Has Facebook taken people away from using forums?

[Joeychgo]

Could be forum needs to evolve to something far different and easier for using to suit small mobile devices, as everything is going more and more towards mobile use and less PC usage.

No, I don't think so. From what I can tell, it isn't just forums, its everything almost. Phones are just a bad device to do internet on. Even facebook reduces itself down to basically a text message box. Phones are just too small and awkward a form factor for meaningful internet interaction and research

 

[The Sandman]

No, I don't think so. From what I can tell, it isn't just forums, its everything almost. Phones are just a bad device to do internet on. Even facebook reduces itself down to basically a text message box. Phones are just too small and awkward a form factor for meaningful internet interaction and research

So we just need bigger phones?

 

[Alex.]

So we just need bigger phones?

Yeah. Joey's got a point. I've got an S7 and find it too small to do anything meaningful. I have large hands, that's the problem. If the phone were bigger, I'd have trouble putting it in my coat pocket or my dress pant pocket. There's got to be a sweet spot for resolution in relation to screen size, and manufacturers haven't met that yet. That and the ergonomics of zooming in with a double-tap of the area in question or squeezing/ripping the screen with your fingers, or whatever the technical term is. I have complaints with gyro sensors as well, because frankly you look like a crazy person flipping your phone around trying to get the dang sensor to flip the screen mode.

The problem with manufacturers is money. Why provide large screen real estate and larger battery on low and mid range phones? It'll cut into their bottom line and jack prices up. I want to say that we're still in the infancy of smartphones, and even internet services.

 

[GTB]

The problem with manufacturers is money. Why provide large screen real estate and larger battery on low and mid range phones? It'll cut into their bottom line and jack prices up. I want to say that we're still in the infancy of smartphones, and even internet services.

They have to keep phones to a size that can be carried around. So guess you can only go so large with a phone before it becomes too large and impracticable to buy as a phone. So hard to see that phones will get much bigger than some already are to suit a forum, because people would only drop back down buying a phone instead they can fit in their pocket

 

[The Sandman]

So hard to see that phones will get much bigger than some already are to suit a forum, because people would only drop back down buying a phone instead they can fit in their pocket

Well... pockets can be made bigger as well.

 

[BrandonSheley]

No, Facebook or any other social network didn't single handily kill 'forums'.
Everyone has more avenues to get their questions answered.
Survival of the fittest.

 

[GTB]

Well... pockets can be made bigger as well.

You can buy Camo Pants, they have huge side pockets.

 

[Maddox]

People today are more insular than they used to be. They have a tendency to form a bubble around themselves and only include those who are nearest and dearest to them. Facebook has adapted to provide a 'fix' for this insular attitude. Forums are more open spaced and this can scare some people; they don't want to interact with strangers and bare their soul to everyone. It's a sad indictment to society that people have been encouraged to adopt this attitude.

There's a saying that a 'stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet' - but getting this through to closed minds is not an easy task. People have also become accustomed to saying what they have to say in as few words as possible. So when they land on a forum and see posts/messages that run into paragraphs it either puts them off because they don't understand the concept of being able to express themselves in more than 140 characters (Twitter), or it scares the hell out of them that they can actually do this.

Interaction has a tendency to be discouraged - hell I even know couples who text messages to each other whilst sitting on the same settee. People should be encouraged to open up and state their opinions in a comprehensive and cohesive way that encompasses those who are like-minded, whether they know them or not. Forums give this opportunity to them, but they're reluctant to accept the invitation. I wish I had a magic wand to remedy the situation, but this is something that has been in the air for decades and people have succumbed to this through attrition. There's really no quick fix or speedy answer; all that can be done is to show people that forums are friendly places where good conversation can take place.

 

[-MFL-]

You can buy Camo Pants, they have huge side pockets.

That's just what I did this summer! It's too complicated to find a decent belt case for a big smartphone and such is quite awkward to wear. So, I bought couple of army pants cause they were cheaper and easier to get. Should have done that couple of years ago!

 

[The Sandman]

That's just what I did this summer! It's too complicated to find a decent belt case for a big smartphone and such is quite awkward to wear. So, I bought couple of army pants cause they were cheaper and easier to get. Should have done that couple of years ago!

I hope you're not wearing your new camo pants in that avatar picture.

Welcome to TAZ!

 

[-MFL-]

Thanx!

 

[bigpapapascarab1]

HELL YEAH! Sorry to bump and bring such gloom but the challenge for us is many people have shorter attention spans these days 8 seconds no joke and sadly in parts of the u.s.a their is anti intellectualism. so that means any community that has an intellectual angle people get bored and leave. and sadly their are some people who think everyone is watching them and they think they are the stars of the show so facebook satisfies this where they take photos of themselves every 10 seconds and want people to comment which most forums don't/won't do. also people have become less community oriented. what is so sad is that even next door neighbors don't know eachother in some parts of america. sorry to rant. had to get this out of my system.

 

[Julio]

I say again NOPE!

Namepros a domain names forum that I frequent just hit it's 1,000,000th registered member a few days ago.

 

[bigpapapascarab1]

I say again NOPE!

Namepros a domain names forum that I frequent just hit it's 1,000,000th registered member a few days ago.

AHH but heres the thing in the early 2000's it was easy to create a community. so not to assume but if it was created in the early 2000's the site was lucky and has been grandfathered in. but if one were to start a community tommorrow it would be significantly more difficult to put it lightly

 

[computerology]

Yes. I ran one of the most active paintball forums in the world, with team and regional forum areas, general talk, buy and sell, the site got sometimes hundreds of posts an hour. Facebook pretty much mashed it. Groups became more insular, creating their own facebook groups, buy and sell eventually migrated away, and general chatter eventually stopped. There are some more global sites that still have traffic, but forums as we know them are a very much dying breed.

It's not just facebook and twitter, it's sites like reddit and their ilk as well. They are just colossal communities with millions or billions of users.

A few of the fixes I found to try to stop the bleeding (before I just said fukit and gave up) was to use integrated login services so people could login with google or facebook accounts, award points for sharing the site links to their facebook pages, and banning facebook links altogether in posts. It stopped the bleeding and alerted people that something had been posted so they would go and check it out.

But reality is reality. People hit their facebook multiple times a day though their phones and tablet apps, going to another site is somewhat of a PIA. If they can communicate with the people they want to talk to through facebook, why would they go to a second site. Personally, I prefer the forum format and the anonymity that it provides, but a lot of people these days who prefer that same anonymity just use forums as a place to trash people - on facebook at least they're somewhat accountable for what they're saying or doing because it doesn't accept nicks (although some people find a workaround; but those people often dont make it onto friends lists).

There might be a pendulum swing back to forum style boards because facebook is getting crowded with spam artists now too, but that's debatable. The only way for a forum software developer to fight facebook would be to create a whitelabel customizable app for droid and iphone so sysadmins can brand their app, not have it collide with another board using the same app. I know there are some solutions out there but they are pretty weak, and because they're not branded and automatic like the facebook or twitter apps, people dont want to bother setting them up.

There would be good money in it for someone. Create a migrateable forum board with an integrated phone app that is brandable with zero setup settings, just automatic, download the app and it just works after you enter a name and password with it's own icon that won't collide with another forum using the same app.

If it isn't created, forums are going to die a slow miserable death like Commodore and Atari did in the 90s, and BlackBerry more recently. The general population seems to just love phone apps these days. Personally, I couldnt give a crap if I can download 1000 different versions of solitaire or use the latest filters on SnapChat. I want my phone to just work, and work well - something that forums do. People are too lazy to even really use their computers much anymore, and the forum format is so tailored to a PC browser it's almost annoying to hit a forum because of the zooming and tilting the phone trying to read the text. I guess on a tablet it would be less annoying, but who carries a tablet around everywhere they go except for the ubergeek who is going to use a PC browser sometimes anyway (like a lot of us). And you can't sit on forums at work - unless your boss is going to beleive it's work related, when you're already at a computer.

Plus, on phones and tablets the keyboards are pretty terrible. Try writing a post like this in under 5 minutes like I just did on an iPhone or a Droid. It would look like it was typed by a coked out porpoise. The beauty of forums was that people wrote long thoughful posts not just "HBU? U2. ICU" like a text message.

 

[hard_as_snails]

My forum is taking people from Facebook

 

[R0binHood]

Yes. I ran one of the most active paintball forums in the world,

Which one? I lived on paintball forums in my teen years.

I agree with a lot of what you say, but mobile forum tech is getting better.

The problem is it's taken waaaaay too long to get to the stage it's at now, and even with that, social networks are still streets ahead and accellerating forward in mobile way faster than forums are able to catch up.

I'm on my phone now writing this reply even though I'm at my desk with my laptop open, because of a push notification and I'm just as happy typing this on my phone than I am my keyboard.

 

[maksim]

True but the issue is most users would be from the u.s.a. I am stumped though. how do I make the site interesting in the winter? Artwork constests? Book reviews? Pesticide reviews? IDK? I can always do those but how do I prevent others from getting bored with those? And how do I maintain this for a long time year after year?

Yes. I ran one of the most active paintball forums in the world, with team and regional forum areas, general talk, buy and sell, the site got sometimes hundreds of posts an hour. Facebook pretty much mashed it. Groups became more insular, creating their own facebook groups, buy and sell eventually migrated away, and general chatter eventually stopped. There are some more global sites that still have traffic, but forums as we know them are a very much dying breed.

It's not just facebook and twitter, it's sites like reddit and their ilk as well. They are just colossal communities with millions or billions of users.

A few of the fixes I found to try to stop the bleeding (before I just said fukit and gave up) was to use integrated login services so people could login with google or facebook accounts, award points for sharing the site links to their facebook pages, and banning facebook links altogether in posts. It stopped the bleeding and alerted people that something had been posted so they would go and check it out.

But reality is reality. People hit their facebook multiple times a day though their phones and tablet apps, going to another site is somewhat of a PIA. If they can communicate with the people they want to talk to through facebook, why would they go to a second site. Personally, I prefer the forum format and the anonymity that it provides, but a lot of people these days who prefer that same anonymity just use forums as a place to trash people - on facebook at least they're somewhat accountable for what they're saying or doing because it doesn't accept nicks (although some people find a workaround; but those people often dont make it onto friends lists).

There might be a pendulum swing back to forum style boards because facebook is getting crowded with spam artists now too, but that's debatable. The only way for a forum software developer to fight facebook would be to create a whitelabel customizable app for droid and iphone so sysadmins can brand their app, not have it collide with another board using the same app. I know there are some solutions out there but they are pretty weak, and because they're not branded and automatic like the facebook or twitter apps, people dont want to bother setting them up.

There would be good money in it for someone. Create a migrateable forum board with an integrated phone app that is brandable with zero setup settings, just automatic, download the app and it just works after you enter a name and password with it's own icon that won't collide with another forum using the same app.

If it isn't created, forums are going to die a slow miserable death like Commodore and Atari did in the 90s, and BlackBerry more recently. The general population seems to just love phone apps these days. Personally, I couldnt give a crap if I can download 1000 different versions of solitaire or use the latest filters on SnapChat. I want my phone to just work, and work well - something that forums do. People are too lazy to even really use their computers much anymore, and the forum format is so tailored to a PC browser it's almost annoying to hit a forum because of the zooming and tilting the phone trying to read the text. I guess on a tablet it would be less annoying, but who carries a tablet around everywhere they go except for the ubergeek who is going to use a PC browser sometimes anyway (like a lot of us). And you can't sit on forums at work - unless your boss is going to beleive it's work related, when you're already at a computer.

Plus, on phones and tablets the keyboards are pretty terrible. Try writing a post like this in under 5 minutes like I just did on an iPhone or a Droid. It would look like it was typed by a coked out porpoise. The beauty of forums was that people wrote long thoughful posts not just "HBU? U2. ICU" like a text message.

You hit it perfectly on the head.

 

[R0binHood]

Plus, on phones and tablets the keyboards are pretty terrible. Try writing a post like this in under 5 minutes like I just did on an iPhone or a Droid. It would look like it was typed by a coked out porpoise. The beauty of forums was that people wrote long thoughful posts not just "HBU? U2. ICU" like a text message.

You seen a teenager type on a phone recently? Most can type full sentences on their iPhone faster than half the adults I know are able type on their keyboards. They're not limited to T9 keyboards and SMS character limits anymore.

For the older people, you can write thoughtful long sentences using dictation on a tablet or phone. My dad sends all his texts via voice, has done for about 2 years now. It's possible for users at both end of the spectrum to use phones and tablets to have real conversations and discussions just as easily and quickly, if not quicker than on an old fashioned keyboard if they have a modern smartphone.

 

[Alex.]

Voice dictation is fast, simple and accurate. I've never had an issue composing lengthy text messages with it.