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Is Social Media Killing Forums?

Discussion in 'MMO Debates' started by ogreman, May 8, 2013.

  1. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

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    This is just a debate that anybody can participate in:). State your opinion and why. Eventually, the topic will be closed and a winner will be chosen:).
     
  2. Supernatural

    Supernatural LiveStreamer Ogre Veteran

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    Social media became omnipresent in our every day lives. Words travel a lot faster then on television/news or any paper media. You get everything that you want instantly.

    Also you can show your opinion and write you statement on every topic/subject. That was the main reason forum existed and now when every site has it, forums tend to fall behind...
     
  3. FoxWMB

    FoxWMB Clubbed The Pit

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    Well in my opinion, no they have not. They have managed to put a dent into forum's importance, sure, but they haven't yet and probably won't ever be able to kill them off completely.

    Evidence number 1 - I'm writing this on a forum :p
    Evidence number 2 - I'm writing this on a quite active forum!

    Apart from this, I also use my WoT clan forum and WoT game forum, while I'm also at 2 social networks (facebook and twitter, though twitter account is pretty much abandoned) . Now why is that my clan uses a forum and not a facebook group or something like that? Why does WoT's facebook page have incredibly less activity than its forum? Why are we on gameogre forum and pretty much not on facebook page?

    The answer to all these questions is actually quite simple - social media are not a replacement for the forums. Their main purpose is to allow friends to connect with each other easily and to get news from each other lives in the laziest way possible. On the other hand, forums serve a different purpose, they are specialized in certain areas such as games, movies, politics, etc... and mostly connect strangers that know little to nothing about each other. Forums also tend to be far more anonymous than social networks, though this isn't always the case. However the whole point is, forums and social networks have different purposes, and therefore are not in direct competition with each other. They can be in indirect competition cause some people might spend less time on forums due to spending more on social networks, but that's pretty much the only problem social media caused to the forums.
    And lets not forget the fact that forums may actually use social media themselves, whether it is to attract more members or just enrich their content, so in a way, social media can actually be helpful to the forums as well.

    So no, social media definitely did not kill forums. And that's a good thing :)
     
  4. Hawx1990SRBIJA

    Hawx1990SRBIJA Iron Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    Well yes and no.

    Social medias are more personal, and forums are more open to all people. Forums are more specialised on one theme (travel, helth, games...) and you can find much more stuff on them than on social medias. But Social medias give you much more options (who can read the post, who can reply...). So i think its like comparing newspaper and tv.
     
  5. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

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    I have noticed that forums are more difficult to run than ever before because of Social Media. However, forums are not dead either, thankfully:). Like anything else, you have to be creative and find a good niche in order to survive. As Hawx mentioned, forums are more specialized so that helps them somewhat for long term survival.
     
  6. FoxWMB

    FoxWMB Clubbed The Pit

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    How did social media increase difficulty of running a forum?
     
  7. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

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    Generally speaking, less of an overall audience since more are using social media instead.
     
  8. Narubian

    Narubian Elite Ogre The Pit

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    I think Social Media isnt killing Forum.
    I`ll say now this in general because i presume question is about general not just game forum or this forum in particular :

    When someone has a problem be it health, business, family, reluctance or any other kind related first thing they do is go on the web and type few key words relating about their problems and what they get is certain FORUM where somebody with the similar/same problem already asked for advice/answer and MOSTLY you see a big variety of posts from other people that answered that specific question.

    No matter which problem you just type the certain key words and there you go, a FORUM opens with someone that already had similar question as yours with lots of posts that gave answers OR you make a new post and in a day you get bunch of answers; why? because people still tend to visit forums a lot and if i may say even more than before because now it became a "thing" that when you get something on your mind you either search that on already existing forum or you make on certain forum new post and wait for answers :)

    Same goes for "fun". You will go on a gamer forum to check which games they suggest you to play, you will go on a food forum to see new recipes etc.

    All in all i think that Forum wont die any time soon and i`m pretty sure it wont die out at all but that is for another topic to talk about :)
     
  9. MMOWiz

    MMOWiz Ogre Extraordinaire Ogre Veteran

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    social media can work with forum but i dont think they are killing forums.
     
  10. quinn

    quinn Starcatcher Ogre Veteran

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    I think that both types of media cater to different people. Social media sites are nice to keep track of friends and family, and their going-ons, but personally I would much rather have a couple forums than Facebook. Social media sites don't often have ways to easily communicate with unknown people with common interests. Especially for video games, a specific game forum, or a more general one like GameOgre allows people to talk about the things they enjoy with people who they know are interested in the same things. I would never find a social networking site to be a replacement for internet forums, as there is no way to have constructive discussions about things that interest me on them.
     
  11. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

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    Hey Quinn, great to see you again:).

    Yes, each one does offer different things. Think we offer quite a variety of gaming here:).
     
  12. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    I still prefer forums over say twitter or facebook. I don't think that social media is killing forums. We had msn (when it was still around) and there is such chat tools like IRC. The forums survived all of that. In fact it is MSN that's gone the way of the dodo.

    Twitter for instance annoys me, because you can only use 180 characters in a message and some facebook pages take ages to load, never mind the breach of privacy. You don't have those problems on a Bulletin Board forum. Only LinkedIn is kind of ok to keep in touch with clients and coworkers. Now as for chatting, I hardly use skype, but when I do, it's a good program. It saves me a ton of money on the telephone bill.

    Hence I say.... forums > social media
     
  13. Joker

    Joker Ogre Hall of Fame Ogre Veteran

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    Some social media is better than others. Some is like who cares! cough cough Google Plus...
     
  14. Aaddron

    Aaddron Moderator Staff Member GameOgre Moderator

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    Google Plus has improved a lot, with all these bad decisions by Facebook and Twitter G+ is finding its niche. Strictly as a service it's pretty well done and thought out. It just doesn't have the masses like Facebook and Twitter.
     
  15. ufbre

    ufbre World of Tanks Fan Ogre Veteran

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    forums are the best way to communicate
     
  16. Narubian

    Narubian Elite Ogre The Pit

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    I still stick with my pick: Forums :D
     
  17. Admin Post
    ogreman

    ogreman Ogre In Charge Staff Member GameOgre Admin

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    We are on Google + too:).
     
  18. Seymorg

    Seymorg Little Spike

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    well

    as you can see even some free to play games have live streams for thier games everday talking about tournaments and broadcasting show and those tourneys so maybe yes forums will be weeded out but not anytime soon
     
  19. SkogSon

    SkogSon MMORPGer

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    I think there is plenty of space for both to exist.
    Its evidence enough that there is still lively debates going on in plenty of forums right?
     
  20. pryidev

    pryidev Brute

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    It might but not quite. Forums tackle varieties of discussion about specific topic. It also somehow shows a tangible and sensible way of communicating with people. While the Facebook, you can talk anything another the sun without specification of topics. It's like this, Forums are more of the articulate type while Facebook is more of the laid back one. So I don't think that this will kill the forum industry.
     

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