Are Forums Going the Way of the Brontosaurus?
It’s QualityGal again. It appears that my boss hijacked my last blog post in the comments section with a rant about… blogs. Among other things. I’ll let my request for education simmer for a few more days to see if I get any more advice by way of links.
This rant took place right around the same time he replied to my email about a project I’m working on, where he told me that forums are so 2004, and that blogs are making them obsolete. He cited the decline of SEO forums and the rise of SEO blogs in his reasoning. Turns out, Graywolf was discussing forums vs blogs way back in 2006.
(I guess it’s important to distinguish that we’re talking about blogs from two different perspectives here. According to Jim, as I understand it, blogs in the link building context are bad, but blogs as community resources are good.)
Okay, so he shot down my plan for building a forum. I accept that. In this instance, I think he had a fair point. My target audience may not benefit as much from a forum as I had originally thought. I drafted a better idea. But what about forums in general?
I must admit, I frequent two or three forums on a daily basis - off the clock - as I have for several years. They’re not professional resources; the purpose they serve is primarily social in nature. Am I stuck in the stone age alongside my forum friends? Is our Fellowship of the Forums doomed to disappear in the shadow of the growing blogosphere?
I’d like to think that there is still value for forum as community in certain instances. Not everyone out there has the talent or the energy to create, maintain, and promote a blog.
Am I letting my naivete show?
- QualityGal
Title note: Aside from being extinct, the brontosaurus no longer properly exists, as it was renamed apatosaurus sometime after I grew up. Doubly burned.
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July 7th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Of course there’s still value in the community aspect of forums. I run the most active one online that has to do with the Marvel Comics’ character “Iron Man.” Fans come together to discuss whatever they like. It’s attached to a larger site with a lot of info about the character, but by far the forum gets the lion’s share of the traffic.
The problem with blogs is that visitors cannot create their own topics, whereas on a forum a visitor can start up a conversation about whatever strikes their fancy.
Vic
July 8th, 2008 at 1:42 am
with so little time nowdays blogs are a lot more efficient to absorb news and information via a feed reader. i used to read lots of forums (not just SEO but music etc etc) but don’t have the time to sift through the noise to find the signal anymore.
i don’t think they will die for a while because they do have some advantages over blogs (like starting your own thread, asking for help, asking questions etc) but I am sure their popularity has been declining
July 8th, 2008 at 9:01 am
I think for those who don’t blog, they will continue to write comments on blogs. Sort of like the difference between starting a thread and replying to one.
There’s only one forum I still visit more than once a month - and it’s not much more than once a month that I’m on there…