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07-14-2022, 03:49 AM - 2 Likes   #1
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Are Forums Dying?

I don't mean Pentax Forums, but this article brings up an interesting trend in some online forums, and some of the problems common to all forums.

Why are online motorcycle forums drying up and dying? - RevZilla

Personally I do think smaller screens and devices are a factor. Yes, I access PF and other forums on my iPhone, but I rarely do more than "Like" a post. I do prefer looking at images on a large screen, and 40+ years of habit means I'd rather type on a full size keyboard, so a laptop or desktop is preferrable for my social media interaction.

07-14-2022, 04:19 AM - 2 Likes   #2
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QuoteOriginally posted by robgski Quote
I don't mean Pentax Forums, but this article brings up an interesting trend in some online forums, and some of the problems common to all forums.

Why are online motorcycle forums drying up and dying? - RevZilla

Personally I do think smaller screens and devices are a factor. Yes, I access PF and other forums on my iPhone, but I rarely do more than "Like" a post. I do prefer looking at images on a large screen, and 40+ years of habit means I'd rather type on a full size keyboard, so a laptop or desktop is preferrable for my social media interaction.


interesting.....

I agree with you on interaction with forums - for me, it's more difficult on a mobile device (phone or tablet for me), primarily because typing on a keypad with no tactile response is awful - I follow PF throughout the day, but tend to do most of my true interaction while sitting in front of a full-size monitor and a genuine keyboard....

I can see where the push to more visual interaction (instagram, tik tok, etc), where images are the primary discourse, can be pulling membership away from a true forum format.....


EDIT:

I went back and re-read the post you linked, Rob....

so many of those things are true to the forum format... and it also should serve as a reminder to us here how good we have it....

(I hate motor oil arguments - Rotella is always the answer - lol)

Last edited by pepperberry farm; 07-14-2022 at 04:25 AM.
07-14-2022, 04:38 AM - 2 Likes   #3
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Thanks for that link.
I had a vague understanding that photobucket and/or similar services had killed a lot of embedded photos somehow, sometime, but didn't realize it happened like that.
In addition to the reasons mentioned in the article, I might add that the crapification of search has probably had something to do with the decline of forums. I remember getting many results from authoritative forums in the top page of a search years ago, sometimes many from the same forum. These days that is much more rare, particularly for car related issues (where I've found forums to be at their best). Although searches with Pentax in the string do still often lead me to a Pentax Forums page.

P. S. I've typed this response out on my phone (a Unihertz) with it's physical keyboard. They do exist: my last 3 phones have had physical keyboards, and my next one will as well if I have any say in the matter. If more of us demanded/bought them, there would likely be more of them on the market.

Last edited by wadge22; 07-14-2022 at 01:23 PM.
07-14-2022, 04:38 AM - 1 Like   #4
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Smartphones have not only affected camera sales but PC use as well.

I miss Usenet newsgroups - except for the trolls and spammers.

Chris

07-14-2022, 04:56 AM - 2 Likes   #5
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I do almost all my forum browsing on a laptop and only use my mobile, usually through the Tapatalk app, when I'm away from home. It's definitely a much better experience on the laptop.

We recently bought a new laptop and I always get one with decent specs because otherwise it only takes a couple of years of OS and software "upgrades" to slow things down to a crawl.
07-14-2022, 05:48 AM   #6
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All the forums I participate in skew old, although that could be the subject matter, mostly cameras and baseball. I'm also a soccer fan, and almost all of my online interaction about soccer is via Twitter, Instagram and similar.

I'm not sure if there are other forums that have a younger audience. But I don't think my teenage kids use forums at all, they're on things like Instagram or TikTok or Reddit. All things that are much more mobile-friendly. My kids have built their own computers, but I think that's unusual. Mobile phones and game consoles are much more common.
07-14-2022, 05:54 AM - 2 Likes   #7
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I think forum use has declined from it's peak but it definitely has a place. No other format offers detailed knowledge and discussion of subjects and hobbies.

I also thought that forum users had, like me, become older but I'm not sure that's the case. Certainly the youth don't use them or blogs but perhaps there comes a point when they begin to.

You can often refer to site traffic analysis sites, one of which for this forum indicated 50% of users are on mobile devices and the other, below, indicated a wider age demographic than I thought. No idea how accurate these sites are though as they always report different figures for the same site. Nevertheless, interesting to view.

https://www.similarweb.com/website/pentaxforums.com/#traffic

07-14-2022, 06:16 AM   #8
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no, wait, Castrol is the answer....
07-14-2022, 06:31 AM - 4 Likes   #9
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Reminds me of a quote I read recently :- "When I was younger, the handbook showed you how to adjust the tappets and change the oil … these days it tells you not to drink the battery acid!"
There's simply not the level of interaction between user and equipment as there was "time past" so less need for a forum to find out how to do "stuff"
07-14-2022, 07:23 AM - 3 Likes   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by kypfer Quote
Reminds me of a quote I read recently :- "When I was younger, the handbook showed you how to adjust the tappets and change the oil … these days it tells you not to drink the battery acid!"
There's simply not the level of interaction between user and equipment as there was "time past" so less need for a forum to find out how to do "stuff"
Handbooks have been replaced by YouTube. There's plenty of interaction, but you figure out how to do it by watching someone else change the rotors on a 1986 BMW 328i online instead of ordering the Chilton's manual.
07-14-2022, 07:32 AM - 4 Likes   #11
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Sound familiar?

I have noticed that all we get from some new, often younger members is:

"I just inherited this Pentax camera and lens(es). How much are they worth?"

followed by no further posts...

Chris
07-14-2022, 07:36 AM - 2 Likes   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by ChrisPlatt Quote
I have noticed that all we get from some new, often younger members is:

"I just inherited this Pentax camera and lens(es). How much are they worth?"

followed by no further posts...

Chris
agreed... or, my favorite:

just bought the camera and now it doesn't work - what now?

usually followed by several users asking solid, informed questions.... and then nothing....

and get off my lawn!!!!
07-14-2022, 12:25 PM - 2 Likes   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by ThorSanchez Quote
But I don't think my teenage kids use forums at all, they're on things like [...] Reddit.
I would argue that reddit is a lot more like traditional forums and a lot less like other social media than you think. At least that's what it was and what I still view it as under the domain old.reddit.com . The owners of reddit are out to make money and so they did overhaul the optics and some features to make it more social media like, but that's not why I use it and why I like to use it: it does remind me a lot of traditional forums. In fact reddit is a collection of infinite subreddits, each dedicated to a certain "thing" or idea; a collection of forums. The threads aren't linear like they are here but, how do you call it, nested? It allows for several different discussions sparked by the same conversation starter (picture, video, link, text,... ) to happen simultaneously without the clutter that can make it confusing when happening in a traditional, linear thread view. The voting makes it a community effort to separate good content from bad content, though the system is not without flaws...

But I do like traditional forums and am a member in a handful of them because of the content and the people first, and because they are presented in a simple no-frills design. Content and ergonomics first, looks second. But they're also often highly specialized and they do need four kinds of people:
- one or more people to handle the technical side including legal responsibility
- some moderators that keep the discussions civilized to maintain the attraction for folks to continue to like using the site and to protect the admin(s) legally
- some people that bring in their knowledge and contribute to the subject matter
- some people that need help / want to obtain knowledge about the subject matter

That's a whole lot of mostly unpaid work to be done, so people should enjoy what they're doing. I'd say with manners becoming more and more poisoned online in the last years that might contribute to the death of such circles.
I guess most of the forums do not make their "owners" any money, if they are even able to get it financed without having to put in a whole lot of their own money and of course countless hours spent maintaining the thing. That might kill some forums as well.
The subject matter might become irrelevant, people could spend less and less time doing the things they once did.

There are so many ways I can imagine those projects to fail, and almost everything has to come together to 1. get it going 2. keep it going, it's a wonder there are and have been so many communities centered around certain things and I'm eternally grateful that places like PF were created in the first place and manage to keep existing through the changing times and fashions coming and going.
07-14-2022, 12:58 PM - 1 Like   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by 3by2 Quote
.... You can often refer to site traffic analysis sites, one of which for this forum indicated 50% of users are on mobile devices and the other, below, indicated a wider age demographic than I thought. No idea how accurate these sites are though as they always report different figures for the same site. Nevertheless, interesting to view.

https://www.similarweb.com/website/pentaxforums.com/#traffic
I think these types of statistics can be very misleading unless you look deeper into them. The visitor count to most websites, including forums, is dominated by transient surfers who come and go in minutes, or even seconds. It says the average PF visit duration is 3 minutes and 12 seconds, which tells you something, not least that contributing members (and even regular lurkers) are a tiny minority of the nearly half a million visits to PF there were last month.

As for demographics, I have had a different persona on every forum I have ever used (I'm currently moderately active on about five), with widely different ages and locations, and I gather I am not the only person who does this. For example, Google (unless they are doing a double bluff) thinks I am in my 30's, live in Luton, and am in need of laser eye surgery (before I blocked their ads anyway). I did not even tell them that nonsense, they made it up themselves and I'm no hurry to put them right.

As for myself on PF, I don't log out for months on end (is there any reason to?) so I am "always" here on at least one tab of my browser, so does that count as one visit, or an infinite number ?
07-14-2022, 02:47 PM   #15
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The linked article’s claim that Photobucket’s flipping the switch to an expensive subscription model killing forum threads rings a big bell with me. I used to participate extensively on another unrelated forum, posting many images via Photobucket and overnight lost the facility. Some were recoverable and some weren’t.

I noticed recently Photobucket emailing that my long-dormant account may be closed. It’s breaking my heart.
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