Are Forums Dead?

Every time a “new” method of communication comes about on the internet that has any functionality to do with threaded discussions (key phrase there), it is in essence a forum.

Twitter does act like a forum at times. How? You can reply to someone’s “tweet”. Other Twitter users can reply to your tweet. This is technically a threaded discussion. Granted, it’s a very basic thread, but it is a thread. In addition, you can “follow” other users in that system to see who they responded to and add your own into the mix as well – and that’s some more threading right there.

Blog commentary acts very much like a forum, especially ones (like PCMech) where you can reply to specific comment authors. The article itself you can think of as the forum topic, i.e. the “new thread discussion.” Any replies to that topic continues that thread.

YouTube comments also act very much like a forum. Just like blog commentary, you can reply to specific authors. The video itself is the new thread discussion/topic. And being the commentary is 100% text-based, yes, it’s forum-style.

If you examine the way text discussion works with any social medium, it’s the same stuff you’ve seen years before. The only real difference is that you’re able to post in different ways (such as from a mobile device) and it’s packaged differently. But the end result is the same. The threads are the same.

Some things traditional forums have that social media doesn’t
“Bumping” a thread

This is where someone purposely writes a reply to a thread in order to have it appear in the “most recent discussion”, usually listed at the top. For example, someone may simply reply with “bump” or “bumped”.

There is no way to “bump” anything with blog commentary, YouTube comments and so on. This is a lack of functionality and not a perk.

Signatures

Some people use little signatures when they send e-mails. You can do the same when posting to a forum – if the admins have it enabled (it varies from system to system).

With social media there usually isn’t any option for signatures. Your name more or less is your signature and that’s it.

Linking threads

Forums for years have had the ability to link threads. You can literally cross-connect a post from one forum to another completely different forum within the same system.

Social media to the best of my knowledge has absolutely no ability to do this whatsoever. You can’t link a comment to another comment in another video/article and have the two connected seamlessly.

And yes there are more things forums do that social media doesn’t, but you get the idea.

You could easily say forums are better equipped for communication
…and you’d be right. Whether it’s vBulletin, phpBB, punBB, bbPress, YaBB or what-have-you, all of these systems are much better suited for community conversation than any blog or social media could be.

Where do traditional forums lack compared to social media?
You can’t post a thread via a mobile device. (Some would ask “Why?” The answer is that it makes the forum more social.)

Forum software by and large doesn’t connect with anything else. For example, there is no easy way (not without a lot of code hacking anyway) to use a phpBB system as the comment system in WordPress. Is it possible? Sure, anything’s possible with enough programming effort put forth. But is it simple or easy? Not at present.

Does this mean social media is better than traditional forums?
As a communications medium, no. Forums will always be better in that department.

As a social medium, yes. As good as forum software is, all forums more or less act as “islands unto themselves”. If you’re on the island, you can communicate. When off the island, you can’t. You can get notified (by means of e-mail and/or RSS) but you can’t participate unless you’re back on that island.

Are forums dead?
No. Every time you see a threaded discussion it’s just a forum in a different package. Most people just think it’s new because of its social implications.

And it seems that as social media progresses they seem to be “borrowing” more and more ideas from traditional forum software.

SandDragon wrote:

Every time a “new” method of communication comes about on the internet that has any functionality to do with threaded discussions (key phrase there), it is in essence a forum.

Twitter does act like a forum at times. How? You can reply to someone’s “tweet”. Other Twitter users can reply to your tweet. This is technically a threaded discussion. Granted, it’s a very basic thread, but it is a thread. In addition, you can “follow” other users in that system to see who they responded to and add your own into the mix as well – and that’s some more threading right there.

Blog commentary acts very much like a forum, especially ones (like PCMech) where you can reply to specific comment authors. The article itself you can think of as the forum topic, i.e. the “new thread discussion.” Any replies to that topic continues that thread.

YouTube comments also act very much like a forum. Just like blog commentary, you can reply to specific authors. The video itself is the new thread discussion/topic. And being the commentary is 100% text-based, yes, it’s forum-style.

If you examine the way text discussion works with any social medium, it’s the same stuff you’ve seen years before. The only real difference is that you’re able to post in different ways (such as from a mobile device) and it’s packaged differently. But the end result is the same. The threads are the same.

Some things traditional forums have that social media doesn’t
“Bumping” a thread

This is where someone purposely writes a reply to a thread in order to have it appear in the “most recent discussion”, usually listed at the top. For example, someone may simply reply with “bump” or “bumped”.

There is no way to “bump” anything with blog commentary, YouTube comments and so on. This is a lack of functionality and not a perk.

Signatures

Some people use little signatures when they send e-mails. You can do the same when posting to a forum – if the admins have it enabled (it varies from system to system).

With social media there usually isn’t any option for signatures. Your name more or less is your signature and that’s it.

Linking threads

Forums for years have had the ability to link threads. You can literally cross-connect a post from one forum to another completely different forum within the same system.

Social media to the best of my knowledge has absolutely no ability to do this whatsoever. You can’t link a comment to another comment in another video/article and have the two connected seamlessly.

And yes there are more things forums do that social media doesn’t, but you get the idea.

You could easily say forums are better equipped for communication
…and you’d be right. Whether it’s vBulletin, phpBB, punBB, bbPress, YaBB or what-have-you, all of these systems are much better suited for community conversation than any blog or social media could be.

Where do traditional forums lack compared to social media?
You can’t post a thread via a mobile device. (Some would ask “Why?” The answer is that it makes the forum more social.)

Forum software by and large doesn’t connect with anything else. For example, there is no easy way (not without a lot of code hacking anyway) to use a phpBB system as the comment system in WordPress. Is it possible? Sure, anything’s possible with enough programming effort put forth. But is it simple or easy? Not at present.

Does this mean social media is better than traditional forums?
As a communications medium, no. Forums will always be better in that department.

As a social medium, yes. As good as forum software is, all forums more or less act as “islands unto themselves”. If you’re on the island, you can communicate. When off the island, you can’t. You can get notified (by means of e-mail and/or RSS) but you can’t participate unless you’re back on that island.

Are forums dead?
No. Every time you see a threaded discussion it’s just a forum in a different package. Most people just think it’s new because of its social implications.

And it seems that as social media progresses they seem to be “borrowing” more and more ideas from traditional forum software.

1. hate twitter, had one once for 10 minutes never logged in again.

2. love youtube, but its nothing like a forum, a video version of twitter in a way

3. i <3 signatures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4. gimme my red back!