Are forums dying?

[AlbertMond]

People ask this all the time - but it's ultimately kind of a silly question.
The answer, overall, is no. For multiple reasons - firstly, the Facebook format simply isn't an adequate replacement for forums. It's also not a good format for any number of things - chatting, customizing, meeting new people, free promo, etc. Facebook is both literally and figuratively a drab and gray website.

Many times when this question is asked, there are circumstantial reasons behind it which have only a secondary relation to the general state of forums - I've seen it on sites which went down and lost all the user profiles and then came back up, for instance. These things compound whatever effect Facebook (and whatever else) has. But there's also an underlying fallacy, which Facebook&Friends are quite happy exists - the idea that the entire internet is moving to Facebook is a mentality in-and-of-itself, and it's most likely one that Facebook at some point or another has paid someone to encourage. This, along with other fallacies - Facebook as "safe" or "acceptable," etc.

Losing users isn't unlikely, but the forum medium isn't actually dying. There are still mainframes being used, ffs.
Unless Facebook adopts a similar forum format (it's actually gotten further from this, not closer) then they don't have a communicable practical edge - the only thing they have is people buying into their fallacies, and the typical government support that monopolies tend to get. Oh, and a very poor, boring setup for coherent discussion. Pssh.

The internet is out here to be explored. If somebody doesn't want it to be, that's all the more reason to keep exploring.

[RCMerchant]

We're all dying, RC...     :D

Maybe you are.  I'm not.  Just because everybody else is doing something doesn't mean I'm going to give in to peer pressure.  

I think part of the reason this particular forum has slowed down might also have to do with the fact that the site it's attached to isn't updated at all anymore.  

I don't have peer pressure. I don't have any "peers". I'm an old man living with his sweetie and I never go out. Except to buy booze and smokes and food.
I'm sure that has a lot to do with it.

I NEVER post on facebook. My facebook only reblogs my Tumblr blog-and that's all vintage horror movie photos.
And yeah-even with all my whiney "I quit!" p***y s**t I did-I'll stick here till the end.

I don't get the "peer pressure" thing.
I been watching old horror movies since  I was old enough to watch TV. I bought my first Famous Monsters magazine in 1970.
I Don't follow nobody. Oh-I followed Forry Ackerman because of Famous Monsters and I followed Calvin T. Beck because of Castle of Frankenstein.
So yeah-I follow me.
Zap-I ain't saying what you said was wrong-you hit the nail on the head-were all dying!  Folks who have a lifelong passion for this-Monster Kids like us-we will never die-and I will stick with the Good Rev-We gotta reboot this place. We need to reboot the site! I am willing and able to write new reviews for BAD MOVIES.ORG to keep bring it back alive!

[RCMerchant]

-and Andrew-our fearless leader-won't talk to nobody.
f**k him. I can understand him leaving-but not even without a f**k you very much. Dont let the door hit yer ass on the way out-goodbye.
f**k Andrew-our "Fearless Leader"-thanx a***ole-leave yer friends hanging,dickhead.
What really p**ses me off-the Rev can reboot this site-he's the man-but Andrew won't answer the phone. ARRRH.

f**k you,Andrew.

[ER]

-and Andrew-our fearless leader-won't talk to nobody.
f**k him. I can understand him leaving-but not even without a f**k you very much. Dont let the door hit yer ass on the way out-goodbye.
f**k Andrew-our "Fearless Leader"-thanx a***ole-leave yer friends hanging,dickhead.
What really p**ses me off-the Rev can reboot this site-he's the man-but Andrew won't answer the phone. ARRRH.

f**k you,Andrew.

http://youtu.be/PyM4uAJBujA

It's almost like something scared him off.

[RCMerchant]

I don't know wtf Andrew's deal is-I had this problem with Micheal Weldon of Psychotronic magazine. I was contributing-and the f**ker ripped me off and cut off conatact after I had donated some rare material (AFTER HOURS mag-Forry Ackerman issue-worth over a thousand bucks). He used the stuff-I never got my s**t back and he jumped the boat. Same s**t happened with Micheal Copner of Cult Magazine-he f**ked me too.

[FatFreddysCat]

It's sad but forums in general do seem to be dying off - not just this one. I'm a member of several others (metal music related) and in each of them, aside from a "core group" of regulars who've been posting for years 'n' years traffic has slowed down noticeably over the past few years.

As a matter of fact, one of the metal forums I'm in needs to have its domain name renewed at the moment, and the guy who's supposed to be the "owner" of the board has seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth. I'm an Admin on that forum and I'd gladly take care of it myself but I don't have the access level mojo to do so. I hit the "owner" up on Facebook and asked nicely if he could take five minutes to drop by and fix it, but so far nothing has happened. I'm like "Geez, dude, if you're not into this anymore, that's OK, then gimme the damn keys, I'll run the board."

(shrugs) However long this place (and the others I belong to) hang in there, I'll still be around.  

[Pacman000]

It's sad but forums in general do seem to be dying off - not just this one. I'm a member of several others (metal music related) and in each of them, aside from a "core group" of regulars who've been posting for years 'n' years traffic has slowed down noticeably over the past few years.

As a matter of fact, one of the metal forums I'm in needs to have its domain name renewed at the moment, and the guy who's supposed to be the "owner" of the board has seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth. I'm an Admin on that forum and I'd gladly take care of it myself but I don't have the access level mojo to do so. I hit the "owner" up on Facebook and asked nicely if he could take five minutes to drop by and fix it, but so far nothing has happened. I'm like "Geez, dude, if you're not into this anymore, that's OK, then gimme the damn keys, I'll run the board."

(shrugs) However long this place (and the others I belong to) hang in there, I'll still be around.  

Something similar happened to StompTokyo and Digital Press awhile back; eventually the mods were able to get a hold of the guys who owned the domain, who fixed things. Still worrisome to the folks who still frequent those sites.

Technically, Andrew did show up a few months ago, but he didn't post anything. I think he was just fixing things to keep the site from crashing, and he didn't have to. He also renewed the domain name in April. Be careful about antagonizing the person who pays the bills.

[Allhallowsday]

-and Andrew-our fearless leader-won't talk to nobody.
f**k him. I can understand him leaving-but not even without a f**k you very much. Dont let the door hit yer ass on the way out-goodbye.
f**k Andrew-our "Fearless Leader"-thanx a***ole-leave yer friends hanging,dickhead.
What really p**ses me off-the Rev can reboot this site-he's the man-but Andrew won't answer the phone. ARRRH.

f**k you,Andrew.

http://youtu.be/PyM4uAJBujA

It's almost like something scared him off.

I wonder what that might 've been?  "Penny!  Where have you BEAN?"  BEEN?!  

[Allhallowsday]

I don't know wtf Andrew's deal is-I had this problem with Micheal Weldon of Psychotronic magazine. I was contributing-and the f**ker ripped me off and cut off conatact after I had donated some rare material (AFTER HOURS mag-Forry Ackerman issue-worth over a thousand bucks). He used the stuff-I never got my s**t back and he jumped the boat. Same s**t happened with Micheal Copner of Cult Magazine-he f**ked me too.

Well.  Well well well.  We have all made mistakes, and taken risks.  Sometimes they work out.  Many times not.  I "rented" some RICKY NELSON material to the producers of a TV show ("Biography" ?) I TAPE RECORDED (it's that long ago) they paid me AND gave me a credit ABOVE RICKY NELSON's widow...  !  One of my proudest moments!   

[TYTD Reviews]

Strangely I had never considered joining a message board until I stopped and realized that I didnt know anyone in the real world who really appreciated the level of effort and commitment it takes to fail at film making properly...that got me looking up groups on Facebook...which in turn got me looking at posts on reddit, which in turn led me to looking into message boards and this lovely little corner of the internet :) though I do agree I remember message boards in the mid 2000's being an absolute hotbed of people...these days any of the boards im on you'd be lucky to see a handful of threads update a day...

[Trevor]

until I stopped and realized that I didnt know anyone in the real world who really appreciated the level of effort and commitment it takes to fail at film making properly..

I realized that on my first day at film school 

[TYTD Reviews]

until I stopped and realized that I didnt know anyone in the real world who really appreciated the level of effort and commitment it takes to fail at film making properly..

I realized that on my first day at film school 

xD! its very bizarre! at the film school I went to they showed people how to do things properly but never bothered to tell people how to fail spectacularly which I would argue was more important to know xD after all you can teach someone how to fly a plane...but I'd argue its more important to teach them how not to spectacularly crash one...I always got ridiculed for watching terrible, terrible films. But if it wasn't for the likes of Francis Coleman or Tom Rubnitz I very much doubt I would have graduated xD

[HappyGilmore]

I try to pop in occasionally.  If anything just to check out the Listening thread as most folks here have some good taste in music and I hear something new that piques my interest from time to time.

In general, they seem to be falling off.  Most of the ones I was a part of are gone.  There's 2 others I pop in on besides here.  One's dedicated to Weird Al and his band and 'friends' in the comedy world and another is for Power Rangers and related Japanese Tokusatsu like Godzilla, Sentai, etc.

[316zombie]

lol@ tytd, i think  you mean coleman francis? we are fans too!

[stine.greta]

There are some that die because nobody has updated them. They have also chosen to use a Facebook group instead, as it is free. No domain fee and no update is needed.