Are forums dead?
by Randall McCarley
August 21st, 2007
I am a forum junkie and lately I find it’s hard to get my fix. If you are a regular reader you know I am a moderator at SEO Refugee and have been pretty active with Cre8asite as well. Lately, I’ve noticed a slow-down in new threads at both places and have been looking to expand my horizons at other forums… but everywhere I look I see the same low rate of new threads.
Part of the problem may be me. I admit that if a thread looks boring I look right past it with all the ad-blindness usually saved for Adsense and banner ads. I mean, how many times can you run through “When is the next PR update?” threads? Or “Look: another example of Google being evil!”
Maybe it’s the season. With the end of summer people are busy running around having all the fun they forgot to have in May, June and July. Students are getting ready for school.
Even the spamming has slowed down. Or maybe spammers have finally got the message that they aren’t wanted and their posts of bad code and worse grammar won’t stick around long enough to do them any good. Maybe… but somehow I doubt it. If spammers aren’t investing in forums anymore the writing may be on the wall - forums are dead.
I enjoy spending time in forums. It is a great way to meet new people and learn from their experiences. As far as networking goes forums trump all other social sites in my book.
Social. Maybe that’s what did it. It used to be if you wanted to be social forums were pretty much the only option. That just isn’t the case any more. Blogs and the 2.0 facebooks of the world have added a whole new level of social intercourse online. Add to that increased competition and micro-niching and there just isn’t enough interest to keep things very interesting.
Hopefully, this slow season is just temporary and things will pick up again soon. But what do you think - have forums run their course? Are they on their way out like guestbooks?
PS. Linker’s Union is doing “last call” for free links so if you have a request, get it in now!
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August 21st, 2007 at 6:51 am
Dude you shoulda been there this morning. Lotsa new members and things to do :roll:
August 21st, 2007 at 7:59 am
Hi Rand,
Interesting stuff. Summer definitely, mho, slows things down.
I’ll tell you… one of the most challenging things I’ve tried to do online is start a forum. I give credit to anyone who does so successfully.
If you’re still not getting your fix, come over to artplop in addition to your other travels. :)
Take care,
kf
August 21st, 2007 at 9:45 am
Hey Wit - you’re the man (presumably)!
KBF - I’ll definitely do that. I’m itching to get my brushes out and do some painting and I could use some good discussion and inspiration.
I love this line: DON’T BE A SPECTATOR! TURN OFF THE FUCKING TV!
August 21st, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Rand, looking forward to seeing your paintings ……….
+ about that line… yeah, the tv wastes a lot of time ……
I try not to get too sucked into it
thanks
kf
August 21st, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Hey Rand,
I’ve noticed this, too. Things do seem a bit slow at Cre8, in particular. Still finding my way around SEORefugee.
For me, even Sphinn just can’t replace the atmosphere of a forum. Sphinn’s comments rarely exceed a few lines. That’s just not enough for me. I want real discussion. You’ll see a post with 20+ Sphinns, but the response is silent as to why anyone liked the post.
But, on the other hand, you are right in that frequent forum use does produce boring-thread-blindness (BTB?).
Good post…very enjoyable!
Miriam
August 21st, 2007 at 4:54 pm
@kbf - I joined today and started nosing around. I don’t have anything to post because all my artwork for the last 10 years was destroyed in a mouse-driven flood last year (the mouse chewed through a water cable flooding the garage where my stuff was stored).
@Miriam - I agree the social sites are not a replacement for the community sites. They just aren’t the same even if they are “more efficient”.
August 24th, 2007 at 11:10 am
SEO forums are dead enough. The gravy train days of Google are over and I don’t get the sense most people feel like “sharing” info for free these days. That could just be me, though :)
August 24th, 2007 at 11:37 am
I think blogs have become easy enough to set up and manage that most SEOs that do feel like sharing save the best stuff for their own sites now.