Its hard to believe the internet has only been around for about 20 years

[CyberCubed]

The reason forums are dying (not just here, everywhere), is because nowadays people just use social media like tumblr, twitter or facebook.

Remember the days when fandoms used forums to discuss their favorite shows, videogames, movies, comics, etc? Nowadays most forums barely have any activity and people just talk on their twitter/tumblr's instead. Its so odd to see forums become a dying breed because its what I'm the most used to.

I think today's younger generation doesn't even use forums and they just use twitter/tumblr to discuss their favorite things.

[Prowler]

Actually it seems to be more socially accepted to post in forums nowadays. back in the mid-2000s people would vehemently deny posting on them, even though you could clearly see perfectly normal people with social lives posting in them. Nowadays no one denies they spend a lot of time online any more. Back then people would look at you funny if you said you spent your weekends at home browsing the internet.

And forums are still around. Many have become less active but I wouldn't bury message boards just yet. It's just that lots of them have been around for os long that most of their active users are in their 30s now and have no time to dwell around in a forum any more. Younger users will eventually replace them. Or said forums will die because the creators are getting older as well and feel burnt out or have more important things going on in their lives than maintaining a message board.

[plastroncafe]

Forums are dying for the same reasons comics are dying: Monoculture.
Neither place is really welcoming to newcomers, and so those newcomers are taking their attention and passion elsewhere.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

Forums are dying for the same reasons comics are dying: Monoculture.
Neither place is really welcoming to newcomers, and so those newcomers are taking their attention and passion elsewhere.

People can be quite elitistic about their tastes, yes. I'm a metalhead, so trust me on this one.

[The Deadman]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Actually it seems to be more socially accepted to post in forums nowadays. back in the mid-2000s people would vehemently deny posting on them, even though you could clearly see perfectly normal people with social lives posting in them. Nowadays no one denies they spend a lot of time online any more. Back then people would look at you funny if you said you spent your weekends at home browsing the internet.

And forums are still around. Many have become less active but I wouldn't bury message boards just yet. It's just that lots of them have been around for os long that most of their active users are in their 30s now and have no time to dwell around in a forum any more. Younger users will eventually replace them. Or said forums will die because the creators are getting older as well and feel burnt out or have more important things going on in their lives than maintaining a message board.

In the age of Skype and platforms like that, as well as Twitter, message boards will die out eventually, unless they're pulling in a LOT of active members or is dedicated to a fandom, like this one.

[CyberCubed]

None of the forums I've been on for the last decade are anywhere as active now as they were in the early 2000's.

Back in 2000-2008 or so forums were very active and where all fandoms gathered. In the last few years nearly every forum I've been on dating back to the early 2000's has had a massive loss in activity. Likely because old fans get too old and move on with their lives and there aren't many new younger fans to take their place.

[Prowler]

Forums are still the best kinds of online places to hold long conversations and debates, though. You can't do that on Twitter with its 140-200 character limit or even on Facebook since no one is gonna read an extremely long comment.

You can create fan pages in lots of places but none of them are as well organized or as practical to hold meaningful discussions as message boards are. So I'm not sure that they'll die that fast.

[ToTheNines]

Does anyone else just wanna... beat up cybercubed and take his lunch money? ****.

[THGhost]

Video game knowledge was still acquired via word of mouth in my primary school due to the Internet still being pretty rubbish back then

Man, I wish Twitter's character limit was 200. Sadly, it's still 140.

[snake]

Forums are dying because,

1. You get a reputation
2. You can't change that reputation
3. It's way too much effort to do all this instead of making a tweet or facebook post about a topic
4. Reddit, 4chan, and Tumblr exist for a reason and are the huge sites. Why spend time in a forum when you can go there and not be known and interact with a large amount of people?

[CyberCubed]

reddit and 4chan aren't much different than forums, I'd say. You're still posting things in a thread everyone can read.

[Prowler]

Yeah, but no way in hell am I ever gonna join Reddit.

[snake]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

reddit and 4chan aren't much different than forums, I'd say. You're still posting things in a thread everyone can read.

Uh,

4chan
-
Anonymous
Threads disapear after the 10th page
No registration required

Reddit
-
Can easily make multiple accounts in minutes
Can make your OWN community
Almost impossible to gain a reputation because of the sheer amount of users
Compressed view, can fit thousands of replies in one page


Both lack profile pictures

Way different than forums

[THGhost]

Originally Posted by snake

Reddit
-
Can easily make multiple accounts in minutes
Can make your OWN community
Almost impossible to gain a reputation because of the sheer amount of users
Compressed view, can fit thousands of replies in one page

This is why I find Reddit so refreshing, and the people there are so committed to their particular subjects that I've found a lot of useful information on Reddit. I couldn't bring myself to join 4chan though, I'd never be able to keep it up.

[CyberCubed]

reddit is still a public forum. Sure you can make private groups but that's the same for anything. Most groups in the site are public, especially ones for common interests like shows, videogames, comics, etc.

[THGhost]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

reddit is still a public forum. Sure you can make private groups but that's the same for anything. Most groups in the site are public, especially ones for common interests like shows, videogames, comics, etc.

To me it just has a different feel to it. I can't really explain it.

[Spike Spiegel]

Reddit is fantastic. I'm sorry I waited until late last year to get an account.

[plastroncafe]

I keep hearing about how awesome Reddit is, but I've yet to find a board that I want to be apart of enough to risk descending into the pit of voles I imagine the place to be.

[Spike Spiegel]

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

I keep hearing about how awesome Reddit is, but I've yet to find a board that I want to be apart of enough to risk descending into the pit of voles I imagine the place to be.

There are groups for literally everything.

TV shows, fandoms, philosophies, fetishes, you name it.

I think the upvote/downvote system makes it less fashionable for people to be jerks as their post may be less likely to get seen if it's offensive/trolling.

[ProactiveMan]

Reddit's a bit weird. I don't use it much, but a dude at work is always posting stuff and trying to get on the front page. He's gotten close a couple of times, but I'm more interested in the down-votes he gets. Often, when something he posts is voted down by someone, they will purposely look up his other posts and down-vote them too.