Social media and blogs killing off forums?

[Dan]

Hey forum dwellers, throughout my years on the internet a lot has changed. We're no longer browsing websites on HTML tables, nor are we chatting in IRC chatrooms. It seems however another piece of the internet is becoming less and less prominent, the typically internet forum of course. Websites like Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook and ESPECIALLY DISQUS may be responsible for this.

I notice a lot of discussion that's carried out typically occurs on websites like Reddit and Tumblr. Why bother going through the effort of making another account on another website when you can cruise round Reddit and find the discussions you desire all while keeping your posts and profile universal to every board it contains.

I think the above is killing off forums to a degree but I doubt they will die, just like IRC is still alive and well, to add to that table websites are still going strong too!

So what are you opinions on this forum dwellers? Do you think the above platforms are superior to forums? Will you miss forums?

 

[Emma]

For the forseeable future? No I don't think so. And actually I noticed that these other outlets are actually slowing down. They're not rapidly taking over everything anymore. They've found their balance and they can't really edge anymore out of it. It only permanently pulled away people who never were that interested in it in the first place but simply had no other option.

If you want a more understandable example, look at gaming. With the advent of mobile gaming, a lot of people flocked away from traditional gaming in droves. Mostly away from Nintendo, which had cornered the market on casual gaming with the Wii.. Ad despite all the doom and gloom worries of the industry, it had little real impact on gaming's core demographic. And in fact the only real harm that happened to the gaming industry overall WAS the unreasonable overreactions from the industry heads who were obsessing over retaking the casual gamers (particularly Nintendo hyperobsessing in reclaiming the casual market when they had no hope of doing so, to the detriment of their system, or Microsoft trying to force-feed the Kinect on everyone) when their core demographic actually saw casual gaming as a momentary diversion from time to time at best and not the replacement the heads were worried about. And certainly is never going to replace it.It simply found a niche that fit certain people better but by no means was a total replacement.

Same thing here. These are supplements that fulfill a specific purpose. They are not replacements.

 

[DoomDash]

Yep, they've already killed or at least nearly killed most of the forums I visit. Supraforums used to be one of the most popular car forums out there now its a baron wasteland! It all started when the facebook groups started taking over, kinda sucks because it's much easier to archive useful information on forums.

 

[Mipha]

Kind of. Not to mention the fact that facebook and THE FUTURE disqus are extremely overrated.