Are forums dying?

[u666sa]

Not that simple. It prompts users who don't actually know to butt in anyway to get the credit.

Modder steps in, on average 6 modders per topic, crap gets deleted. It's a none issue.

[produco]

I would say that forums are in a dip but will recover. My opinion is that more than anything they are dying from the affect of Social media giants and AI on advertising revenues. I owned a very large forum from 2003 to 2021 (avg 4.3 million monthly users 22 million page views) and the advertising revenue was insane compared to now. These days decent forums can be getting lower than $1 CPM.

This drives many forums into making less friendly changes to improve CTR and impressions. I currently own a medium size forum and have been through this. It's really difficult to make it work so you start to hit usability just to keep it going. Vignette ads as an example or fix placement ads that you know will get accidental clicks on mobile as people try to shift them. These usability changes start to hit the traffic and you're just in a downward spiral.

I see this on many big forums now that were once clean and uncluttered. My gut feeling is forums will have a resurgence in a couple of years as AI bots are thwarted from crawling new content and the power of forum content makes a comeback.

[PlainName]

My gut feeling is forums will have a resurgence in a couple of years as AI bots are thwarted from crawling new content and the power of forum content makes a comeback.

Doesn't that pre-suppose that the AI bots are stuck in 2026 without updates? In reality the scraping is ongoing and will suck up new content. And it might even be premium content: things that AI can't help with now which prompts users to use forums. Hmm. I can see this see-sawing...

[produco]

Doesn't that pre-suppose that the AI bots are stuck in 2026 without updates? In reality the scraping is ongoing and will suck up new content. And it might even be premium content: things that AI can't help with now which prompts users to use forums. Hmm. I can see this see-sawing...

I think there will be a day of reckoning for all this data theft for AI. Look at the past antitrust lawsuits against big tech. Before those came most people knew these companies were acting unethically but no one made a big deal of it or cared. For me it feels like we are at that stage with AI. They take everything without permission and then try to replace the original creator or source. They steal a slice of your revenue. I am confident that within 5 years the court cases will start and AI companies will have real problems.

You also look at household energy costs. It is said that AI accounts for between 7% and 10% of your energy bill. At some point AI companies will be tested in court over this. It will be quite simple to prove that their monopolisation of energy has directly cost citizens money.

[PlainName]

Taking Microsoft as an example, because they did a lot of bad things early on, by the time they got taken to task by the courts the damage was done and dusted. Where is DR-DOS, Netscape, OS/2, and all the rest? Apple only survived because Microsoft realised they needed at least one competitor to head off a AT&T alike breakup.

And AI is moving much faster than regulatory things can even think about taking a look.

[SparkyFX]

Doesn't that pre-suppose that the AI bots are stuck in 2026 without updates? In reality the scraping is ongoing and will suck up new content. And it might even be premium content: things that AI can't help with now which prompts users to use forums. Hmm. I can see this see-sawing...

I think there will be a day of reckoning for all this data theft for AI. Look at the past antitrust lawsuits against big tech. Before those came most people knew these companies were acting unethically but no one made a big deal of it or cared.

One of those cases: Judge Approves $1.5 Billion Anthropic Settlement Over Pirated Books Used To Train Claude

The bigger problem in the long run might be keeping the AI from taking it's own output for training and entering a feedback loop: AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop

[Zero999]

I've made a spreadsheet of the monthly posts an plotted them against time. The peak occurred back in March 2017 with 1798 posts, considerably before AI took off. I think it's most likely social media.

[u666sa]

These tech forums have not suffered.

Code: [Select]

*espec.ws
*remont-aud.net
*elektrotanya.com
*eserviceinfo.com
*forum-monitor.net.ru
*vlab.su
*elvikom.pl

*These names are examples of value‑structured communities -- the specific sites don’t matter. What matters is the participation model they use.

Some are even growing as English speaking crowd tickles in, more and more posts and replies within posts are seen in English.

All these boards have historically been hard to get into:

1) Entry tests are required.
2) For full access participation is required.
3) VIP and special paid accounts still don't get everything, participation for special members is required.
4) Proper participation requires having expensive tools, such as oscilloscopes, infra red soldering stations, EC programmers, microscopes.

This weeds out the newbs and passerby's, who do not provide any value to boards.

Basically, these are not quick boards where you can pop-in, get what you want, and then pop-out. These boards require you to participate and contribute, provide advice, take time reading BIOS dumps, upload files, etc. There is a value in a forum onto which you can login, post your measurements and problem, and get answer within hours. Professional repair technicians use these forums, and they have become a livelihood for many tech repair shops, without such tech support I don't believe it is possible to proficiently diagnose and repair modern electronics.

VALUE. Is what matters.

There is great VALUE in a forum which is full of professionals.
There is great VALUE in a forum which has FREE access to proper repair materials, boardviews, schematics, BIOS dumps, EC dumps, NVM and OTP regions, VRM compatibility cross refence charts, etc.

Forums that provide VALUE don't die.

There is another great forum, also technical, but in a different format 4pda.to/forum/ This forum has also not experienced any slow downs. Format is a bit different, forum is about devices. Let's say greatest cheap peoples TV everyone can afford, which changes year to year. A specific platform of a TV. USB testers from aliexpress. NAND programmers. Specific NAND programmer. Etc. VALUE in this forum comes from great knowledge on practically any device you can think of, you'd find firmware, advice, problems and solutions, modifications, hacks.

What has changed? The western segment of forums.

Google began giving trash content sometime around 2014 - 2016. SEO optimization was at it's highest. Less and less hits from forums, more and more hits from commercial sites who wrote their copy pasted and SEO optimized garbage articles. Then COVID and watch-TV at home time around 2020 - late 2021. Then in 2023 Ai went mainstream and viral. Western segment of forums has taken a major hit. Eastern segment forums have stayed up and even grown, because of user base model which weeds out people who'd leave and won't participate -- forum members who do not provide VALUE. Typical western man or woman see value in asking Ai, instead of posting in forums. Forums are not providing enough value, that's the reason for the slow-down or dying off.

Basically, people who used to ask beginner level questions now ask Ai.
People who used to give beginner answers now don't bother.
People who used to hang out casually now scroll TikTok.

And people who still want real technical help have moved on elsewhere. I'm guessing to closed communities with credit systems and [spoil=] BB tags. Where there is obvious VALUE to be around real experts.

P.S. It's important to note that my analysis is about community structure, not monetization. Advertising models, CPM, SEO, and revenue pressures are a completely different domain. They affect forum owners, not forum users. The slowdown we're discussing is caused by user behavior, not by advertising economics. So even if CPM dropped to zero or rose to $500, the participation dynamics I described would remain unchanged. Forums that rely on advertising behave differently from forums that rely on expertise. The eastern forums I listed do not depend on CPM at all, which is why they were unaffected by Ai, SEO, and social media. Their survival mechanism is structural. That's why they are relevant examples in a discussion about user participation. Also, geographic location and language is absolutely irrelevant. What matters is structure of community.

P.S.S. Communities that have weak structure get affected, and the weaker the structure the more impactful they get affected.

[produco]

71-84% of the audience of those forums is Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan & India. You can easily ask yourself why these forums get virtually no traffic in western countries. I mean... they are mostly in English?

If they did have an audience in North America or Europe they would have been hit the same as everyone else. Simply because it's down to massively more competitive markets in those regions.

There isn't a better value offering on those sites. Just a more niche geo.

[u666sa]

For clarity, the forums I listed are not "Russian‑only" or tied to a single geo. They are multinational communities:

Code: [Select]

elvikom.pl --> Poland
elektrotanya.com --> Hungary
eserviceinfo.com --> global
vlab.su --> multinational
forum-monitor.net.ru --> multinational
espec.ws --> multinational
remont-aud.net --> multinational
Their resilience has nothing to do with geography.

It comes from their structure -- entry tests, contribution requirements, hidden content, expert‑only sections, and value‑based participation.

The examples I listed are multinational communities -- Poland, Hungary, global, and mixed-language boards -- with active English sections and international members.

Geography doesn't explain their survival; structure does.

[PlainName]

There is great VALUE in a forum which has FREE access to proper repair materials, boardviews, schematics, BIOS dumps, EC dumps, NVM and OTP regions, VRM compatibility cross refence charts, etc.

They are hardly free when access involves:

entry tests, contribution requirements, hidden content, expert‑only sections, and value‑based participation

[produco]

For clarity, the forums I listed are not "Russian‑only" or tied to a single geo. They are multinational communities:

Code: [Select]

elvikom.pl --> Poland
elektrotanya.com --> Hungary
eserviceinfo.com --> global
vlab.su --> multinational
forum-monitor.net.ru --> multinational
espec.ws --> multinational
remont-aud.net --> multinational
Their resilience has nothing to do with geography.

They don't look very multinational according to their traffic data. 65-80% Russia. See attached

[u666sa]

Traffic distribution doesn’t explain why a forum survives or declines. It only shows where the users happen to live.

The forums I listed are multinational communities with mixed-language sections and active English participation. Their resilience comes from their structure -- entry tests, contribution requirements, hidden content, expert-only sections, and value-based participation.

A forum can have a majority of users from one region and still be structurally international.
Geography describes audience location.
Structure describes community behavior.

The slowdown we're discussing is caused by changes in user behavior (Ai replacing casual questions, social media replacing casual hangouts), not by the geographic distribution of traffic.

They are hardly free when access involves:

"Free" in this context means no monetary cost.
Value-based communities don’t charge money for boardviews, schematics, BIOS dumps, EC dumps, NVM and OTP regions, etc. Access is earned through participation, not through payment.

Entry tests and contribution requirements are not a "price" -- they are a quality filter. They ensure that the people accessing the material are technicians, not casual users.

That's exactly why these forums remain strong: they filter for expertise instead of monetizing access.

[PlainName]

They are hardly free when access involves:

"Free" in this context means no monetary cost.

Indeed, it doesn't involved hard cash but there is a cost so they are not free. If I fix the plumbers radio as quid pro quo for fixing my leak, no money is involved but you'd be very wrong to say either job was free.

[u666sa]

If I fix the plumbers radio as quid pro quo for fixing my leak, no money is involved but you'd be very wrong to say either job was free.

Barter is a form of payment.

Contribution is not.

Value-based forums are free because they don't charge money -- they simply require expertise.

That's why they remain strong: they filter for professionals instead of monetizing access.

[produco]

Traffic distribution doesn’t explain why a forum survives or declines. It only shows where the users happen to live.

A forum can have a majority of users from one region and still be structurally international.

They are Russian websites used almost exclusively by a Russian audience getting the majority of their traffic from Russian referrals. I'm not convinced they are "structurally international".

[fzabkar]

There is great VALUE in a forum which has FREE access to proper repair materials, boardviews, schematics, BIOS dumps, EC dumps, NVM and OTP regions, VRM compatibility cross refence charts, etc.

They are hardly free when access involves:

entry tests, contribution requirements, hidden content, expert‑only sections, and value‑based participation

I have to agree. It sounds elitist and exclusive to me. I don't think I would want to join such a group, even if I qualified.

[MrMobodies]

EEVblog? ... Just yesterday in the office, I spoke to a couple of interns. They had an electronics problem. I suggested they open a topic on EEVblog. They replied, "Why? When can we ask the AI ​​?"; d'oh!

I don't know, if the the reason why I feel this forum used to be more populated 

Maybe it'll be more populated with viewers and bots searching for things.

I would verify whether the information that the AI assembled together to form the answer is correct.

Without these forums then the that'd less information collected by the AI to distribute and be discovered.

[vk6zgo]

On the subject of Discord, where is the benefit in communicating with someone in real time if the most appropriate information is provided by someone in another time zone, as is often (usually?) the case.

That is what I find aggravating about Discord, compared to a forum. All the people in similar time zones are "having a whale of a time" while I am sleeping, & when I go on to check what is happening, the interesting conversation is from 8 hours ago, & everybody has moved on

[AVGresponding]

On the subject of Discord, where is the benefit in communicating with someone in real time if the most appropriate information is provided by someone in another time zone, as is often (usually?) the case.

That is what I find aggravating about Discord, compared to a forum. All the people in similar time zones are "having a whale of a time" while I am sleeping, & when I go on to check what is happening, the interesting conversation is from 8 hours ago, & everybody has moved on

Yeah they tend to work best for smaller groups with similar active times, ours tends to run all day but has a quiet period in the early hours of the morning (UK time). Mostly UK and EU members, a few US (active, that is).

[Randy222]

Some day soon, a bunch of Nemo bots will be primary users of forums, bots telling other bots on how things are and should be. 

[paulca]

Some day soon, a bunch of Nemo bots will be primary users of forums, bots telling other bots on how things are and should be. 

My friend we are already there in many places.  What you see now as "bots" posting, will morph slowly into actual users' "bots" posting.  Or bots posting on behalf of users etc.

"Das Bot, draft a post on EEV Blog to describe this problem."

etc.

In corporate this is well "in flight".  We have a Thurday update thread on Slack.  Its sent by a bot on behalf of a manager.  More than 70% of people get their claude to write and post the response.  The managers claude then summarises it and emails to a CC list.  The customer then ingests that with a bot.... and so on.  Its like being in a circus.

[SiliconWizard]

Yes, it's getting close to that.

[Randy222]

Some day soon, a bunch of Nemo bots will be primary users of forums, bots telling other bots on how things are and should be. 

My friend we are already there in many places.  What you see now as "bots" posting, will morph slowly into actual users' "bots" posting.  Or bots posting on behalf of users etc.

"Das Bot, draft a post on EEV Blog to describe this problem."

etc.

In corporate this is well "in flight".  We have a Thurday update thread on Slack.  Its sent by a bot on behalf of a manager.  More than 70% of people get their claude to write and post the response.  The managers claude then summarises it and emails to a CC list.  The customer then ingests that with a bot.... and so on.  Its like being in a circus.

Those are mostly unseen bots. To blend in with humans, humanoid bots will be sitting in the internet cafe's pretending to type on a keyboard because their heads will be hooked in via wifi. These bots are not there because their masters told them to go do it, they are their because they learned how to connect in and communicate, just like humans do.

Your description of it is the now, mine is the near future.

O crap, my humanoid head just had me do a fake look at a 10cent watch on my wrist, time to go now, need to get the grocery list and be back home by 1pm, i'm on a schedule.   

[maxwang]

no

forum moderation as a skill and art are dying.

social etiquette is retarding (i blame sms texting culture)

long form communication is resisted (serfs from public schools)


Why don't science journals simply using long strings of emoji?