Is social media killing forums?

[Macro]

Is it is just me, or are forums getting harder and harder to stay interested in because of activity? It's not just here I see this trend, it's all over.

Everything seems to be on Twitter or Facebook these days. :( As for forums that ARE active, it seems like people just go there lookin for free stuff.

Maybe I just need to get with the times? Are forums just a dying breed of socializing nowadays?

 

[LordBones]

Forums are long form enthusiast forms of non direct communication and they always were even in their heyday however what they were used for back in the day was more than just this non direct form. They were used as a way to tell people you know online about things that you want the world to know however now there is social media for that. So essentially it's the iPad type of mentality, people were using forums largely for the job of a social network because they didn't really exist in the way they do now or at least weren't used in the same way -just like iPads are for people that used to need a laptop because there was nothing else however they were using something close but not exactly what they needed.

When you look at something like Reddit which is the modern look on forums and comment systems you might also think that it's the evolution of the forum and is the popular form however it's the same situation, there are tons of subreddits that are barren waste lands. This is because like forums it is still enthusiast level discussion between people with overlapping interests and so some subreddits are really popular and others less so because of the audience.

Forums aren't dieing because of social media, social media is simply offering what people were trying to get out of forums leaving people more a custom to forums left to use them.

 

[Xyphien]

I've been making forums for 7 years now, and it really depends on what you're looking for nowadays. If you're looking for a community to talk to, become one with, etc. Forums, and other form of groups like forums are still the best place to go, however, if you're looking for exposure, and quick views/replies, then social media is the way to go. Forums offer a lot more than social media, such as a growing bond with one another, and the ability to communicate on a more efficient scale in my eyes than social media. Yes, social media is rising, and it is costing some activity, it won't ever replace forums. The biggest games, websites, etc. have their own forums still. Any gaming website, or game itself has a forum for it that is extremely active, and well used. There are social media groups for this, and hashtags, etc. however, they are still not as efficient as forums in many ways. When looking for a group, it's hard to go onto social media and try finding people willing to group up and play a game with. You can join a facebook group, and post in it, but I see facebook more as a self promotion place than anything. Everytime I join a group on facebook it's always filled with spam, links, and self promotion. Twitter is all personal with hashtags to get other bots, etc. to re-tweet you and to gain followers. From my experience most social media is just for advertising. This might be because of the fact that I use social media for promotion, and it's what I generally look for when on social media, however, no matter where I go on the social media platforms, all I find is ads.

TL:DR I personally think forums have a stronger bond, and social media is mainly self promotion type of use.

 

[Cunechan]

To be honest I kinda hate social media. Yes I have twitter and fb but all of my friends are like "Ohh did you see that on Instagram?" "Omg xy retweetet my stuff ". I don't know why but i hate that. Social media is killing lifes, I've had an exchange student and all she did was sitting on my bad making selfies and sharing it on ig. I don't know why but I don't like these platforms. Maybe it's just too mainstream but god it's pissing me off. I don't know how it is when you're adult and most of your friends are adults but I believe its kinda different when people are in my age... idk. (I mean who cares what someone you don't know just from pictures on ig is doing or eating?? I don't, sorry. Why do they keep telling me?!)

I think forums are way WAY better than these social media fb and co. You meet people who have the same interests as you have :D (rpg maker, designing, music, scripting, etc) and can talk about your hobbies. It's a little piece of home and isn't full of advertisements. I don't think that social media is killing forums. I prefer forums over social media, i mean it's often not as corrupted as it and not full of people who just want your money (why is everyone falling for these ridiculous traps, seriously). Sorry for the rant, I tend to rant alot XD

 

[LordBones]

I've been making forums for 7 years now, and it really depends on what you're looking for nowadays. If you're looking for a community to talk to, become one with, etc. Forums, and other form of groups like forums are still the best place to go, however, if you're looking for exposure, and quick views/replies, then social media is the way to go. Forums offer a lot more than social media, such as a growing bond with one another, and the ability to communicate on a more efficient scale in my eyes than social media. Yes, social media is rising, and it is costing some activity, it won't ever replace forums. The biggest games, websites, etc. have their own forums still. Any gaming website, or game itself has a forum for it that is extremely active, and well used. There are social media groups for this, and hashtags, etc. however, they are still not as efficient as forums in many ways. When looking for a group, it's hard to go onto social media and try finding people willing to group up and play a game with. You can join a facebook group, and post in it, but I see facebook more as a self promotion place than anything. Everytime I join a group on facebook it's always filled with spam, links, and self promotion. Twitter is all personal with hashtags to get other bots, etc. to re-tweet you and to gain followers. From my experience most social media is just for advertising. This might be because of the fact that I use social media for promotion, and it's what I generally look for when on social media, however, no matter where I go on the social media platforms, all I find is ads.

TL:DR I personally think forums have a stronger bond, and social media is mainly self promotion type of use.

You know the crazy thing? If many YouTubers, Podcasters and that guy who owns Need is to be believed, it doesn't even work in this way. The amount of click throughs you get from advertising posts is such a small number of the following it's unreal.

To be honest I kinda hate social media. Yes I have twitter and fb but all of my friends are like "Ohh did you see that on Instagram?" "Omg xy retweetet my stuff ". I don't know why but i hate that. Social media is killing lifes, I've had an exchange student and all she did was sitting on my bad making selfies and sharing it on ig. I don't know why but I don't like these platforms. Maybe it's just too mainstream but god it's pissing me off. I don't know how it is when you're adult and most of your friends are adults but I believe its kinda different when people are in my age... idk. (I mean who cares what someone you don't know just from pictures on ig is doing or eating?? I don't, sorry. Why do they keep telling me?!)

I think forums are way WAY better than these social media fb and co. You meet people who have the same interests as you have :D (rpg maker, designing, music, scripting, etc) and can talk about your hobbies. It's a little piece of home and isn't full of advertisements. I don't think that social media is killing forums. I prefer forums over social media, i mean it's often not as corrupted as it and not full of people who just want your money (why is everyone falling for these ridiculous traps, seriously). Sorry for the rant, I tend to rant alot XD

Here's the thing, the people on social media are not the same people who are on forums. The internet traffic has grown to accommodate both and many other forms. I totally agree that Social Media is just shallow (not in a self centered way but in the depth of the interactions) and really just replaced the idea of talking to people. It's good and I use it but I honestly don't know what some of my friends do that don't play video games and spend all day on Facebook. I spend 10 minutes and have to click away...

 

[Macro]

IForums offer a lot more than social media, such as a growing bond with one another, and the ability to communicate on a more efficient scale in my eyes than social media

Exactly what I am looking for, seems really hard to find these days though. Back in 2000-2009 I had so much fun in different forums. People always talked and interacted, and I made a lot of friends. Now it's the selfie generation is taking over, and as others said- full focus on oneself instead of friendly discussions.

Everyone online (or even people just walking around in a store!) seem so eager to "Retweet" or "Like" or start the latest controversy with their mobile phone recording. >_< Days of Myspace was just about making a pretty portfolio for yourself and keeping in touch with friends. That's how I liked my social media. Now it's practically a mini game for people it seems.

It's the same in video games too. Thanks to match making, auto group finders, quick queues, etc. friendships aren't as important anymore. People are expecting to group with players of similar or better skill, but anything lower than that? There's rage all around. One single mistake or bad game, and people just go crazy like you failed THEM.

It's really sad how the online word is so harsh lately. I see so many individuals just seeking ways to be harsh critics yet offer no humanity themselves. "It's me me me, do this this this, you owe me everything I owe you nothing!" People say, well, that's life, but I've lived a long time in the online world, and it wasn't always about promoting YOURSELF and expecting everyone to meet your expectation checklist..

So yeah, I stick around this forum always kind of hoping that it will bloom with a fun and active group of people. Whether it's just about game making or having some friendly discussion about life, that's fine with me. Seeing new posts with this "HI, I'm making an introduction post and them I'm going to vanish and lurk!" is really annoying. >.<

 

[MinisterJay]

I joined my first forum in 1986, way before the main social medias had arrived. Forums are relaxing and fun. Social Media tend to be very dramatic. Forums gives a break from Social Media madness....without seeing relatives do a play by play. ;)

 

[Macro]

So you would agree that forums aren't what they used to be.

 

[MinisterJay]

So you would agree that forums aren't what they used to be.

Oh yes. They are not what they used to be. They are BETTER!

 

[Cunechan]

Exactly what I am looking for, seems really hard to find these days though. Back in 2000-2009 I had so much fun in different forums. People always talked and interacted, and I made a lot of friends. Now it's the selfie generation is taking over, and as others said- full focus on oneself instead of friendly discussions.

I'm in the middle of the selfie generation and I hate it. Just don't see the point of it. I'm such an outsider lol XD

@Macro I think the more people flood social media with their pointless and uninteresting things they do there, the more people escape to a nice and warm forum like here (at least thats what I hope)~ It always depends on how people want to spend/invest their time. Making friends here seems like a nice decision <3

 

[Macro]

Oh yes. They are not what they used to be. They are BETTER!

If you mean because we now have ways of sharing videos, more advanced messengers to make better contact, and having avatars and signatures? I would agree. Activity wise, it seems they took a hit.

] I think the more people flood social media with their pointless and uninteresting things they do there, the more people escape to a nice and warm forum like here

True, that's a good point. Keeps them filtered out, haha!

 

[MistyDay]

I am so happy I found this forum, I´d like talk about everythin. but my engrish as u have noticed is not so good, that's why I just hanging around.
I wish understand u better.
My native language is sooo different :D
Anyway, I belive in this nice community and no social media can kill us !

 

[Macro]

@MistyDay I'm happy you found this forum too, you are a fun person to talk to and have good humor. ^.^

 

[Amysaurus]

In short, yes and no.

Forums are great for sharing ideas, but people have to be willing and read through/process the ideas being presented. With social media like Facebook and Twitter being so popular, people are naturally getting used to seeing and replying to shorter posts. While this doesn’t make people unwilling to read a longer span of text, it does make it easier to just skim through and get the main points rather than read through a whole post.

Along with that, instant-messaging platforms like Skype and Discord play a big part in cutting down forum activity. It’s much more convenient to have a real-time discussion on a subject in a chat, whereas on a forum you have to wait for a response.

Basically what these kinds of platforms are doing is cutting down on the chit-chat of a forum. People are less willing to stick around beyond finding what they want out of a website, and it shows. It’s like what you see here - plenty of members, not too many online at a time. A lot of people join, get resources or a question answered, then fade into the ether.


Overall, do I think this kind of thing is ruining forums? Eh… not so much. On a forum I moderate, for example, we’ve had the amount of posting go down substantially since adding a community chat through Discord. Though this means the forum itself is less active, I see the chat as an extension of the community, rather than an entity eating away at it. We still have all of the major productive discussions on the forum, but most of the small, insubstantial discussions happen outside of it now.

 

[Cunechan]

Forums are great for sharing ideas, but people have to be willing and read through/process the ideas being presented. With social media like Facebook and Twitter being so popular, people are naturally getting used to seeing and replying to shorter posts. While this doesn’t make people unwilling to read a longer span of text, it does make it easier to just skim through and get the main points rather than read through a whole post.

Along with that, instant-messaging platforms like Skype and Discord play a big part in cutting down forum activity. It’s much more convenient to have a real-time discussion on a subject in a chat, whereas on a forum you have to wait for a response.

I think it's all about what kind of forum we're talking about and how much we're interested in it. If I'm interested in rpg maker and I wanna expand my knowledge about it I automatically read a lot about it (so I lurk in forums and stuff). When someone is not really interested in the engine and only wants to make his/her own game it's a different thing and he/she only comes for problems, resources, promotion and maybe even opinions. When someone comes for the community it's a different thing again (and forum doesn't automatically mean community). It always depends on what the forum is for, I guess.

But yeah, it's not really social media it's more the chat platforms that are killing forums. Good point XD

 

[Amysaurus]

Honestly, I just bunch chats and social media together nowadays, lol. I get what you mean, though.

To be honest, compared to sites like early vx.net, forums now are very very different from what I used to experience. I think a lot of that does have to do with social media. Sites like Facebook/Myspace almost constantly promote the idea that we have to be getting the most attention (posting status updates/selfies, getting likes, etc.), and that kind of mentality often ends up in forums as well.

In the context of this kind of forum: we've gotta show off our latest project, we've gotta show all of our progress, etc. We begin craving the attention of feedback, good or bad. It's like when people obsess over, well, likes. Sure it's just a number/rating, but to some people it becomes a validation for what they're doing. Many people join a forum or community with the intent to socialize, but end up isolating themselves as soon as they rely on that kind of encouragement to get them to post.

tl;dr: A lot of us are more attention-driven than community-driven nowadays.

Anyway, that's just me blathering. I may or may not have written an essay about this kind of topic back in March. ;P

 

[Macro]

I think it's all about what kind of forum we're talking about and how much we're interested in it. If I'm interested in rpg maker and I wanna expand my knowledge about it I automatically read a lot about it (so I lurk in forums and stuff). When someone is not really interested in the engine and only wants to make his/her own game it's a different thing and he/she only comes for problems, resources, promotion and maybe even opinions. When someone comes for the community it's a different thing again (and forum doesn't automatically mean community). It always depends on what the forum is for, I guess.

But yeah, it's not really social media it's more the chat platforms that are killing forums. Good point XD

I agree with all that but the last sentence. Chat has been around as long as I've had the internet (well before forums got slow'ish like nowadays) and I used AIM and ICQ a lot. Forums were still really active back then ^.^ Though it could be the quick/rushy nature of things that people seem to have adapted these days, thanks to mobile socializing.

So yeah..now I'm leaning more towards blaming mobile phones than social media hehe.

 

[pyrocmayhem]

Has anyone used Reddit? I don't know if it falls under the category of a social media site or a forum or a mix of both.

 

[Amysaurus]

I have an account, but I very rarely use it. I don't think I've left a comment ever, lol.

It's what I consider a very modern type of forum.

 

[Macro]

Reddit is pretty useful for me, I see it more as a collaboration of mini forums myself. I find a lot of good help for games on their subs. I have nothing bad to say about Reddit. :)