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[jayj]

I mean forums have really lost popularity for about the past decade at least, but it feels like it's been especially speeding up lately. With only a few exceptions, most forum communities these days feel like a cesspool, full of edgelords and tryhards causing trouble, saying nasty things, treating people nasty, and so on. My list of forums I actually want to have anything to do with anymore has only been shrinking over the years, and if it isn't the community turning awful it's the community slowly disappearing with the forums dying off.

It's sad to see these sites go as well because not only have I always enjoyed the format when it comes to social media, but there's been loads of valuable information that has been shared on them that is probably going to get lost before we know it. It's like either I've been growing out of them, or the people using them have never grown up, because it doesn't seem like forums caught on with the younger generations, with most users being millennials, as hard as that can be to believe judging by the way they can act. I'm just wondering if it really is as bad as I think it is, because the internet has been becoming really boring and unengaging the more this trend continues.

 

[NeoGiffer]

 

[Big Baller]

It is what it is. We are a dying breed

 

[jayj]

It is what it is. We are a dying breed

Yeah it's like the oldest crowd is the facebook boomers, then it's probably the message forum millennials. Wonder what happened to the gen x'ers, they pretty much created the internet.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

The Internet now simply has so many different ways and places to grab our attention.

That said GAF will always be my forum home. Lots of good folks here + more enjoyable than writing shit in the YouTube comments section or in a Twitter thread where everyone glances over it and what you write gets lost in the wilderness or hatred.

 

[Fbh]

Sadly forums seem to be on their way out, replaced by Reddit and social media.
I don't think I know a single person in real life that still posts on a forum. If anything when I tell people I still like to post on a forum they look at me like I just told them I still use MSN Messenger or ICQ.

 

[jayj]

The Internet now simply has so many different ways and places to grab our attention.

That said GAF will always be my forum home. Lots of good folkds here + more enjoyable than writing shit in the YouTube comments section or in a Twitter thread where everyone glances over it and what you write gets lost in the wilderness or hatred.

Yeah what I like about this site is simply being able to discuss video games without having a barrage of insults, toxicity, and personal attacks thrown at me for expressing a thought that is contrary to someone else. Like it doesn't feel as cliquish as most forums these days despite it's flaws, where people here just feel a bit more mature and less extreme. I guess that's the best I can hope for these days.

Sorta wondering where most people go though, as reddit seems to be the main popular forum site, but outside of that it's like everyone is just on youtube, tik-tok, or they're using some major platform like twitter/x.

 

[Trilobit]

Wonder what happened to the gen x'ers, they pretty much created the internet.

The women went to instagram and the men are most likely busy with other irl things or watching TV. They may have created the internet, but they didn't grow up with it like gen y did.

 

[Skyfox]

Reddit has been compromised from the start.

Gaf is still great and that's all that matters to me!

 

[ClanOfNone]

Yeah it's like the oldest crowd is the facebook boomers, then it's probably the message forum millennials. Wonder what happened to the gen x'ers, they pretty much created the internet.

I know I ain't the only Gen X'er here, old heads stand up and be counted!

I actually prefer the slower pace of forums nowadays. Ten years ago your post would just be lost in a fast moving thread

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Yeah what I like about this site is simply being able to discuss video games without having a barrage of insults, toxicity, and personal attacks thrown at me for expressing a thought that is contrary to someone else. Like it doesn't feel as cliquish as most forums these days despite it's flaws, where people here just feel a bit more mature and less extreme. I guess that's the best I can hope for these days.

Sorta wondering where most people go though, as reddit seems to be the main popular forum site, but outside of that it's like everyone is just on youtube, tik-tok, or they're using some major platform like twitter/x.

This is why I think GAF will endure and grow for quite a while yet. As long as Evilore or someone else is happy to maintain and keep it going!

One of the best and few places on the net to discuss games and the industry where there are enough open minded people that its quite enjoyable to do so.

 

[thefool]

You just described every internet community.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Be the change you wish to see

 

[Muffdraul]

I heard it had something to do with Discord servers. I'm so old, I literally have no idea wtf a Discord server even is.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Can never be sincere anymore and everything has to be ironic or you're soylent.

 

[jayj]

I heard it had something to do with Discord servers. I'm so old, I literally have no idea wtf a Discord server even is.

I've used discord but as far as I can tell it's essentially just chat rooms.

 

[Muffdraul]

I've used discord but as far as I can tell it's essentially just chat rooms.

Well a couple few years ago I really did see something like, "Why are forums so dead these days?" "Because zoomers think forums are for old people, they use Discord."

 

[WhamBamThankYouMaam]

Yeah it's like the oldest crowd is the facebook boomers, then it's probably the message forum millennials. Wonder what happened to the gen x'ers, they pretty much created the internet.

We are all over the place, but mostly doing llm related stuff.

 

[Happosai]

Forums aren't going to disappear until society becomes completely illiterate. The main catch is that you're seeking information to read from (a thread) based on a topic/theme (video games) which stays relative page by page (posts which stay on topic and don't derail). That could be millennials or gen X but, I'd like to think if people still buy e-readers or paper books; they'll appreciate finding forums through internet search. I stepped out of forums for social media from about 2008 - 2019. I don't have the patience for YouTubers who take over 30-minutes to make a point. Nor do I really care to see choppy editing for cheap laughs with 10-second videos (see: TikTok). Detaching from social after 2020 and just searching around for info via Google is what brought me here. If the forums go away, you'll be stuck with nothing but sites hosting videos (e.g. -- modern video game walkthroughs which are mostly videos overlapping less-than 3 paragraphs of text and nearly impossible to navigate).

 

[West Texas CEO]

We are all over the place, but mostly doing BDSM related stuff.

 

[Laieon]

I miss the days of forum signatures. There was some really positive communities built completely around making those for other members. I'm sure a ton of millenials taught themselves Photoshop through things like that - I know I certainly did.

 

[wondermega]

I have never been a big poster over here, but it's such a welcome escape from "what the rest of the internet is doing" and I will treasure it as long as it sticks around (in a recognizable form). My reddit addiction has been on the rise the past couple of years, but for honestly feeling like being part of a worthwhile/friendly/open community and not just floating in a tiny sea full of a million deafening and transient voices, this place cannot be beat.

 

[diffusionx]

*crack* *sip*
"now forums... THAT'S where you can really talk on the internet"

 

[Pejo]

I vastly prefer forums to any other internet sharing/communication medium. It's nice to be able to just post something, then go on with your day, come back and easily catch up without people expecting instant responses. Shit like D*scord is just emote spam chatroom hell, comments on YT/other people's posts on twitter or whatever get buried and never addressed/looked at, places like reddit with their echo-chamber-creating upvotes/downvotes ruin any sort of actual discussion. GAF and a few other smaller forums are the only places I can go where I feel like it hits the sweet spot for communicating with others.

 

[John Marston]

I get your point OP but yada yada yada I just Gafted ya

Stick to what you enjoy and sometimes makes you smile.

Cut out all the rest.

 

[Lord Panda]

GAF is really the only forum I visit and actively participate in these days. And John Marston - you're a indeed a bonafide treasure. Also, when did you win the lotto because I reckon you're probably behind half of the members having Gold around here

 

[Fake]

Well, you can thank social media for that.

People are afraid of telling what they like, what they want or what they hate without being shit, so most of the forum users run away to Discord.

I still think forum are better. Anyone can see what we are discussing. We're not hiding anything, unlike the dark things people like to discuss/post inside Discord and reddit. People praise quantity, but I praise quality. Going to reddit for example, we have a bunch of moderator bots, posts that got more 'likes' always show at first place, shadowbans, cancel culture, etc...


In the end, forum are more traditional place. No bots, no AI, no posts getting more view than others. If you posted first, your post will be always the first in the thread. No shadowbans, no automatic mods, nothing being discussed hidden from people over the internet (anyone can read what we are talking anytime).

 

[John Marston]

GAF is really the only forum I visit and actively participate in these days. And John Marston - you're a indeed a bonafide treasure. Also, when did you win the lotto because I reckon you're probably behind half of the members having Gold around here

I was an avid lurker on GAF since about 2009 and decided to join recently.

Ignoring the obvious boring console wars there's a caring community which keeps me grounded and informed like no other platform can.

A lot of you have tremendous knowledge & intellectual curiosity and you don't even realise it

GAF is all I need.

 

[ULTROS!]

Most of the forum goers moved to Reddit.

As much as Reddit is informative, it's difficult to read the long threads.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

I love forums, and GAF has been a big part of my Internet usage since 2008 when I joined. And lurking before that...there's something comforting about browsing the boards and catching up on threads of interest.

 

[bitbydeath]

I've used discord but as far as I can tell it's essentially just chat rooms.

Yeah, I don’t get discord either, it’s just Yahoo chat rooms all over again, history repeats I suppose, maybe forums will become cool again later.

 

[RavageX]

I don't visit many forums anymore, and I don't do discord stuff unless for contests or beta participation. I do feel that most forum activity seems negative. Everyone is busy dooming games, etc. There's still happy stuff going on but the general "fun" that discussing games doesn't seem to be the same.

I kinda feel like this happened when games became more popular believe it or not.

 

[nush]

Forums have been dying for at least ten years, I think they peaked in the 2000’s and then everybody got smartphones and the drift to social media began.

 

[Auto_aim1]

Not only forums but also review sites and stuff.

 

[T-0800]

The women went to instagram and the men are most likely busy with other irl things or watching TV. They may have created the internet, but they didn't grow up with it like gen y did.

Gen X here.

 

[FeralEcho]

Idk man,I couldn't give less of a shit to engaging with others on different platforms.GAF is my home in that regard as I don't use anything elde for news or conversations about gaming and off topic stuff.Don't have an active account on twitter,facebook or whatever these cesspools of shit behaviour and thinking are called nowadays.

 

[Durien]

Wonder what happened to the gen x'ers, they pretty much created the internet.

Gen x'er here who worked on the first smartphones. For the past 5 or 6 years I see everyone staring at their phones everywhere I go and I think, what have we done? I was so proud when we started rolling them off the line and I freakin loved working on them. But now, I don't know....

 

[FeralEcho]

Forums have been dying for at least ten years, I think they peaked in the 2000’s and then everybody got smartphones and the drift to social media began.

And to mental retardation although that's more of a race than a drift.

 

[ahtlas7]

I’ve tried the rest then settled on Gaf. It’s the only messaging board/forum I use now. As a genX’er with such limited time now I much prefer the layout and characters here.
My guess regarding younger generations is they care less about communication content and more about endorphin chasing.

 

[killatopak]

I think I joined at the peak or the start of the downtrend of the forums.

Constructing a message in long form is a lost format. I like forums because I can review my own post and catch myself if I was too reactionary or just straight up wrong. I surmise it’s because of the posting cooldown forums have. I also feel like messages in forums have a lot more impact for me because of that. I put a lot more of my attention in reading them compared to say a live stream chat or a discord server with a lot of people. At least that’s what I think.

It’s very easy to spam messages in chat servers like discord. Very easy to blurt out something you haven’t thought over. Very easy to get drowned out as well. Discord for example has channels to separate topics but I feel like threads make it a lot easier to not get lost in the conversation and stay on topic. In my experience, general chat can be confusing if you’re not constantly reading as topics can go from one thing to another. An hour away and you’re basically gone from the conversation. For forums, I can reply to days old posts and still be on topic.

I suppose those things aren’t really non-existent in forums but it’s definitely a lot less noticeable. The only negative thing I could come up quickly is the need to do some gotcha or 1st post shenanigans.

I’ve tried everything from Yahoo Messenger to Instagram to Twitter/X to Discord to Facebook. I feel best here on forums for the needs I have. Of course I still use other ways of social communication but they’re more specific. Facebook for family and friends and Discord for some random person asking me on a game to voice chat.

Instagram feels very corporate to me. It feels more like a marketing site to me. While Twitter/X feels the most reactionary. It feels like you’re compelled to say something that would induce reaction in people as that seems to be the algorithm it has.

 

[Peggies]

I remember my granddad (Opa Willi) sitting at his little coffee table, sipping his little cup of coffee and saying "oh, its's all so very sad" quite frequently. I never quite got what exactly he meant. Very often he didn't know either.
But today I get it. It's all dying, everything's turning to shit. It's all so very sad.
God bless you Opa WIlli! GAF 4ever

 

[SJRB]

 

[Lambhalf]

I hope forums aren't the equivalent of newspapers.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

I mean forums have really lost popularity for about the past decade at least, but it feels like it's been especially speeding up lately. With only a few exceptions, most forum communities these days feel like a cesspool, full of edgelords and tryhards causing trouble, saying nasty things, treating people nasty, and so on. My list of forums I actually want to have anything to do with anymore has only been shrinking over the years, and if it isn't the community turning awful it's the community slowly disappearing with the forums dying off.

It's sad to see these sites go as well because not only have I always enjoyed the format when it comes to social media, but there's been loads of valuable information that has been shared on them that is probably going to get lost before we know it. It's like either I've been growing out of them, or the people using them have never grown up, because it doesn't seem like forums caught on with the younger generations, with most users being millennials, as hard as that can be to believe judging by the way they can act. I'm just wondering if it really is as bad as I think it is, because the internet has been becoming really boring and unengaging the more this trend continues.

People are too bombarded with information, meaning if you do not actively try to counter it your attention span decreases and you interact only with Twitter, Instagram, Snap, TikTok, everything caters to your short attention span and which makes matter worse. It's the same as continuing to eat junk food vs. continuing to exercise, the effects multiply.

I for example do not read Twitter, Instagram or TikTok, I do not watch 24/7 news channels and do not read daily newspapers. If something will be super important someone will tell me, then I can look into it. So I am in effect filtering all but the most crucial information, meaning I have a lot of mental bandwidth for tasks that I want and need to concentrate on.

 

[FullMetalx117]

Still probably my favorite “social media” and info aggregator but yeah things have certainly changed

 

[CGNoire]

Can never be sincere anymore and everything has to be ironic or you're soylent.

Thats cause so few now have any real conviction.

 

[Hypereides]

I heard it had something to do with Discord servers. I'm so old, I literally have no idea wtf a Discord server even is.

The way people adopted Discord seemed almost inorganic imo. It was pushed everywhere. Someone might've been spending a ton of money to propagate it over the net.

 

[Nankatsu]

I would say probably because we now have a thing call reddit.

If you're looking for a specific answer or people just want to vent it out, they go there.

I like reddit for what it is, but it's nowhere near as organized as a forum. And on reddit, don't hope to connect with anyone.

The only forum that I use on a regular basis is GAF

 

[FatallyYours]

I'm going to be honest with you OP,

I think you're depressed and need to see someone about it

I've noticed your name appear a few times over the last month making new posts, and honestly you're not happy, and looking (admittedly very quickly) through your posting history, I don't think you have posted a single positive thing about....anything

Maybe spend less time on the Internet, and trying a new hobby other than gaming, and like I said, maybe talk to someone about how you're feeling

 

[H4ze]

As long as GAF exists, I am fine. It's the only form of social media I still use and visit every day, despite not being the most active poster.

I really love you guys/girls.