Are Forums Dying, And Why?

[crashthegrey]

Cosmic, it is much better on a computer, at least for me. And that is fine. I just use a computer.
Kevin, Thank you for chiming in. It is good to know that traffic remains consistent. Like I said, I use Facebook for a certain bit of pipe revelry, but this forum is unparalleled in terms of actual, stimulating conversation about pipes and tobacco. I've never signed up for any of the other forums after briefly perusing them. I lurked here for some time before participating, but the radio show drew me in and I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Just to see what it was like, I tried to join PSU after reading about it. But, you have to wait for an administrator to let you in. Maybe they've heard of me, or the admin there dropped the ball. But, I am still waiting to be approved. :: Seems kinda dodgy to me. Do they have to approve posts also?

 

[sablebrush52]

The quality of postings has something to do with it. If you're not finding something of interest to follow you're apt to look elsewhere. But have forums peaked, and are they now in decline? Honestly I don't know, and I'm not sure there's any what to prove, or disprove, the contention.
That said, I decided to do some googling to see if there was any trend, using the WAYS thread as a baseline. It's arbitrary, but it did prove to be interesting.
Postings to the monthly WAYS thread are pretty consistent this year, averaging about 1000 posts per month, plus or minus 100 or so. In 2013 the average was significantly higher, 1600 to 1700 per month and reaching as high as 1979 in August of that year. 2014 was similarly active. For example, August 2014 had 2002 posts to the WAYS thread.
August of 2015 sees a drop to 1598 posts to the WAYS thread and the average is around the 1500 to 1600 mark, so still much busier than now.

2016 starts out at about the same rate, but it begins to fall toward the end of the year, and the levels haven't increased since then.
But, today's levels are about the same as 2012.
What to make of this? I would suggest the possibility that forums enjoyed a brief expansion and have returned to previous norms. This forum and others do seem slower than in previous years.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Ummm, or maybe it's because I stopped posting in the WAYS threads. :: JK, it could be any number of things affecting the WAYS threads. But, it's a good idea, if you can show a correlation between the posters in the WAYS threads and those active on the rest of the forum. I would take Kevin's word. He's the guy with all of the stats.

 

[bootlegbonvivant]

I've been on several forums over the years, most I can't even remember what sites they were. But one thing is consistent for me. If the content is always evolving, growing, changing, then I'm more likely to stay on said forum longer. If the forum is too limiting in content, then it's just repeating the same information and I get bored and leave. Life commitments, circumstances, and changes have also played a huge role in where and how often I frequent some of these sites. Most of my activity now is in Facebook; within 2-3 groups that tend to be vastly different from each other, yet still centralized around pipes and cigars.

 

[dmcmtk]

Just to see what it was like, I tried to join PSU after reading about it. But, you have to wait for an administrator to let you in. Maybe they've heard of me, or the admin there dropped the ball. But, I am still waiting to be approved. [::] Seems kinda dodgy to me. Do they have to approve posts also?

Michael glad you posted this! Glad to have you join! We've been dealing with A LOT of spammer type memberships for about the last four months or so, so we had to go with admin approval, it's a bit of the PITA, but the spammers have just kept on coming! The guy (me ) dropped the ball, I didn't take a look yesterday. My apologies. And, no, posts don't need approval.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Thanks, I am used to being rejected, so I just assumed. ::

 

[crashthegrey]

Interforum relations. Nifty.

 

[lazar]

Have to agree with unkleyoda

This forum in comparison to other forums is designed very, very poorly. It has a design from the early 2000's.

Not just on a mobile device but in general. I'm guessing a lot of you are used to it if you've been here a while, but to relative newcomers it's antiquated and not all that user-friendly. I think PSF has the best design of any pipe forum, and I'm guessing that has a lot to do with how active it is and how many new members it attracts.

 

[georged]

Thanks, I am used to being rejected, so I just assumed. ::

Yeah, well, you assumed right. You were rejected. In fact, this forum rejects you too, and so do your wife, your dog, and your cat. Even that prairie dog living by your neighbor's fence across the street wants nothing to do with you.
In short, go away!
.
There. See how easy it is to make people feel comfortable? A little sensitivity and being tuned to other people's needs is all it takes.
:rofl:

 

[deathmetal]

Seems kinda dodgy to me.

Indeed. PSF and PSU seem to have issues that PMF do not.

 

[sablebrush52]

Not just on a mobile device but in general. I'm guessing a lot of you are used to it if you've been here a while, but to relative newcomers it's antiquated and not all that user-friendly. I think PSF has the best design of any pipe forum, and I'm guessing that has a lot to do with how active it is and how many new members it attracts.

PM certainly lacks a lot of features that other sites have. The PM system here is primitive, to say the least.
But, I like the forum front page better than the other forums named. You can see a wide range of current discussions on it, making it easy to participate. The other forum front pages only show a few current threads in a side window. In that respect, the PM design is smart.

 

[badbeard]

I haven't posted here a lot, but I have been lurking for a long time and have actually come to really enjoy the interface. I am not sure what forum software this site uses, but does it have the option for dynamic layout? My one beef is that the area where the posts appear feels kind of cramped, but there are 1" brown bars on either side that don't have any use interface-wise. They use up a lot of useful space, and if dynamic page layout was employed these bars could be removed, and the post body area could resize to different sized displays.

Other than that I think this forum is doing it right. I am really happy there isn't a "like" button on the post fields here too.. while it does seem to give a sort of social feedback, it also seems to encourage "playing to the audience", rather than being genuine.
As far as other pipe related forums declining.. well, I will just say that it probably doesn't have anything to do with the forum software they are running

 

[mso489]

If this thread is any indicator, forums are alive and well, robust and lively, full of p. and v.

 

[georged]

My one beef is that the area where the posts appear feels kind of cramped, but there are 1" brown bars on either side that don't have any use interface-wise. They use up a lot of useful space, and if dynamic page layout was employed these bars could be removed, and the post body area could resize to different sized displays.

If using an iOS machine, just hold down the command key and repeatedly press the plus sign until the page is large enough. It will stay that way forever for that site on that machine, until deliberately changed back.
Not sure which keys do the same thing for Windows machines, bit there is a functional equivalent:
https://www.google.com/search?num=100&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS729US729&ei=tWEDWo7rE4mA8QXA95OgDA&q=enlarge+a+particular+website&oq=enlarge+a+particular+website&gs_l=psy-ab.3...28965.29813.0.36261.3.3.0.0.0.0.101.240.2j1.3.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.EbJFSmQni2k

 

[seagullplayer]

I'm not sure its a matter of format that ends a forum.
People come and go, got to make it easy for new people to jump in and to find the place.

 

[badbeard]

If using an iOS machine, just hold down the command key and repeatedly press the plus sign until the page is large enough. It will stay that way forever for that site on that machine, until deliberately changed back.
Not sure which keys do the same thing for Windows machines, bit there is a functional equivalent...

This works, but it causes some other havoc like picture distortion and font rendering problems for me in the interface. For windows(at least on Firefox) the key combo is: CTRL + / - (and CTRL with the number "0" to return to default zoom).

Dynamic layout would allow things like automatic word wrapping on narrow screens, making the post body area taller, which would make it easier to read without panning from side to side. I digress though, as it has already been said that format really doesn't seem to make a huge difference. It's about the people.

I was just thinking that making the forum adapt to different screen sizes would increase it's accessibility by folks who aren't savvy or are using tablets, phones, etc.

 

[admin]

As far as traffic over time goes, 2013 was the peak, 2014 & 2015 were down, 2016 & 2017 were up, but still a little down from the peak - that's overall traffic to the entire site. The majority of traffic is the forums.

 

[nevadablue]

The font size issue is solved by the proper browser with it's internal tools. I use icabmobile and it causes no related issues that I can see. It just makes the text larger automatically. Images and all the rest remain the same.
But, those three mile long google links do mess up the page for sure. They don't wrap.

 

[unkleyoda]

I'm guessing a lot of you are used to it if you've been here a while, but to relative newcomers it's antiquated and not all that user-friendly

Right on.
The content has been good enough to keep me coming back, this site is very antiquated.
I frequent some BMX and Skateboard forums. They are designed way better than this.