Are specialist forums dying?

task

task

task

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I run a FB group that caters to a very niche area (restoring old Range Rovers, before anyone starts) but at least once a year someone posts my CSK resto thread from here as they've been linked to it from a google search when looking for some information on something. It's interesting as all that information is available in the FB group but it's never shown in searches. I think there's a lot of information that gets lost this way, posts on FB get lost whereas forum information stays available and accessible. As more forums die out the more this information gets lost.
 

Will Gill

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Dirk Diggler said:
Sure, it was actually a reference that you made recently that had me thinking this was the case.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/forums/posts/34451163/
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Ah I see, you couldn't be more wrong, the random person that keeps re-posting old mumsnet threads is rather obvious, those threads always get locked.

200sols said:
Outcast440
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I can't believe anyone would (dis-)credit that account as a mod alt account, that poster peaked my interest almost immediately (they had ~10 posts at this time)

4dQrznI.png

I also noticed their posting window was rather odd and as a result I suspected it was likely someone that was in prison/asylum, namely because they have the same 120 minutes of posting time each day - my guess was that was their 'yard time'.

Posting wise whilst they try to wind people up I really don't think they succeed. On the whole I find them, rather dull, lacking in content and rather dim-witted.

If it is a mod, poor show, I'd do a much better job.
 

Junglist

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Pawnless Endgame said:
Out of all of the social media sites, Reddit is the closest that you get to being a forum. So forums and Reddit are the go-to sites for me. The postings have structure, making it easy to find your old posts/threads and you can re-find them again and again if you want. On Facebook, it's initially easy to find your recent posts and replies because they'll show up on a feed, but after that initial period, the posts are harder to find. Also, it's hard to tell where your posts will end up down the rabbit hole. E.g. my mum has asked me to delete a post on her page about my sister, even though my sister isn't on FB. It was just something about her job prospects in 20 years time (so light-hearted!) but apparently my post ended up on someone else's page and I don't know how that has happened.

Back to Reddit, I constantly get emails about r/ topics that I have viewed or posted on. Is there any way of turning that off? I prefer to have an alerts system similar to here on OcUK where it shows up on the top right corner of the page.
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You can change your notifications so it only tells you if you've been replied to etc. I was getting annoyed with always getting recommended a community I had no interest it. Make sure you have RES (Reddit enhancement suite) if you're accessing reddit on a Desktop and using Chrome.

I prefer Forums to reddit but I find I use reddit more than most forums excluding this one. I find that whilst reddit has lots of communities it doesn't have the same community feeling you get on a site such as this. At least for me I find it much easier to keep track of the posters on here than I do on reddit.

I used to visit and post on a lot of various forums but now I only really post on here. Occasionally I post on Autosport and it seems a fairly active racing based forum but that's about it really
 

dlockers

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Did anyone browse Genmay back in the day? The owner there really doubled down on forums, establishing crowdgather and buying up loads of them. His stock is worth less than a penny now so I don't think it quite worked!

No idea who is paying for the upkeep. Presumably some of them are still ticking over from advertising.
 

Pawnless Endgame

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Junglist said:
You can change your notifications so it only tells you if you've been replied to etc. I was getting annoyed with always getting recommended a community I had no interest it. Make sure you have RES (Reddit enhancement suite) if you're accessing reddit on a Desktop and using Chrome.
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Thanks Junglist Massive :) I think I've found the settings (notifications), so hopefully the changes I have made will take effect.
 

JRJ

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I've only really noticed since ditching Facebook and Instagram how much groups had replaced my forum use, going back to those forums now and I've noticed a massive decline in traffic.
 

4k4uNuNu

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v0n said:
I'll pose a different question. Recently one of the specialist forums I subscribed to since the nineties was retired abruptly. Hosting deal for whatever reason collapsed one day, database was impossible to re-use with newer software, the guy running it tried to re-open, but eventually just given up.

It was, just as this forum, any forum really, full of irrelevant banter, bad jokes and silly arguments, but it also contained vast library of real knowledge, tips, pamphlet long posts with pictures, expanded on and added to for years by thousands of common folk, but specialists in their field. For quarter of a century.

And once it was gone it made me wonder. Would we allow this to happen to any other library of knowledge?

Are we at the stage where we need to decree some sort of law, program, some sort of international storage method, some sort of blockchain, decentralised backup and protection method for all this information?

We are no longer talking millions of simple geocities sites gone in a snap of Tanos fingers. Set the bar higher. Set it to 19 millions of discussions on this forum (and yes, I was here during 2001 "Big Purge") or try to imagine what would happen if YouTube was shut down. Or github or any other source code sites. Every day we may be losing a small piece of internet that's no longer transcribed to paper or stored in film archives and it is akin to all of us watching slow fire in modern times library of Alexandria?..
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When Imdb decided to pull their forums, I lost of ton of fun, intelligent chat with fellow film enthusiasts. Each film/actor etc had their own little forum, no where on the internet was that possible and no where since.

**** Imdb for that decision.
 

Resident

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Acme said:
Car based forums have been hit the hardest. They are almost all dead. A few are hanging on, like the NPOC, when they shouldn't be, they should have closed down because they get about 1 post a week.

As an aside, it would have been quite funny (in a sad way) if this thread got no replies... :p
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The issue is that with FB it's just a click or two to start a new group. So with car groups especially you get those that don't agree with something or crave the power & percieved status of being a group admin so clicky-clicky.

Prior to FB groups you either put up or left and there would be maybe one or 2 choices at most in your local area.

These days there usually multiple groups, in double figures just for your local area, all falling over each other.
 

robgmun

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4k4uNuNu said:
When Imdb decided to pull their forums, I lost of ton of fun, intelligent chat with fellow film enthusiasts. Each film/actor etc had their own little forum, no where on the internet was that possible and no where since.

**** Imdb for that decision.
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Blu-ray.com is pretty close to that.
 

soundb0y

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Facebook groups and reddit have just acted like black holes the last few years. Just sucking all forums into their mass.

Problem with so many non niche reddit pages is they just devolve into spammed memes only and no actual content. Reddit gaming being the biggest offender, what an absolute bunch of crap.
Had a bit of a crisis the other day when realised I'd be sat scrolling for an hour and not come across anything more than brain dead tripe. Need to get out of the trap before it's too late.
 
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