Too many forums on the Internet?

[Ashley]

Hey someone brought up a good discussion that I want to share with you here. Do you think there are way too many forums out there on the Internet today? Why do you think like you do?



Personally, I think there are way too many forums out there on the Internet, and to blame for this is the fact that there are way too many hosts that are free, where the staff of the support forum installs mods for you. Now, keep in mind, I love sites where staff does mods for you, because I'm not exactly tech saavy, but at the same time, I do believe that there are way too many forums out there... just too much competition. In fact, if I were forced to close down Marie 1988 and give up foruming because of all the competition out there, I gladly would. I personally believe that there should have been no free hosts to begin with, and that forums should have only been owned by those who have enough money for advanced hosting. Forum owning, as I have found out this past year, takes a lot of work, a lot of dedication, and a lot of time. It's not 100% fair to go to a free host like this one and have them do all the work. You as an owner have to do some of the work as well.



As for new forum owners like myself, and younger forum owners, this could also mean way too much competition. Too many young forum owners treat this as a win/lose situation. Who has the best forum? For example, is Marie 1988 or Let's Just Talk better than, say, The Community? That seems to be the question on young forum owner's minds.



In conclusion, I don't really think forum owning was meant to be free at all. I think that it should be for those who have enough money to afford a liscense or whatever. And I stand by what I said earlier, it is a lot of competition, and a lot of work. In fact, if there were no free hosts out there, I would not have made the stupid mistake that I did of hopping from one host to another every six weeks or whatever the heck it was. What do you guys think?

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Well there is to much of everything on the internet. However if we were all at the same couple of forums, there would be millions of people there, you would feel lost in a sea of people. Sometimes people just like to be on smaller forums (like this one) where they can chat with a few friends and have a good time. Variety is a good thing to have.

 

[Evil Eye]

Anonimity of a big forum vs small forums where everyone knows each other...



I, for one, like both

 

[Skillet]

Me too. Some sites I'm on have 460,000 members (QSS), and 60,000 (Canucks forum).. But personally, I like the smaller. Everyone knows everyone. And then you can actually see the forum grow to something great.

 

[Ashley]

Me too. Some sites I'm on have 460,000 members (QSS), and 60,000 (Canucks forum).. But personally, I like the smaller. Everyone knows everyone. And then you can actually see the forum grow to something great.

Me too. I love the size of Marie 1988 at the moment. Only twelve members. When there's so few members like that it gives an administrator like myself a chance to get to know everybody. Bigger forums, like Nebulous said, you could get lost with the crowd easily. Although for promotional purposes I like small and large forums.

 

[sbfc]

I agree with T basically. Yes, there are too many forums on the internet but their is too much of everything on the internet.

 

[Evil Eye]

but their is too much of everything on the internet.

.



This seemed appropriate.

 

[ACE]

Having too much of one thing is never good. You have to have something unique to start up a forum so it wont just be like that last one that opened up.

 

[identityissues8]

[quote name='sbfc']but their is too much of everything on the internet.

.



This seemed appropriate.[/quote]

Oh my...

 

[Hook]

Actually there is too much Facebook like sites now.

That is why forum traffic is down quite a bit.

In my opinion though, Forums a MUCH better than Facebook like sites!!!

WAY Better!

 

[Ashley]

Actually there is too much Facebook like sites now.

That is why forum traffic is down quite a bit.

In my opinion though, Forums a MUCH better than Facebook like sites!!!

WAY Better!

I agree. While I love Facebook, I'll take forums any day. Much better way to communicate in my opinion.

 

[Ashley]

I forgot I started a topic like this

Was just about to do it again. Anyway, I was playing around on Google, and I thought, hmm, maybe I should start a forum again? And after playing around a bit, I thought, No... not again. It's seriously obvious I'm not cut out for the job, especially if I find something I like, and I was also thinking that there were too many forums on the Net as was, and one more wasn't going to make a difference. So I really felt like I've lost the drive completely... Have you guys ever felt like this?

 

[Unknown]

Yes there are too many forums, someone needs to delete or remove all the inactive forums! I bet 20% of the forums on the internet are completely inactive and use up all the SEO and all the active sites are left behind.

 

[Skillet]

I forgot I started a topic like this

Was just about to do it again. Anyway, I was playing around on Google, and I thought, hmm, maybe I should start a forum again? And after playing around a bit, I thought, No... not again. It's seriously obvious I'm not cut out for the job, especially if I find something I like, and I was also thinking that there were too many forums on the Net as was, and one more wasn't going to make a difference. So I really felt like I've lost the drive completely... Have you guys ever felt like this?

Yes. I had a super successful movie site. It had 3600 users in 9 months. Nothing I create can compete. It's too bad that I had family issues come up, and it went down the drain. I'll keep trying though

 

[Ashley]

[quote name='Ashley']I forgot I started a topic like this

Was just about to do it again. Anyway, I was playing around on Google, and I thought, hmm, maybe I should start a forum again? And after playing around a bit, I thought, No... not again. It's seriously obvious I'm not cut out for the job, especially if I find something I like, and I was also thinking that there were too many forums on the Net as was, and one more wasn't going to make a difference. So I really felt like I've lost the drive completely... Have you guys ever felt like this?

Yes. I had a super successful movie site. It had 3600 users in 9 months. Nothing I create can compete. It's too bad that I had family issues come up, and it went down the drain. I'll keep trying though

[/quote]



I'd like to keep trying. However, I have totally run out of ideas ,and that's what 99% of the problem is, also, there are already loads of good forums I could be applying for staff positions on and I am moderator on 3 such forums already. Starting a forum again would mean juggling three forums at once, and I'm just not up for the challenge at the moment.

Yes there are too many forums, someone needs to delete or remove all the inactive forums! I bet 20% of the forums on the internet are completely inactive and use up all the SEO and all the active sites are left behind.

That's true. I hate hosting sites where, even if the site has been abandoned for over a year, they still leave the site up! I remember requesting to delete one of my forums at SMF, and they replied that they don't do this in case users want to come back and try again. That kind of made me mad, because, hello! What if some users are giving up foruming for good, and therefore they don't plan on coming back at all??

 

[Flurry]

[quote name='Skillet'][quote name='Ashley']I forgot I started a topic like this

Was just about to do it again. Anyway, I was playing around on Google, and I thought, hmm, maybe I should start a forum again? And after playing around a bit, I thought, No... not again. It's seriously obvious I'm not cut out for the job, especially if I find something I like, and I was also thinking that there were too many forums on the Net as was, and one more wasn't going to make a difference. So I really felt like I've lost the drive completely... Have you guys ever felt like this?

Yes. I had a super successful movie site. It had 3600 users in 9 months. Nothing I create can compete. It's too bad that I had family issues come up, and it went down the drain. I'll keep trying though

[/quote]



I'd like to keep trying. However, I have totally run out of ideas ,and that's what 99% of the problem is, also, there are already loads of good forums I could be applying for staff positions on and I am moderator on 3 such forums already. Starting a forum again would mean juggling three forums at once, and I'm just not up for the challenge at the moment.

Yes there are too many forums, someone needs to delete or remove all the inactive forums! I bet 20% of the forums on the internet are completely inactive and use up all the SEO and all the active sites are left behind.

That's true. I hate hosting sites where, even if the site has been abandoned for over a year, they still leave the site up! I remember requesting to delete one of my forums at SMF, and they replied that they don't do this in case users want to come back and try again. That kind of made me mad, because, hello! What if some users are giving up foruming for good, and therefore they don't plan on coming back at all??[/quote]





Well.. they say they don't plan to come back at that point in time. But eventually somewhere down the road. Are liable to end up changing their minds. And if the site is still there. At least they won't have to start from scratch.