Things Need to Change and Quickly!

[Iscah]

Never really expect much from any forums in this day and age though, feels a bit like an antiquated system when we have all the other social media mediums out there you know.

A forum, especially a properly tended one, has an advantage in keeping discussion organised and everything in sequence of a conversation. It's not like the approach where everything is in nested replies and the conversations splinter into the newest replies appearing at any point in the thread.

I feel like social media has ruined people's approach to that sort of "all in" conversation of a forum thread though. People just reply to the OP without bothering to read any of the conversation inbetween or see what points have already been addressed.

[Carin-Eri]

A forum, especially a properly tended one, has an advantage in keeping discussion organised and everything in sequence of a conversation. It's not like the approach where everything is in nested replies and the conversations splinter into the newest replies appearing at any point in the thread.

I feel like social media has ruined people's approach to that sort of "all in" conversation of a forum thread though. People just reply to the OP without bothering to read any of the conversation inbetween or see what points have already been addressed.

Agreed.

As you say, Social Media has a 'read the OP and move on' approach. It doesn't really encourage discussion per-se, as the 'thread' all too often ends up being too short lived. From my own experience at least, I'd also say that the replies to said threads (on social media) tend to be of the short and sweet variety, with those posting replies having little interest in much beyond saying their piece in a few sentences before moving on and undoubtedly forgetting about the subject.

Forums usually tend to be for those who want a more in-depth discussion about a particular subject, can revisit the thread(s) of interest, and can easily return to continue said discussion.

[Lhanu]

Forums totally can still work in the modern day, you just need to actually give a shit and keep your software up to date. Consider Sufficient Velocity, Spacebattles and ResetEra, which all actually use the most modern forum software in Atelier Aphelion's particular take on XenForo rather than something that was outdated in 2011.