

I definitely do not think I'm "competitive" with my forum stats. Without a doubt, my forum is "small potatoes" in the forum universe. Very small potatoes. My point is that forums ain't dead... just because yours is. I started from zero just a little over 2 years ago.

 

[woody]

In my Facebook groups I have around 200,000 people who write thousands and thousands of posts and comments every day, I have two forums, one which is twenty years old with more than 55,000 members which has had two messages in the last month and another forum of around 15 years with around 9000 registered users who had 60 messages in the last month! Except for the very rare ones where topics that cannot be written on Facebook are discussed, they are dead

and yet, my forum has: 40+ new registrants daily, 5200+ online now, member 226199 just registered, 20+ years of history, and 1180 posts so far today.

That, plus it's my full-time business. So yes, forums are clearly dead....................................

 

[Anthony Parsons]

My forum, which is 20 years old and has 738.5k posts, makes me earn much less with Google Ads than my WP blog which has 50 articles...

You seem to be focused on money, as you have mentioned several times in this thread. Money is not a factor on whether a forum is dead or not. Many forums don't monetise to begin with.

Facebook has a unique purpose and some groups go well, most do not. You never own the content though, which is huge, and monetisation of a FB group is not as simple, and certainly nothing unique that you can't do on a forum. Example: https://www.uscreen.tv/blog/monetize-facebook-group/

So really... if you are talking about monetisation, then really, an FB Group is just a lead generator to push users elsewhere to extract revenue from them, because you won't get much from the group setting itself, controlled all by FB. Doing that is enough to lose a whole bunch of your user base, because many people like something until someone sells out and their space is suddenly filled with advertising.

Forums have a time and place. FB groups have a time and place. Sometimes, a single website is best when using a combined approach.

People have been saying forums are dead since FB came about, and then groups, and then Reddit, then blah blah... and yet, they're very much still here and active. Sure, some died... but the reasons can be various, and FB can be that reason for some, but the owner or mods can be a reason a community dies too.

Running forums for over 20 years, content is king to keeping a forum alive and well. The moment you, as the creator, take your finger off the trigger, the community will decline. Which is akin to saying, the moment you lose the passion for that community to exist, is the same moment it begins its decline. A community will not typically build leaving it to others alone.