What happened to internet forums?

[FireAza]

If you've only ever posted on the Escapist forums, you might not be aware of this: around 6 years ago, the internet used to be full of internet forums that were just as active, if not more so than these forums are.

But now? Many of these once active forums have had their activity slow down to a trickle. There's a forum I've been on for a long time that has seen less posts in a year than a single month from 7 years ago. Pretty much, the Escapist forum is the only forum I know (one based purely around discussion and not, say, tech support) that sees enough activity that new topics will move off the front page in 24 hours.

What the hell happened? Why did people stop visiting forums? My theory is people migrated across to social networking websites when they came out, but even the geeky ones (i.e the sort of people to not be into Facebook) have dried up.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Part of it was that the older forums used to be unmoderated, and therefore a lot more free. Once more forums started putting mods in place and becoming more strict lots of active members got banned, and then the forum would just die from disinterest.

Another thing was of course the rise of social networking, which used to be relegated to forums, now having entire businesses like MySpace and Facebook dedicated to them.

 

[FireAza]

The forum I was on always had mods, and there were a few bannings over the years (though they weren't as strict as the mods on the Escapist!) and the active members are still around (they're often the only ones still posting!), so I don't think the mods are what killed off this froum...

 

[Professor Lupin Madblood]

snip

"So what do you guys think?"
"I think it may have been the mods."
"No, it wasn't the mods."

Productive discussion.

Another thing was of course the rise of social networking, which used to be relegated to forums, now having entire businesses like MySpace and Facebook dedicated to them.

Hadn't even thought about that, but yeah. That makes perfect sense.

Also, the forums aren't necessarily doing themselves any favours. I tried getting an account set up on NeoGAF, since I'm steadily falling out of love with The Escapist, only to discover that the idiots who run the place are apparently too good for Gmail. Free email addresses aren't good enough now? What the actual fuck, seriously? Honest to God, NeoGAF, fuck you. I know you were created when Google wasn't really a thing, but god damn.

I'm not really sure how I feel about the whole decline of forums. It's saddening, but maintaining multiple accounts was never something I enjoyed, and most of the discussion was shit. On the other hand, most of that shit discussion is now in the only major forums (The Escapist, NeoGAF), so places that were once pretty good are now inundated with idiots.

 

[staika]

I do agree with Topaz for the most part. I've recently returned here after about 10 months away and it is pretty apparent that the escapist isn't as busy as it was before.

I think apart of it is due to that shit storm that extra credits brewed up awhile back. I myself was prepared to leave until I got the whole story and then I pretty much lost most of the respect that I had for them. The redesign may have had a little to do with it but I do think a few people left because of that. I still think leaving because of the redesign is stupid but people do stupid things. There's also the case that some of the users that posted a lot are gone now, either by leaving or getting banned.

Reddit is a good example of a forum that is doing good. I hate it a lot personally but other people seem to flock to it so it's doing really good. I'm content here myself, I know a lot of awesome people here so there's little reason for me to leave again because it's a little slower than before.

 

[Nouw]

Clearly we need up-voting on this forum, for the greater good. Works for Reddit right?

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

Clearly we need up-voting on this forum, for the greater good. Works for Reddit right?

Your sarcasm is showing, Nouw.

And I love it.

OT: It's not really all the difficult to understand, actually. When people run out of things to talk about and/or have no further interest in the given website, they'll move on to someplace "worthy" of their time.

Personally, I've loved the Escapist ever since first coming here, and am happy with the state it is currently in.

 

[FireAza]

snip

"So what do you guys think?"
"I think it may have been the mods."
"No, it wasn't the mods."

Productive discussion.

That's a bit out of context dude. In that example, I was talking about a specific forum, once which had had it's active membership slowly decline, despite the mods not really banning anyone. That might not be the same for other forum, but in this case of the forum in my example, it's not the case. Now, the hostility of it's members and penchant for grammar nazi-isum, that's a whole other kettle of fish.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I don't think the actual number of active forums has declined so much as some of the older communities have died out and been replaced, including, apparently, your old forum. You could argue that Facebook has drawn people away, but then Usenet had the same effect back in the day[footnote]probably to a greater degree, since Usenet groups were more forum-like than Facebook groups are, and the other features of Facebook have very little overlap with forums.[/footnote], whereas it's just about irrelevant to anyone but pirates who want something safer than bittorrent these days. You say things are moving slower, but I'm wondering what part of the year you spent using them the most back in the day -- if you were, say, a kid or teen who spent a lot of time on the computer over the Summer, well, that's true of a lot of people today, too. You'll see an influx of posters all over the internet starting in a couple of months. 4Chan even has a name for them, "Summerfriends." Except the suffix is a certain word for "homosexual" instead of "friend," because it's 4chan.

 

[FireAza]

You say things are moving slower, but I'm wondering what part of the year you spent using them the most back in the day -- if you were, say, a kid or teen who spent a lot of time on the computer over the Summer, well, that's true of a lot of people today, too.

I think this might be part of the reason, I know a lot of the active posters on my forum have started families, I guess forum posting isn't important when you have a kid

 

[KeyMaster45]

There's just not really much worth discussing on forums it seems. I frankly don't really see a point to being an active poster anymore. The same topics just keep cycling through, and eventually you just kind of run out of things to say. Plus (in regards to here) it seems like the rules have gotten stricter since I originally joined, and after watching plenty of regulars get the banhammer for just acting like they'd always acted I just kinda stopped talking. I used to not really worry about running afoul of the rules and felt I could speak frankly if need be. Rules that used to be enforced with vengeance, like no versus threads, have completely evaporate and other rules, like the general don't be a jerk rule, seem to expand further and further every day.

It's just not worth commenting anymore. I'd leave, but there's really no other place to go.

 

[DoPo]

Eh, I've been to a few forums, I've left a few forums, I've seen a few die down. Here is what I have to say - it's just the nature of forums to decline. Call it entropy, if you wish but unless you have new people coming in and/or just a large user base, it'd be hard to keep a forum active: people will leave for one reason or another - some may get bored, others may just move on to something else, etc, and as users decline, more and more of the rest are more likely to go as well. And people would leave - specific forums would not always be fresh and new - at some point there wouldn't be much of a reason to visit - there wouldn't be much to discuss, as you know most people and their opinions on the forum. The admin/owner/whatever losing interest in the forum is probably the most fatal, as it'd hasten the decline.

And I'd disagree - I don't think there are much less forums than before. It's just different forums - some die, new are created and so on.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

I think that forums in general are actually more active than you think. Depends on where you look. But you're right to a point. Facebook has stolen some of the traffic. Some of it good traffic and some of it garbage. (IMAO, I think garbage for most of it.)

There's just not really much worth discussing on forums it seems. I frankly don't really see a point to being an active poster anymore. The same topics just keep cycling through, and eventually you just kind of run out of things to say. Plus (in regards to here) it seems like the rules have gotten stricter since I originally joined, and after watching plenty of regulars get the banhammer for just acting like they'd always acted I just kinda stopped talking. I used to not really worry about running afoul of the rules and felt I could speak frankly if need be. Rules that used to be enforced with vengeance, like no versus threads, have completely evaporate and other rules, like the general don't be a jerk rule, seem to expand further and further every day.

It's just not worth commenting anymore. I'd leave, but there's really no other place to go.

Also, like what KeyMaster said, you just start running out of things to say. I suppose that's not true for me though if I actually tried at least. Perhaps it's actually just not caring so much anymore as opposed to you can't think of anything interesting to say. EVERYONE has something interesting and different to share at least every couple days, even if they don't share it.

As to harsh rules, I know of a forum where free speech and freedom of information is not only actively participated in but encouraged. If anyone wants to know the URL, just PM me.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Did some of the forums consolidate? 6 Years ago the internet was much more of a mess than it is now, and forum sites were really popular because they could be made on something like Geocities by someone with comparibly low computor skills, and then it could be used...

Problem with this is that this undoubtedly lead to many very similar forums. Over time users, fed up of the stagnant forums they are members of will move and reconvene in larger better run forums for the same topic... and over time you end up with just large forums.

Another reason is that the idea behind forums, ie leaving short messages to say how you feel on a topic, has changed to a similar device... comments sections. Now you can go directly to a source site, say a news site, or a website for the topic you are interested in, and you can comment directly to the discussion there without having to take it to another, similar site, where the clientel may be less!

 

[Bertylicious]

It is a mystery isn't it? The number of people who can routinely connect to the internet is increasing but forums are in decline.

Well it's got to be like pubs, innit? More and more people alive in the UK now than have ever been before but 1000 pubs are closing every single day. *clicks fingers*

There's one

*clicks fingers*

There goes another.

*clicks fingers*

Actually that one was a Wetherspoons and really it just relocated to be more central to the Basingstoke high street.

But why? Why is this happening?

The answer is simple: people are horrifying and they smell. Without smoking in pubs to obscure the fug of b/o your only respite is when you're exiled to the out doors to enjoy a quick puff into the realm of Nirvana.

This is a problem in a country that is essentially uninhabitable for 9 months out of the year.

So if smoking is akin venting a load of deeply personal and malicious spline about your boss which can then be used against you in a court of law/disciplinary hearing/pilloried in the press then naturally the internet becomes peopled soley by non-smokers whose frigid, grey and joyless disposition results in an environment fit only for self obsession and alienation. Social media profiles are little more than CVs (Resumés for US types) with everyone grinning rather than pictures from Colonel Fagballs 4 day bender in Peru featuring reviews of prostitutes organised by the size of their vaginas.

 

[Guffe]

People actually go out to meet other people nowadays
So yeah, social media like Twitter, Facebook and others that excist. They are also so easy to access on phones today, fast and simple. I think some forums just die with age. I mean a normal forum with topics won't last too long, I think there needs to be more that atracts someone than just " those two other guys I usually have nice discusisons/arguments with". And the Escapist has that, video content, loads of news etc. The forums are just a small part of it.

 

[thesilentman]

You guys aren't considering the people who simply are just tired of the Internet. Some people just are sick of the internet culture to actually stay, so they call it quits. I almost did quit this site around March, but I rebounded back after going into Forum games and feeling a bit more positive than dealing with the vitrol that comes on the internet.

[small](Note- not a Forum games advertisement.)[/small]

Anyway, that's what I think about it. There is Facebook, Twitter and other sites that also take away from the major forums, but I believe it's more the culture of the Internet that's driving some people away. That and lack of free time, which was already stated.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I used to be part of quite a few other forums, but they were usually fairly small. Without any actual content, like the Escapist has, there's really no reason for the forum to exist, so it slowly dies.

As far as I'm aware all the big gaming forums are still alive, but I've never been a regular at any of them.

 

[BrotherRool]

I wouldn't be surprised if Reddit is devouring a huge amount of forums. But it might be that most forums have finite lifespans and if you stick with any one forum long enough you see it slowly run down, but because of the way people find forums, you don't join up to the up and coming ones to see the other side of the cycle

It is a mystery isn't it? The number of people who can routinely connect to the internet is increasing but forums are in decline.

Well it's got to be like pubs, innit? More and more people alive in the UK now than have ever been before but 1000 pubs are closing every single day. *clicks fingers*

I'm having a huge internal struggle over whether to quote the actual number or not. I know I shouldn't, I know it's not the appropriate thing to do...but statistics...

Spoiler

It's 16 a week net closures

Sorry Couldn't help myself in the end

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

To contrast all of the above, reddit has grown and grown and grown.

Basically this. Reddit's explosion in size is the cause of a lot of forums' deaths. Why visit different forums when Reddit has a subreddit for literally everything?