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Paste Member Name in Quick Reply Box Batchman
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Checking in, and largely checking out
Jul 13th, 2016 at 3:07am
Mark & QuoteQuote  
Hi, all. Haven't been around for a while, and figured I ought to stop by and mention why. It's nothing to do with the software or the people working on it, or the management over at the main site or anything else like that ... it's simply that forums are a lot less popular than they once were.

I currently have three 'real' forums (and one test forum that I haven't touched in a year and a half). One has had no traffic at all for at least 5 or 6 years. Another has had only me on it for about the same amount of time (I use it as a sort of online blog, and even if I am the only one who reads it, that's ok.) The third, my main forum, sees maybe five posts a month on a good month. While there are exceptions, for the most part Facebook seems to have replaced forums.

With so little activity on any of my forums, it is really hard to find the time and energy to spend a lot of time working on the forum software, hence my kind of drifting away from here.

I'll probably try and spend a little more time on my test forum, then see what I have to do to modulate my main forum (still running 2.4 and getting spam memberships (though no spam posts) out the wazoo) over to it to kill off the spam, and just use that for the rest of eternity.

While I still think YaBB is the greatest forum software in the universe, no activity is a real downer.  :Smiley
  

If you don't know where you are, but you don't care, you're not lost ... you're exploring!
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Paste Member Name in Quick Reply Box Bill Myers
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Re: Checking in, and largely checking out
Reply #1 - Jul 13th, 2016 at 3:23pm
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I think one of the reasons that forums seem to be a lot less popular than they used to be is that companies like Facebook and Twitter simply came up with what is a more user friendly way for people to participate online. That's to say, participation isn't hindered or restricted by forum administrators, moderators, and what many perceive to be onerous rules.

Also, the creation of one's own Facebook page or Twitter account is seamless versus the expertise that's needed to create a forum. If it was seamless, the number of forums would be in the millions, and participation would be high as well.

Despite the popularity of Facebook and Twitter, a forum is a lot more organized in its operations. If the marriage of all three could be realized, that would be an incredible advance in online communications.

For me personally, I really only installed a forum to better organize an existing website. I then did the same for dozens more so the webmasters of those sites could better organize their content. Member participation was simply icing on the cake, and it enabled contributors to kind of have their own mini-sites to have their own content organized.

Because forums can be used for so many purposes such as organizing one's own online blog as mentioned, I think that in itself is a success. How about a forum that is exclusive to family members? Other successful uses would be a homeowners association, or one for tenants, or one for a government entity. A group of writers, or a neighborhood watch group, or a motorcycle riding group.

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how a forum can be used successfully.
  

Morning, noon, or night, have a great one!
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Paste Member Name in Quick Reply Box Dandello
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Re: Checking in, and largely checking out
Reply #2 - Jul 13th, 2016 at 4:57pm
Mark & QuoteQuote  
Excellent points, Bill.

One of the reasons for a lack of activity here is that I have RL to deal with and frankly, without constructive feedback, or even bug reports, I'm feeling like I'm on a solo voyage and the charts blew overboard.

And many other forums I'm a member of (these are writing forums) are having similar low activity - maybe because it's summer and people are on vacation, I don't know, but it's disheartening and for these forums there's no Facebook option and nor would I want one. On a forum you can usually choose your Screen Name for a bit of anonymity, and a lot of people really don't want their FaceBook account tied to their fanfic.

For older YABB versions, SpamFruits is still probably the best anti-spam registration measure out there if you don't want to go with admin approval.
  

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Paste Member Name in Quick Reply Box Bill Myers
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Re: Checking in, and largely checking out
Reply #3 - Jul 13th, 2016 at 5:07pm
Mark & QuoteQuote  
The Verification Code anti-spam option you've enabled here in this forum is superb, and older versions of YaBB can hand edit a primitive version of it that works just fine. I've used the primitive version for a 2.4 forum for years that allows instant registrations, and it's worked like a charm.
  

Morning, noon, or night, have a great one!
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