The answer to ur question is more of a No than a Yes. Because for me few forums exists as a website unless some thriving ones like BHW. However most forums are now created in social media spaces like Facebook and WhatsApp group, Discord servers and so on.
Are Forums Still A Thing?
- Thread starter openyour
- Start date
scanningthru
Regular Member
- Jul 29, 2021
- 473
- 483
I could care less if it's a forum or Facebook group. The idea is finding an active place where people are actually sharing information.
Social media has people sharing some information but not like forums had back in the day.
Most social media is like warrior forum where it's a sales pitch to get the secret sauce. Which is also filled with the hello dear's, come ib's, I am professional business man's idiots.
Social media has people sharing some information but not like forums had back in the day.
Most social media is like warrior forum where it's a sales pitch to get the secret sauce. Which is also filled with the hello dear's, come ib's, I am professional business man's idiots.
D
Deleted member 1393709
Guest
In fact they aren't.
In FB or instagram or twitter you don't have freedom of speech at all. Your account can be locked anytime and when they want.
FB for example if you post something against vaxx you probably will be locked or banned, even if is true or not.
Never forget, Forum is always better and you can control better and have more freedom than FB Groups etc.
Comparing Social Media versus something can be hosted and rules be different is a bad analogy.
That depends of the context of the forum, some forums dies because of kind of forums is.
For example Hacking Forum or Security forums still alive and with thousands of thousands of users.
Take a look in BlackHatworld.
Of course FB Groups, Twitter steal some people but forums still working it depends of your niche and the way you manage it.
Content is very important now a days
Cheers
mnrfas
Elite Member
- Aug 22, 2020
- 1,602
- 1,116
one forum I helped create is dead because of Twitter
D
Deleted member 1393709
Guest
Sure, but you can't apply that in all forums. Not all forums are dead.
In fact they aren't dead, it depends of the subject.
Abishekh Kc
Junior Member
- Aug 23, 2020
- 171
- 57
Forum content could rank in search results, but not all social media contents appear in search results. Most forum posts cannot be deleted completely. I feel forums still matter. But it's not easy to gain active members in a brand-new forum.
xReminisce
Elite Member
- Dec 29, 2012
- 7,333
- 36,785
imagine asking if a forum still works on a forum
sure is, but I can't tell you which one of them are around though
SSL9000J
Regular Member
- Oct 20, 2009
- 298
- 181
This.
If you're trying to actually learn something or help someone else who is, go to a forum.
If you want to see what the 'influencers' are endorsing or watch them play video games, go to social media.
steroidjoe
Regular Member
- Apr 26, 2015
- 264
- 113
I want to use forums to manage my teams. Too many heads.
vamnt1
Supreme Member
- Nov 18, 2014
- 1,306
- 404
I see in European and North American countries very few people use the FB group.
Do you think like me?
- Mar 12, 2022
- 1,225
- 153
Forums are great. First of all, you are now asking this on a forum, through which people make good money often only on the traffic from the forum! Second, I can share my personal experience. There are local popular forums in my country, and with their help I actually opened my first business, which still brings me a good income - sites that provide services in the field of SMM. I also advertise all my other projects on these forums because it's free and effective. So yes, the forums are a real find!
gimmeluthvi
Regular Member
- Jan 23, 2015
- 223
- 150
of course bro, millionaire hang out on forum
social media is for plebs
social media is for plebs
Mark Eternally
Regular Member
- Dec 13, 2017
- 274
- 115
Let's wind that clock back a little further. Prior to forums, of the same vein, were Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), which had message boards. Both BBS and what you are calling Forums fall under "message boards". And message boards are not going anywhere any time soon.
There are definitely distractions, as many people have mentioned, such as twitter, instagram, facebook, and the likes, but these are just different styles of message boards. This is also to say, that internet forums are technically "social media".
So, 15+ years ago the social media landscape was more sparse. (Not that Twitter was a magic bullet, but Twitter kicked off in March 21, 2006.) In that environment, internet forums, such as BHW, and the likes, thrived and had fewer competitors. Technology started taking larger percentages of the target audience, but luckily the target audience was also growing. Now there are various styles/types of message boards, such as BWH, Twitter, Instagram, Discord, and even TikTok. The target audience, or the number of users has grown quite a bit since 2008 (15 years ago ... it is currently 2023).
Something else which has contributed to more potential users and possibly fewer "forum" users happened June 29, 2007, when Apple released the iPhone. This made the internet a bit more mainstream. Putting the internet into essentially every human's hand was a game changer.
OurWorldInData.org says in 2010, the total global number of internet users was 1.992 billion, and in 2016 that number had grown to 3.408 billion. A lot of potential internet forum/message board users.
With the exception of Facebook, and Discord, a lot of the current message board hybrids (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok) are very open with a target audience of everyone. Facebook and Discord, and of course others, allow for smaller communities to be established. This is one of the strengths of internet forums, such as BHW. Internet forums are generally established around a central theme or concept and build a community around that. For example, BHW world has it's niche, and it's respective community. As another person noted, you can search (google) for just about any topic and you will most likely find a corresponding forum. This community strength of forums also adds another advantage/strength, which is that with focused community comes focused knowledge. Of course, the quality of the knowledge is limited by those who compose the community, but generally speaking, when you visit a forum you will find there are "resident" "experts". As has also been mentioned in this thread, questions on twitter will generally yield low quality responses. Consider this thread, had you posted it on twitter.
FWIW, according to archive.org's wayback machine, BHW started in 2006, with the first capture being May 3, 2006. So, 15 years ago, BHW was just a baby forum.
Message Boards, to include internet forums, are not going anywhere any time soon. They may fork here or there, but feel free to start new internet forums and grow new communities.
Now, had your question been about IRC, I would shed a tear with ya... :`(
iEscapedTheMatrix
Junior Member
- Oct 11, 2022
- 170
- 337
The car community forums are honestly thriving. Fanboys make a forum about their favorite car and other fanboys drop guides on fixing the piece of junk. But, car communities are REALLY thriving... idk what other niches are though.
Fo
Forums are thriving in tons of niches, its starting a new one that is the problem.
iEscapedTheMatrix
Junior Member
- Oct 11, 2022
- 170
- 337
True. Probably better off buying one that's maybe not the most active but still a little, then grow it from there.
pixi99
Newbie
- Oct 31, 2016
- 26
- 17
Most forums are dead. It's nothing like it was several decades ago and it will never go back to what it was like.
Mastodon, Lemmy, and other social media websites haven't taken huge traffic from forums.
Even though some forums still are active. They still don't have as much traffic as before.
I miss forums. They were very informative
Mastodon, Lemmy, and other social media websites haven't taken huge traffic from forums.
Even though some forums still are active. They still don't have as much traffic as before.
I miss forums. They were very informative