General Do you still think forums are dead?

[Arantor]

Jcink is already at least 17 years old. The software underneath it is 20. God knows how long John must spend patching it to keep it secure (though a glance through the recent bug fixes doesn’t fill me with confidence)

By his own admission he started the domain in 2000, and even if he was 18 then, he’d now be 40. He must *really* love what he does.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

Jcink is already at least 17 years old. The software underneath it is 20. God knows how long John must spend patching it to keep it secure (though a glance through the recent bug fixes doesn’t fill me with confidence)

By his own admission he started the domain in 2000, and even if he was 18 then, he’d now be 40. He must *really* love what he does.

I misread Jcink as Jack and was about to ask who’s Jack

 

[Tracy]

and linked some of my words to an article that would contain additional information.

This may have been what got you. Usually you can get by with one link to the support article, but if you are putting multiple links (which it's hard to tell if you did one multi-word link or linked several different reference words) then I could see it peeving a mod off.
Something like "I have a detailed article on this topic here" might have sufficed.

As to the second... sounds like you were in an area that the latter part of post covered..... there are sub-reddits and forums out there that moderators go off onto power trips.
If the article is pertinent, it should not matter WHOSE site it is on. Sometimes folks are to frigging stupid to realize without those authoritative posters, they have a poop-site for definitive input.

 

[Jason]

I'm probably repeating myself, but no, forums are not dead by a long shot. In fact, the ones that are dead is cause the owners gave up. Well, for instance, in regards to drumming there is DrumForum.org, DrummerWorld.com and with guitar, there is TheGearPage.net and a few more.

Anyway, with the dead forums like DrumChat.com or Harmony Central Forum, it would easily be revived and it's actually sad to see it decline. It's like looking at some abandoned shopping mall.

 

[DigNap15]

This topic is very old and tied now, it has been done to death.

No one has mentioned Reddit - the world's biggest forum.

My forum has been going for nearly 4 years, it has never grown beyond its initial maximum size.
Members die or leave, and new ones join.

The thing that make it hard for traditional forums is the complexity of setting one up, web hosts etc, customisation, SEO preventing spammers, and moderation.
And of course the cost - you need to be prepared to subsidise it for a while until you get enough donations (like I do) or advertisers.

 

[Arantor]

setting one up, web hosts etc, customisation, SEO preventing spammers, and moderation.

The first 2-3 have solutions from most of the forum providers in the form of cloud solutions, and there's no shortage of customisation options available.

As for SEO, preventing spammers and moderation, every venue has these problems in one form or another. I give you Twitter as a perfect example; I report multiple bots every single day now, and that's just the ones that interact with me.

 

[zoldos]

I respectfully disagree about free forums being cumbersome to navigate.Jcink is idiot proof..it is SO easy to use. PB was…ok.,but you have to add smileys to each theme for example,..such a faff. Cant be doing with faffing. I find Xenforo confusing..the ACP especially. I had a demo and thought,,wow..where to start? It isnt very user friendly..but you may think otherwise.

I may be biased since I'm very used to Xenforo's front and backend navigation and overall setup. I've used it since at least 2014, close when it was first publically available, if memory serves me.

Jcink IMO is worse than ProBoards *and* Zeta. No disrespect, of course!

 

[zoldos]

This topic is very old and tied now, it has been done to death.

No one has mentioned Reddit - the world's biggest forum.

My forum has been going for nearly 4 years, it has never grown beyond its initial maximum size.
Members die or leave, and new ones join.

The thing that make it hard for traditional forums is the complexity of setting one up, web hosts etc, customisation, SEO preventing spammers, and moderation.
And of course the cost - you need to be prepared to subsidise it for a while until you get enough donations (like I do) or advertisers.

What kind of advertising do you do? My forum gets new users quite often. Granted, some don't come back, but it's definitely growing.

I dislike Reddit. It's a big, unorganized, mess of content with no semblance of an actual forum. It has moronic Admins. I made an account and waited a month. so I could make a sub-reddit (I was told this was the requirement). But it wouldn't let me, and didn't explain why. Then I got kicked off someone else' s sub-reddit, again for reasons unknown. Then I tried to delete my account, but every time I tried, I was told there are "technical difficulties". Then, I was suddenly banned for no apparent reason. I'll never use that BS site again.

 

[Empire]

parts of the year it will die down as people doing things, it happens and at the moment it feels like that

 

[Jane]

I may be biased since I'm very used to Xenforo's front and backend navigation and overall setup. I've used it since at least 2014, close when it was first publically available, if memory serves me.

Jcink IMO is worse than ProBoards *and* Zeta. No disrespect, of course!

Worse in what way? I loved ZB..Will never forgive Brandon..traitor

 

[Arantor]

They’re both basically modded InvisionFree from 2003, not sure what the difference between Jcink and ZB is.

 

[Empire]

I wish the old days of all old do come back at times

 

[cdub]

you should never open a community without a group of ppl already active and posting.

That's kind of a catch 22 isn't it?

As a side note I created a new band fan site for fun because some people on a fb group for the band said I should and would join but activity is not what I would have hoped. It was a ton of fun to build though. Lol. It's a bummer when people say they join and then... Don't post. Lol.

 

[Cory]

not sure what the difference between Jcink and ZB is.

ZetaBoards was built from the ground up, Jcink is, as you know, based on an old version of IPB.

 

[Arantor]

ZetaBoards was built from the ground up,

It was? I thought it was also built on InvisionFree?

 

[Cory]

It was? I thought it was also built on InvisionFree?

Majorly inspired, maybe: https://support.zathyus.com/zetaboards-t28344.html

 

[~ True Legend ~]

That's kind of a catch 22 isn't it?

As a side note I created a new band fan site for fun because some people on a fb group for the band said I should and would join but activity is not what I would have hoped. It was a ton of fun to build though. Lol. It's a bummer when people say they join and then... Don't post. Lol.

Mot really you gather a group of friends or old forum buddies and go from there

 

[Darth Cognus]

That's kind of a catch 22 isn't it?

As a side note I created a new band fan site for fun because some people on a fb group for the band said I should and would join but activity is not what I would have hoped. It was a ton of fun to build though. Lol. It's a bummer when people say they join and then... Don't post. Lol.

In anything there's always the minority that volunteers and a smaller minority still that is actually engaged in following through when push comes to shove. Unfortunately it's an effect that is always to be expected... I'm surprised when I see a high 'do something' outcome from the 'interested' ratio.

 

[zoldos]

Worse in what way? I loved ZB..Will never forgive Brandon..traitor

Forced ads, mainly. Also, a super simplistic admin area (if one at all), bad navigation, bandwidth limits, and all sorts of other crap.

 

[Empire]

Only those that think it's dead shell make it dead