Are forums a dying breed?

I can count the number of times I have been on Facebook in the last six months on one hand. I don't have any interest in checking in to see what they had for dinner or how bored they are. I use it mostly for contact with relatives and people I went to high school with. I'll take this forum anyday over FB. Actually this is the only forum I check almost everyday. I lurk over on ADV Rider sometimes too but GRM takes the cake for me. I used to hit watch forums but I end up getting the itch to buy a new watch every few months if I am over there.

Ive felt theyve been dying for some time now. People will post their most recent car update or pictures to Facebook or Instagram and their 9000 friends instead of to a forum where people can ask "how'd you do that?" and spark a conversation.

I've seen so many forums that used to have thousands of members die off over the past few years. One of them based out of Central Florida was mainly due to the core of the forum growing old and having families and no longer participating in shenanigans outside the forum that fueled the forum.

I feel like a lot of people hit some key points though, like the younger generation wanting the instant gratification of facebook and instagram or just not being lured into them.

I've always loved forums like LS1tech or GRM for the vast wealth of knowledge they provide through it's populace. The ability to get pretty fast responses or search results for an inquiry are amazing. Then there are forums like NASIOC where you ask a question and you get twenty responses like this "search button" instead of someone being a gentleman and scholar and pointing you in the right direction (except for irish).

I don't see them dying completely though. They are a such a great resource for almost any kind of hobby or niche.

DirtyBird222 wrote: I've always loved forums like LS1tech or GRM for the vast wealth of knowledge they provide through it's populace. The ability to get pretty fast responses or search results for an inquiry are amazing. Then there are forums like NASIOC where you ask a question and you get twenty responses like this "search button" instead of someone being a gentleman and scholar and pointing you in the right direction (except for irish).

I think it is the "use the search noob!" sentiment that drove a lot of people away from forums. I realize is can get tedious to answer the same questions over and over and over.. but it is not worth it if you are going to drive that person away.

I check this forum each day (sometimes 2 or 3 times in a day), I also check out another forum ... pretty much the same as this one (many of the same posters) ... other than these I check my 2 SCCA regions and my NASA board... my bank account and CC accounts ...

I actually do have a FB account ... I've never used it, other than having it allows me to view videos (track related usually) or things like AH's OLOA and things like that ...

Don't you die on me GRM! I think you are the only thing keeping me semi-sane.

I'm down to one forum. I check in here a couple of times a day at least, and if I'm stuck at the office doing the paper shuffle, I'll check it every hour or so.

FB and Twitter don't do much for me. The signal to noise ratio kills it. If I really wanted to know what a HS friend had for dinner, I'd call and ask them.

I am a member on about 20 forums, most of them are a source of info and parts. My favorite prior to GRM was RX7club, I have been on there for well over 10 tears, my tastes have grown considerably since becoming a GRMaholic.

My friendships and real online time is GRM and I have made a significant number of real, skin and bone human friends from this site, some of them are quite close friends.

I do FB, but my reasons are somewhat different, I have less than 50 FB friends and 35 of those are family in Oz, FB is a great way to update important info to those who are a long way from you. Otherwise I have little interest in it.

Of course some people actually live life without a computer, although this may be a rumor.

I HATE Facebook as far as discussion goes. A lot of the Neon guys made a few FB pages. It seems like no pertinent information gets exchanged there, just pictures of horrible cars owned by teenagers (demographics of the marque I guess). It is, however, great for posting things for sale/links to for sale threads. It seems people are more apt to check the FB group vs. read my thread on the forum.

We have a local 'scene' forum which just turned 12 years old. The original members seem to have gotten older and moved on, but it is still quite active. Nothing taking place on the forum pertains to things that I do, but it is still quite interesting to see the 16 year olds go at it.

mad_machine wrote:

DirtyBird222 wrote: I've always loved forums like LS1tech or GRM for the vast wealth of knowledge they provide through it's populace. The ability to get pretty fast responses or search results for an inquiry are amazing. Then there are forums like NASIOC where you ask a question and you get twenty responses like this "search button" instead of someone being a gentleman and scholar and pointing you in the right direction (except for irish).

I think it is the "use the search noob!" sentiment that drove a lot of people away from forums. I realize is can get tedious to answer the same questions over and over and over.. but it is not worth it if you are going to drive that person away.

If I get that on NASIOC I'll take the same question to dirtyimpreza and get an answer relatively fast with alternate solutions as well lol. The problem with searching nasioc is your search query comes back with 85 threads where the only response to the same question is indeed "use the search noob"

Perhaps 90% of my forum going is on my iPhone nowadays. Right now i'm relaxing on the couch after work... Much better than with the computer at my desk.

Honestly 90% of my web browsing is Forums. The other 10% is Porn. And Porn forums. What that means is 95% of my web browsing is forums.

Porn forums? What is there to talk about?

Had to google porn forums, ya know, just to be sure, but yes, yes they is.

In reply to Mitchell:

Surprisingly.... There is alot to talk about...

I'm shocked this thread is three pages in and nobody has commented on the irony of discussing the demise of message boards, on a message board.

we found that allot of people are using facebook more and more. we've scaled back our forum activity in exchange for getting liked on facebook.

Facebook became unexpectedly valuable to me after the big earthquake in Japan. My wife and I have a quite a few family and friends in the greater Tokyo area. Enough put up Facebook posts with details of how they were doing and how families/friends were doing that in 24 hours almost everyone was accounted for and we had a good idea how we could best help.

mad_machine wrote: I think it is the "use the search noob!" sentiment that drove a lot of people away from forums. I realize is can get tedious to answer the same questions over and over and over.. but it is not worth it if you are going to drive that person away.

I think this and punishing people for not donating money are both part of the problem. Yes, I understand that forums cost money to run, but stuff like on the 67-72 chevy trucks forum where you are required to give them money to even discuss buying or selling anything (even if its the best answer to someones question) and other stupid stuff like that makes it not really worth the time to read anymore.

I would never go on a forum as a newbie and ask simple questions without spending a lot of time searching. I have zero trouble with the "search noob" answers in posts. Most people that do that are either not going to become long term, or valuable members anyway, so I don't care if they get po'd and leave.

Facebook killed our little bike forum. It wasn't hugely popular, but it was good, it was entertaining, and it was valuable for providing tech, or riding information for club members, and local riders. One of the forum members who always had a problem with some of the regular posters started up a facebook page for the club, invite only, and split the membership enough that the forum was no longer busy enough to bother keeping up. Now we have no place to go for local tech, or riding info. The FB page is used for the odd pics (the big pic guy has his own page that nobody bothers to visit either), and race day updates, often too late. Awesome.

Strizzo wrote: I'm shocked this thread is three pages in and nobody has commented on the irony of discussing the demise of message boards, on a message board.

I would.. but I am not hipster enough

mad_machine wrote: IT is not that forums are dying.. it's that they are proliferating. It's hard to "keep a post count up" when you are reading many different forums on any given day.

exactly. if I had a dollar for every forum I joined only to make like 3 posts.....I'd probably have 10 dollars.