Are forums making a comeback?

danish14

danish14

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I don't know much about forums. I was born in 2001 and I grew up in the Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter era. How famous are forums back then?

With the surge of AI, I saw some people tweeting saying forums will make a comeback because people want human content. And also Perplexity and Google always serve human niche content from Reddit. I think it's true because I've never thought I'd join a forum and here I am. What do you think?
 
The one thing forums have going for them that people like is "internet points" in the form of post counts (people like this for some reason) or the amount of Likes they get on posts. Those of us who are real old school will look at stuff like "Like to Post Count Ratio" to see how valuable/entertaining we're being.

But no, I don't see a resurgence of forums happening. They're good for private/paid communities but there's also Discord, Facebook Groups, and all that too. I like forums due to the permanence of the posts, which can always be found and so much useful info gets stacked up. But even then, people have come to like Q&A or Curation platforms where things can be upvoted and downvoted, which is what Google actually prefers because it means there's "more" moderation going on (which is a dumb conclusion on their end).
 
I do think forums are coming back, but it's not necessarily "forums" but rather a trend of the kind of content and connections people want.

1. People like more direct Q&A oriented content, which forums often have. If you have a weird mole on your toe, you don't want a 2,000 word WebMD article about moles. But someone on reddit happened to ask about the same exact thing and a bunch of people gave input and advice. Just such a better experience with the content. Forums/communities offer much more laser-targeted content. My personal search history has really become "reddit QUERY" and it saves me so much time + just feels more genuine. People are on Google to solve problems, not read an encyclopedia.

2. Communities (not just forums) are evolving to be a larger piece of the web. It's called vertical social. In the world of so much information, there's simply too much and people are gravitating towards communities in many shapes and forms to help alleviate that. Essentially with the right community you are getting quicker access to people "in the know" about a topic. BuilderSociety is a great place to get into contact with people in-the-know about running & marketing web properties rather than posting an SEO question to your Facebook feed.
 
Yes, and it's as simple as this: with so much AI content spam, Google wants to surface more human written content.
 
Darth said:
Yes, and it's as simple as this: with so much AI content spam, Google wants to surface more human written content.
Click to expand...

The problem I see is that these spaces get filled with AI spam just as easily, and I'm not sure that there's an easy way around that.
 
Jesse said:
The problem I see is that these spaces get filled with AI spam just as easily, and I'm not sure that there's an easy way around that.
Click to expand...
Agree wholeheartedly.

HCU is Google's botched attempt to deal with it
 
I think forums are making a little bit of a comeback but will never see their former glory. Social media sites are much easier to use, and I think that's a huge part of it.

Traditional forums have a learning curve that filters out a large portion of people who won't even bother trying to figure it out. In the pre social media days there were a lot more people willing to get involved in a forum because there wasn't a mindless alternative yet.

Personally I've always liked forums and been a part of several over the years. I think a certain type of person gravitates towards them and I'm one of them.

I like how the discussion can evolve over time, and I like the collaborative aspect of creating content. The fact that an old topic can be revived with a new response allows for ongoing open ended discussion. Sometimes I view it like having multiple writers work on a blog post.

And yeah, I also like the "internet points" and gamification. It helps to give each forum its own unique personality which is a huge part of the appeal.
 
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