Are forums like OSA becoming a thing of the past?

[NationalMatch]

I subscribe to a bunch of forums but don't do facebook, twitter, etc. One of these, The Firing Line, is a gun forum that has greatly dwindled in participation. A relative newcomer asked if it was dying. The consensus seemed to be, yes; all such forums are.

One answer in particular: Younger generations see forums as antiquated repositories of Boomerisms and far too slow for the immediate answer that modern technology allows them to get on other subjects.
They do search forums and read posts as "guests", because they know that useful information is buried within.

But they don't like taking part and don't sign up....They hate wading through the Boomerisms and ridiculous 5-page posts about some particular member's history with [X] rifle, just to see that they never answered the question, "Should my trigger have a little horn here? This one seems modified."

They hate asking a question, only to be berated for buying a stupid gun that they knew was stupid.
They hate asking a direct, pointed question, only to see zero replies for weeks, because no one else ever stepped back to ask, "Why is [that] the way it is?"

They hate the rants. They hate the tangents. They just hate forums, because they represent Boomers. And Zoomers (and many Millennials) just hate Boomers.

They are using other things now. Slack, Quora, Slingshot, Mumble, MeWe groups, Discord, Facebook groups, Twitter, Reddit, and more.

All of them have better response times than forums (even if the information is false and worthless), and many offer the equivalent of 24/7 live chat -- because that is pretty much what some of them are, just live, logged chat.

As Boomers die, there is no new blood to replace them on forums.

Boomers, Gen X, the lost generation, and Millennials, in their respective numbers, are all that is left.
As we leave, the numbers just dwindle. Zoomers rejoice as forums implode, disappear, and take with them decades of valuable information (but also a lot of garbage).

That seems to be the impression I get. Even a formerly popular political action forum I subscribe to has way less traffic than before, and each year it gets worse.

 

[retrieverman]

I’m on several forums and don’t necessarily think they’re dying, but the level of dumbassery on them is definitely on the rise.

 

[THAT Gurl]

Oh probably but isn't that the way of the world?? Look at all the knowledge about life and living it our grandparents and great-grandparents took to the grave with them. Why?? Because us Boomers were too busy living "modern" life and couldn't be bothered with learning all those old fashioned ways. Now a lot of the kids of our kids want to go back to the life us Boomers left behind for city life. That's just the way it is.

 

[conditionzero]

I think this type of software falls in to the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" category. I enjoy other platforms such as discord and slack etc but forums are still just as relevant.

 

[OK Corgi Rancher]

I can tell you what I generally observe when talking to a lot of younger people... It seems that a large majority of them really have very poor interpersonal communication skills. They need something that's anonymous and doesn't require a face-to-face conversation with a real person because they tend to struggle with that.

I was very active on the Colorado AR-15 forum for many years (and still am to a much lesser degree) and it's all but dead now. It's a shame because I met some really cool people there.

 

[Support Dev]

For a bit of encouragement, I'm starting to see fussing about FB not being able to find something you saw 2 weeks ago, and not being able to search. So, the edges of frustration with FB are starting to show.

 

[retrieverman]

For a bit of encouragement, I'm starting to see fussing about FB not being able to find something you saw 2 weeks ago, and not being able to search. So, the edges of frustration with FB are starting to show.

I would bet those people complaining are just newbies on FB, because it hasn’t been user friendly in years.

 

[Aku]

can tell you what I generally observe when talking to a lot of younger people... It seems that a large majority of them really have very poor interpersonal communication skills. They need something that's anonymous and doesn't require a face-to-face conversation with a real person because they tend to struggle with that.

Completely agree with this. They also don't know how to shake hands.

As for the forums, yes all these type of computer platforms will expire eventually. A forum goes with the people using it. The majority of us are old farts, so its just a matter of time.

 

[Okie4570]

For firearms no, because FB and IG don't allow much in that arena. For everything else, yes web based forums are dying compared to FB, X, IG, etc. There's only one 66-77 bronco forum that gets any traffic, a couple very small ones that get almost zero traffic. There's got to be 100 groups on FB alone, and they all get daily traffic by the dozens if not hundreds of posts. Some of those groups have anywhere from 500-60k members.

 

[bushmaster06]

I’m on several forums and don’t necessarily think they’re dying, but the level of dumbassery on them is definitely on the rise.

No, that was always there. You on the other hand are getting older. Have you told anyone to get off your lawn lately?