The decline in traffic since 2006 persists, with a brief recent upticks during COVID-19 lockdowns when all online activity surged and after we adopted new forum software. This trend isn't unique to us—it's common across niche websites as users shifted to free social platforms like Facebook and Reddit. Younger generations, unfamiliar with the forum boom of the internet's early days, often view forums as outdated and clunky, much like the "not your father's Oldsmobile" ad campaign once tried to rebrand that car.
However, forums offer clear benefits over the news-feed style of major social networks, as I outline here . I believe many would rethink their biases against forums if they gave them a real try. The challenge is spreading that message. Advertising? Maybe—but where's Oldsmobile now?
The slippery slope of online forums
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