The Decline and Fall of Forums?

Forums – The Earliest Form of Social Media

Web forums were one of the first forms of online social media. Providing a platform for web surfers to interact, they were a welcome change from the old static websites. As forum software evolved, it allowed for actual communities to be formed.

Forums are usually focused on a topic. For example, my cat forums deal with every aspect of cat care and bring together cat lovers in discussions about the latest cat food, feline behavior problems, or managing a colony of feral cats. You can find forums on practically any topic out there, and the good ones will be a goldmine of information accumulated by users over years.

… And Then Came Blogs

The next big breakthrough in social media was the blog. Blogs too have dynamic content, and most of them allow comments, in effect allowing for communities to evolve around the blog.

Unlike forums, blogs are usually focused around a person (or a web persona). This isn’t to say that a blog can’t have a topic – on the contrary, many blogs focus on a particular theme. However, that theme is delivered by a web persona that gives the blog its single authoritative voice. The voices in the comments are always secondary.

The Shift in Focus

After blogs came the various social networks. Now, while on the surface these may seem to be “communities”, I argue that they are more like blogs than forums.

Take Twitter, for example. It’s called micro-blogging for a reason. The various streams are focused on users – not topics. You can opt to follow users and create your own stream of tweets. Granted, you’re likely to follow people who tweet about things that are of interest to you, but it’s people first, topics second.

Here’s another way to look at the difference between forums and the new types of social media -

• In forums, you are a guest on someone else’s turf and need to play by the rules set up by the forum owner. Those who don’t play by the rules can be rejected. Forums almost always have some level of moderation, to enforce official rules and unofficial practices.
• In blogs and social networks, you are rarely moderated. Rather than invite you as a guest into their own territory, social networks such as Facebook and Twitter provide you with a platform, for you to create own corner on the web and interact with other users as an equal.

And so, as more people turn to social networks and blogs for their information and fun – forums are bound to suffer.

I don’t know about you, but I certainly visit webmasters forums less frequently. They are no longer my first and foremost source of information. Blogs, along with social networks, provide me with an environment where I can interact with fellow professionals on equal terms.

Will forums survive?

It’s not all gloom and doom for forums. I hope so at least! I’ve been talking to people about this for a while now and here’s why I think forums can still count on getting a hefty chunk of the pie:

1. Most people are still not web savvy enough to use the new forms of social media. Facebook is still the exception in terms of popularity, not the rule. Your average surfer doesn’t blog or tweet and many people still rely on forums to provide them with the opportunity to express themselves and interact with others.

2. Forums still have the advantage when it comes to combining a good structure of information along with interactivity. Wiki’s may be more effective when it comes to organizing information and social networks may offer better interaction, but I do think forums still offer a better combination of the two.

However, for forums to prosper, they can no longer rely on the quality of social interaction alone. Twitter does that better. What they need to fortify is their unique ability to bring together experts in their specific niche and provide quality information and advice.

If you own a forum or want to develop one, focus on retaining the experts that can provide your members with those gems of information they can’t find anywhere else. Don’t rely on providing a “nice atmosphere” for like-minded people – that on its own just isn’t enough.

These conclusions are especially true if your target audience is webmasters or bloggers. The more web-savvy your prospective members are, they more they can interact with their peers via their own blog and social network feed. Focus on offering them something extra, or you risk losing them.

Tagged as: blogs, forums, social media, web publishing