Are Forums Dying? A Look Into Forums As A Whole

[Zwielicht]

Yeah, I know it's a funny thing to post on a forum, but I'm syndicating this from my blog (Yes, you can syndicate content here as well!).

At the same time, I think it's always good to open up these discussions so that we can identify failure points that would prevent this forum from thriving.

Anyway, back to the article...

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You’ve probably heard someone say forums are dying sometime over the last 5 years. For a long time, I believed this as well even though I worked on a forum.

However, very few people ever get into the ‘why’ of it. Now, I don’t believe forums themselves are necessarily dying as there are many active and thriving forums. Although, I do believe there are a lot of communities struggling right now, and there are several reasons for this.

8 Reasons Some Believe Forums Are Dying​

You see, since starting Office Outlaw, I’ve had to join many other forums, usually to purchase add-ons. This has actually been a very frustrating experience, and it’s reminded me of why I felt like forums were dying for a long time. It’s what inspired me to write this article in the first place.

Reason #1: They Make It Too Difficult To Register
There have been several forums I’ve tried joining since 2010 where it’s just damn near impossible to sign up to the site.

In a few recent cases, the registration system appeared to be broken or their “spam filters” were too aggressive. One forum I tried signing up to yesterday said that my registration was rejected for “spam-like behaviour”. It didn’t specify what I did wrong, just to contact an administrator? No thanks, your add-on isn’t worth the hassle.

Reason #2: Confusing Designs
I’m not talking about straight up poor tastes in design, I’m talking about really confusing designs; labyrinths of pages and questionable choices. One page will have 50 different fonts and flashing colours everywhere, and another page is in 3-point font. There was one forum I tried joining a few days and I just didn’t know where to even register because that button was hidden somewhere.

Reason #3: No Defined Purpose
Some of these forums have no defined purpose. There was one I went to that was simultaneously a general sales hub and a general chat forum with a Pokémon theme with Pokemon subforums. Nothing wrong with having a general forum, but this felt like it was specifically just those 3 things and nothing more.

Reason 4: Monetised To Hell
Sometimes, I encounter these forums with like 50 members that also have ads plastered all over the place. They can’t possibly be making much money with this, yet they already have a bunch of ads up, like they just rushed straight to the monetisation part and skipped everything else. It’s like they were unironically going for The Million Dollar Homepage.

Reason #5: The Site Is Broken?
This takes questionable design choices to a whole new level.
Sometimes, the whole forum is broken and unusuable: buttons that lead to nowhere, broken URLs, broken style sheets; the whole thing is just a mess. Do they even want people signing up? Do they even use their own forum?

Reason #6: Aggressive Owners
Nothing puts me off of signing up to a forum like seeing the owner of the forum calling everyone an idiot for not being able to register on their broken site. This goes double for those owners who post passive-aggressive responses to any feedback they receive as I saw this the other day with an add-on I was interested in.

Reason #7: Registration Emails Are Never Sent
Again, broken features. Yes, I checked spam folder, I tried other e-mails; they aren’t being sent. This isn’t a ‘me’ problem, this is a ‘your mailing server is crap’ problem.

If people can’t register, they are reasonably not going to want to sign up.

Reason #8: No Communication With The Community
This is a mistake existing forums make quite often. Instead involving the community in decisions where possible, they start just making changes and telling the community to deal with it.

No, it’s their home too, and they should be involved in what’s happening around the site.

 

[Rem]

Reason #9
Missing the @Rem
enough said

Reason #10
Not modernized, like twitter or reddit. People expect real-time interaction since their attention span is even shorter than mine (which is 3secs btw)

 

[back2form]

Reason #6 : ❤

Forum owner welcome post on the Introduction section..

I think, you ever missed anyone yet, Keep it up

 

[Zwielicht]

I just went to one right now that had a full-screen ad... I don't think I've ever hit the back button so fast in my life.

 

[Octavia]

I think most people want to have a direct answer( AI) instead of forums where users have the following mentality " I am not going to spoon-feed you, I will tell you the basics and you figure the rest out yourself."

Gotta say when I first had joined a forum 9 years ago, the first year was really a sleuth work to put together all the pieces, and testing things out myself. Since asking questions would mostly result in the same answer: Not going to spoon-feed you.

 

[Zwielicht]

I think most people want to have a direct answer instead of forums where users have the following mentality " I am not going to spoon-feed you, I will tell you the basics and you figure the rest out yourself. "

Gotta say when I first had joined a forum 9 years ago, the first year was really a sleuth work to put together all the pieces, and testing things out myself. Since asking questions would mostly result in the same answer: Not going to spoon-feed you.

I never had those kind of responses made to me, but I always felt like they were unproductive when I saw them made to others

There was one forum in particular I used to browse for some product, and I couldn't stand it when I found someone asking the question I also had only to see that the thread was locked and the moderator said, "Just search for it on the forum - CLOSED!" It was worse when searching for it on their forum yielded nothing. If that hadn't been the official forum for that product, I would've stopped going to it.

 

[Nargil]

Could be a bit off topic maybe, but luckilly #6 doesn't apply here, so here goes.

I believe that the Dead internet theory is very much alive and well. Less moderated, bigger forums are just bots, AI and Chatgpt bullshit, similar to social networks with their AI rot.

As @Octavia pointed out, for knowledge, people will start using Chatgpt more and more and for communities, there are better options nowadays like Discord.

Forums will still have their uses, but the format is starting to get rather Myspacey.

 

[Rem]

Let's be honest though
Forums in the IM niche is got to be one of the most difficult niches ever.

Who is really ready whole heartly to share their $$$$$ methods?
Think back to the early 2000s era, where blackhat methods really really ran rampant, knowing that soon after the method is leaked, it will be patched.
Are you really ready to say bye to your $ for a stranger? Most won't.
& that's where the issue has always been laid, everywhere.

Why the "special" private sections on other forums have been dead for years.
Why upgrading to a certain membership was one of people's biggest let-downs, especially when they expected $$$ methods hidden there.