How Important Are Forums?

The thing about Discord is that it's condensed thoughts that have little to no substance and the conversation shifts too quickly. You can manage this slightly by having different channels for different topics, but it still doesn't do the job as well as forums can.

With a forum, you can have an in-depth conversation about a specific pet site with the likes/dislikes, etc., and go further into detail.

Nobody (the majority) wants to read a paragraph or two about a pet site in one chat message... they might skim it, but they won't fully be able to comprehend it before the chat pushes it deeper and deeper to the point of that it's not seen by all members or forgotten in 15 minutes. On the other hand, people who come to forums expect to read something in-depth and want to have a deeper conversation on the topic, even if they only have a one-liner reply to add to the message.

Both have their places, but I think both places are good for all audiences: Chat for quick conversations and forums for detailed conversations that can be referenced at any time.

The ultimate would be a chatbox on the forum and the messages recorded as a new reply in a thread every 20 posts, both for SEO and for looking back on topics to bring back up in the future as new topics to discuss.
 
It depends on what you want to use a forum for. If you aim to build a community for meaningful dialogue, forums are the best. You have ownership with forums, you can never own a Discord server, or a group on a social media site
 
Discord is important for quick support in games, but forums remain vital for preserving information and contributing to the internet wealth of content.



Discord doesn’t fulfill this role because it keeps everything on its servers. Content on Discord isn’t indexable or crawlable, meaning users can’t find anything unless they’re invited. The internet shouldn’t be locked down, users should be able to find things with ease if they’d like to do so.



Forums are still invaluable for this. Discord is great for quick chatting, but that’s about it. It’s not a replacement for forums and never will be.
 
I think forums are still critical, even with the presence of discord servers. Forums allow users to search for and access different kind of discussions, tutorials, and resources. It also allows some deeper discussions and sharing of knowledge.
 
lens said:
I think forums are still critical, even with the presence of discord servers. Forums allow users to search for and access different kind of discussions, tutorials, and resources. It also allows some deeper discussions and sharing of knowledge.
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I agree.
Honestly, I see Discord channels as a way of restricting knowledge since users can’t easily access past discussions without a direct link. Forums are best for in-depth conversations, sharing knowledge, and learning new things. Discord should primarily be for quick chatting, not as a replacement for forums. Unfortunately, some have treated it as one, but the two are nothing alike.


A lot of games have pushed their Discord channels over forums, which I understand, but community forums are still far more valuable for a game’s fan base. In fact, if a user sees a game’s forum inactive, they might assume the game itself isn’t very active.
 
Forums are not going to die off any time soon. I have been in and out of forum communities, and I can tell you for free that forums are growing daily, which is a very good development.
 
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Zani said:
Forums are not going to die off any time soon. I have been in and out of forum communities, and I can tell you for free that forums are growing daily, which is a very good development.
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I think we'll see the rise of them again soon, especially with more social media focusing boasting engagement via the use AI-generated accounts and AI-generated comments. Facebook and Instagram are now doing this. The very foundation of social media was built on humans interacting, but with this, they'll taking human interaction right out of the platform. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next 1-3 years.
 
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cpvr said:
I think we'll see the rise of them again soon, especially with more social media focusing boasting engagement via the use AI-generated accounts and AI-generated comments. Facebook and Instagram are now doing this. The very foundation of social media was built on humans interacting, but with this, they'll taking human interaction right out of the platform. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next 1-3 years.
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I do hope they make a comeback with my forum being at the front to gain all the new activity 😀
 
I think Forums are still useful for a VPS. Although an active Discord server allows for quick chats, forums are great for longer discussions and keeping helpful information. They each serve different purposes, so it's good to have both.
 
Zani said:
Forums are not going to die off any time soon. I have been in and out of forum communities, and I can tell you for free that forums are growing daily, which is a very good development.
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I've got zero doubts about forums not being needed in the long run. The stats are there that forums are still a great place to enjoy a lot of discussions on matters that concern one.
 
Henrywrites said:
I've got zero doubts about forums not being needed in the long run. The stats are there that forums are still a great place to enjoy a lot of discussions on matters that concern one.
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I know that many people haven't known more about forums but knowing that it's being broadcast everywhere and many people are joining. It's a great community to be at in order to enjoy discussions of different type.
 
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