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Do you think forums died off because they became too toxic?
- Thread starter jayj
- Start date
GeekyDad
Member
I doubt it. Seems most of the forums I frequent are grouped with people with common interests. I think it's probably more a matter of time and the ease that social media offers folks with the lack of it. It's probably easier to just read a silly blog post, or watch a 10-second video than to participate in a discussion.
The Cockatrice
Member
It's not because they became toxic, it's because certain messed up degenerates found other social places/safe places where they could post their insane propaganda and no one would make fun of them.
jayj
Banned
Are you talking about Reddit?
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
They were replaced by social media platforms that are way more toxic
The Cockatrice
Member
Reddit/twitter/facebook, etc.
near
Gold Member
I think it has far less to do with the content and posts and more to do with the introduction of social media. Forums have been around since like the 90s, and even then they were populated only by a niche audience, that have since grown older and just don't frequent them much if at all. Most kids today will not be interested in having proper discussions online about their hobbies, because their gateway into the idea of sharing a discussion will direct them to Reddit or Twitter.
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
No I think because forums are a high effort endeavour, more mentally engaging/consuming than a lot of new alternatives. This is why I enjoy GAF, being able to discuss, debate, read theories or just get a lot of info about game development or a particular project. If you just want something quick you can read a headline, or a single tweet, or watch a Tik Tok/YouTube summary or some shit. There'll always be a certain crowd who want to go a bit deeper into something and they'll seek out communities like these for whatever that interest is. There's more unregulated toxicity on new altneratives in my opinion, where moderation is either non-existent, weak or difficult to implement because there's so much to filter through. Places like Reddit I find a clusterfuck to read personally and lacks personalities like you get here. YouTube/Twitter everyone just glances over and there's very little discussion.
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jayj
Banned
I don't know, it seems like some dying forums can have a hyper-concentration of toxicity, where the remaining users will be very cliquish and extremely aggressive towards anyone outside of the usual few users they like. That just turns them into very anti-social environments. As bad as big platforms can be, you get a lot more people willing to have conversations with others.
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Majormaxxx
Member
Forums were a mistake.
Kidding! SM though...
Kidding! SM though...
jayj
Banned
Yeah I agree with that for the most part, especially with the big mega-platforms like reddit being overwhelming and hard to make any real connections or conversations in. I think that's why this is one of the last forums I have an interest in being a part of, the activity is good enough to be active but not so active where it's got the drawbacks of popular reddit subs. That and it's moderated to where it keeps the toxic trolls out but not over-moderated where you can hardly say anything or worry about being banned by some overzealous mods. Having been using forums for a couple decades now, I think I have experienced them enough to know how there's a balance that needs to be maintained in order to have a healthy community.
March Climber
Member
I semi-agree, and I applaud the ones who don't easily fall down the negative rabbit hole and also the ones who try and fight against the toxicity.
Methos#1975
Member
100% due to social media
jayj
Banned
So how do people even discuss topics on facebook or twitter? Seems like they're setup more like blogs, especially twitter. Like at least Reddit has subs where you can focus in on specific topics.
On facebook it works pretty similar to a forum. Someone posts their opinion, make it public, and people can comment and reply to it.
News sites and others can also make posts people interact with on there.
It has definitely supplanted forums, but for me its not the same. Social media seems to bring out the worst in human behavior. Like even now mine is full of people bragging about their jobs or kids, or trying to relive their youth. My mom spends all her time bragging about her high school "friends" commenting on her posts when she graduated in 1975, and havent seen most of these people in decades.
cash_longfellow
Member
You are on a forum.
Unless you are referring to people like me as miserable trolls….then, yes, I agree OP
Unless you are referring to people like me as miserable trolls….then, yes, I agree OP
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Werewolf Jones
Gold Member
Have you been on Twitter? This place is paradise.
midnightAI
Member
You are better off without Re, trust me
Soodanim
Gold Member
With how the internet (especially the constant access to it) has changed in the last 10-20 years, we're better off letting those extra people jobs go to Reddit and Twitter. It keeps the target for bots and propaganda away from here, not to mention the general stupidity that inevitably comes with a huge user base.
In short: let the n00bs go elsewhere, the l337 find their way to forums.
In short: let the n00bs go elsewhere, the l337 find their way to forums.
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IntentionalPun
Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
It’s Reddit, Discord and Twitter that caused forums to massively decrease in popularity.
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
Interesting opinion, I sometimes thought the opposite: that forums can also lead to good and insightful posts becoming lost in a sea of memes and underthought opinions. In other words, that for certain topics they aren't structured enough and could benefit from upvoting and other mechanisms. As long as threads aren't too long this is less of an issue though.
Gp1
Member
Reddit is basically the forums 2.0 for the newer generations but without the proper discussion part and a with shitty moderation.
I've moderated some big forums a long time ago and still visit some forums from the early 2000's but yeah, besides some friends here and there, it basically became a shit hole dominate by a small group of single minded toxic individuals.
Another thing, newer generations are much more interested in simply expose their 2 lined opinions than to discuss anything. That's why you see them on Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, etc. and not on forums
I've moderated some big forums a long time ago and still visit some forums from the early 2000's but yeah, besides some friends here and there, it basically became a shit hole dominate by a small group of single minded toxic individuals.
Another thing, newer generations are much more interested in simply expose their 2 lined opinions than to discuss anything. That's why you see them on Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, etc. and not on forums
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DeafTourette
Perpetually Offended
In groups or on specific posts on individual pages. At least on Facebook. It can also happen on Twitter.
I've had some great discussions on current events in groups ... Abortion, politics, race, etc. People really take the time to make thoughtful replies even if they're somewhat divisive. It really depends which groups you're in and the level of engagement.
Tiago Rodrigues
Member
If forums died because of that, then social media would die as well since it's even worse.
This is what I learned from personal experience.
I was a mod on Halo2forum.com and it was an extremely popular forum even for back then. On peak days we'd have a couple of thousand people online (this was between 2004 - 2009 mind you). After years went by, people either stopped playing Halo or moved on to different discussion platforms. Until it was nothing but the most toxic 1%. They didn't even care about Halo, but just wanted a place online to spew their toxicity in.
pel1300
Member
In retrospect it's amazing ERA seemed to like Jordan Peterson at one point. I remember that mega "Jordan Peterson - the intellectual we deserve" thread was going strong in 2018.
TheInfamousKira
Reseterror Resettler
Bitmap Frogs
Mr. Community
Forums don't have the luxury of department's worth of developers, executives and psychologists studying how to ensure you remain engaged to the platform 24/7.
DeafTourette
Perpetually Offended
GAF has had its share of toxic people... But the mods have been on it... Especially after Pol was nuked. Toxic folks get booted out ... First with a temp ban and if they continue, a perm. Sometimes they skip the temp bans and go straight to perm if they're spouting especially egregious crap.
In my FB groups, people have fun. If someone invites an A-hole into the group and they cause drama, the A-hole is booted out! It is rare but it has happened. Now most of the groups are pretty much fun centers with some good discussions every now and then.
My point is, perhaps those other forums fall I to toxicity because the toxic folks weren't removed when they should have been ... Making it hard for others to stay because they don't want to be around racists, sexists, edge-lords, etc. I know at one point I was reconsidering my stay here because of certain individuals being allowed to stay because of things they said ... But eventually the mods saw it too and yeeted them off the board. Made my time here much better... And the time of other members as well.
In my FB groups, people have fun. If someone invites an A-hole into the group and they cause drama, the A-hole is booted out! It is rare but it has happened. Now most of the groups are pretty much fun centers with some good discussions every now and then.
My point is, perhaps those other forums fall I to toxicity because the toxic folks weren't removed when they should have been ... Making it hard for others to stay because they don't want to be around racists, sexists, edge-lords, etc. I know at one point I was reconsidering my stay here because of certain individuals being allowed to stay because of things they said ... But eventually the mods saw it too and yeeted them off the board. Made my time here much better... And the time of other members as well.
Insane Metal
Member
I can confirm. I'm the gentleman in blue.In the golden age of forums there were certainly no miserable trolls or toxic personalities. Only enlightened discussion.
This was basically GAF:
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
2017 was a blessing for this place.
Bitmap Frogs
Mr. Community
kids are thrown into the social media pool really early and create generational experiences that go away when they grow up no one uses snapchat anymore, insta is for dads and tiktok is were the young are, in a few years they'll attach to a new corporate platform.
negator2vc
Member
forums never die they're just missing in action 
Forums never died. In fact forums are even better now since most idiots/trolls/etc have moved to one or more of the social media platforms.
Also since forums are usually controlled by indivituals instead of corporations they are mostly immune to "modern" censorship.
Forums never died. In fact forums are even better now since most idiots/trolls/etc have moved to one or more of the social media platforms.
Also since forums are usually controlled by indivituals instead of corporations they are mostly immune to "modern" censorship.
Always been that way since the 90's dialup internet forums lol
NecrosaroIII
Ask me about my terrible takes on Star Trek characters
Discord
Mr1999
Gold Member
Its because of reddit for the most part, they've been sucking members away from a number of forums Ive visited, but ive noticed that forums are making a comeback and less and less people at least to me are going to reddit. Google search doesn't help either, if you search for stuff you will likely be linked to a reddit post when other forums exist with similar answers.
linko9
Member
Any forum big enough is mostly "toxic"; has been that way since long before people started using that word. Problem today is that instead of just anti-social nerds subjecting themselves to forum "culture", billions of people are doing it on twitter, facebook. Fun in small doses only, and not a substitute for real life.
Torrent of Pork
Banned
Winter John
Member
Nah. Power tripping assholes are what killed forums off. At some point moderators became a thing and what happened was the power went to some of their heads. They went from banning people for posting illegal shit to acting like dads and banning users for posting views they didn’t like. Neogaf is a real good example of that type of power creep, and if nothing else we gotta give the owner credit for pulling back from it. If you’re an adult you don’t need protection from being told to go fuck yourself.
jayj
Banned
Yeah that is basically what happened to a couple of forums I used to be a regular at. It's like I watched the userbase dwindle down, with the forum losing pretty much all of the good users I used to enjoy chatting with, until the only people who remained were the most toxic minority. It's sad how that's the direction things seem to go in, I guess all the good/normal users get tired of the negative atmosphere and stop coming back, while the angry/miserable trolls never leave.
Yeah I think that's why I came to this forum after that. I remember what it was like before, and it was a lot busier but the whole atmosphere was really off. People were oddly political and extreme for a gaming forum, the moderators were super biased, and it was just generally not a welcoming or fun atmosphere. This place is a lot better now IMO, the people here are a lot more normal and pleasant to interact with, it makes me want to be more of a regular around here.
I wouldn't mind checking out some FB groups like that but I never really got into FB enough to find them. The modding around here definitely seems to be pretty good about keeping toxic people out while not being too strict or punishing, at least as far as my experience can speak. I don't mind moderation when it's fair, and I have seen how some forums can become real cesspools when there isn't enough, which basically attracts the worst kind of trolls who thrive off drama and negativity.
DeafTourette
Perpetually Offended
Yeah. The mods here are great! Much better than the idiots who were banning people left and right who had different (conservative) views. I don't like that. Evilore kicked them out and the current team has been really good!
As far as the groups, you gotta be careful. Some are gossip havens. I'm lucky the 4 I'm in are mostly the same people in each. And most everyone gets along. Something happened to one of us and everyone came together to send her cards and such. She means a lot to all of us.
Red Crayon Aristocrat
Member
In my experience, the division over the 2016 election is what killed forums, they were still pretty popular circa 2015, but after all that tension, people gradually moved on.
