Is there truly an over saturated forum niche?

[Ravenfreak]

In this day and age, forums have been around for over two decades at this point. They've been around even longer as BBS and Usenet. At this point I feel that every single niche has been done and I've seen numerous forums of the same niche thrive. You see many different gaming forums, webmaster forums, etc. I suppose one could argue that these are probably the two most popular niches when it comes to forums. Do you truly think a specific niche has been over saturated or do you feel that new forums can be made based on a popular niche?

 

[Henrywrites]

I've seen more gaming forums around. Maybe it is as a result of being someone that likes gaming. It is pertinent to note that no matter how much forums that are on a niche, it can never be oversaturated.

 

[Tracy]

I would have to agree... an oversaturated niche is gaming forums. The only grace is there are so many games, so for those dedicated to a specific game i may not be as bad.

 

[Kale]

Gaming forums are overdone for sure. I honestly can say for a fact I will always like general chat forums and never find them overdone.

I would have to agree... an oversaturated niche is gaming forums. The only grace is there are so many games, so for those dedicated to a specific game i may not be as bad.

In my experience of being a user of a forum or two where it was about a specific game or so the activity started off great, but then died within a month or two. The game has to really be one which gets regular updates, patches, etc.

 

[Arantor]

I think if you're going to do a gaming forum, you really want to branch out beyond a single game unless the game really does have regular updates (e.g. something like WoW or Guild Wars 2 keeps getting updates so there's always something to talk about)

But I think for niche genres - I'm exploring the feasbility of something in the point 'n' click adventure genre at the moment - that can work out for you well enough if you can stay the course; there's always new games in the genre, new games doing new things, a large accessible backlog to talk about, discussing recommendations etc.

Other than that, I must confess I have little patience for certain types of forums where it's 'teach the niche', but the people primarily running it don't really have the experience to make it viable. So many coding forums over the years started by people who don't really know enough about coding to educate (or meaningfully moderate). Other explorations of the concept in other niches exist, but coding ones are the ones that stick in my throat.

 

[Tracy]

In my experience of being a user of a forum or two where it was about a specific game or so the activity started off great, but then died within a month or two. The game has to really be one which gets regular updates, patches, etc.

Yep... saw that frequently with a certain person that kept spinning up different sites based upon a particular game like Modern Warfare... instead of creating a site dealing with FPS's in general, which would have been better as when the buzz of he latest game dropped off, or the next one was released (or BattleField) he'd lose traction.

 

[Arantor]

I think he's actually stopped doing that - or if he's still at it, he's learned to keep his head down and not draw attention to the fact it's *him* doing it. Though I think the last time I saw him have a go, he had learned to branch out to run a site that covered a bunch of games. (At least if we're thinking of the same person, and I think we are.)

 

[Tracy]

I think he's actually stopped doing that - or if he's still at it, he's learned to keep his head down and not draw attention to the fact it's *him* doing it. Though I think the last time I saw him have a go, he had learned to branch out to run a site that covered a bunch of games. (At least if we're thinking of the same person, and I think we are.)

Probably are... first name starts with a "C", and he ended up getting banned on several sites from his blow-up tirades?

 

[Kale]

Yep... saw that frequently with a certain person that kept spinning up different sites based upon a particular game like Modern Warfare... instead of creating a site dealing with FPS's in general, which would have been better as when the buzz of he latest game dropped off, or the next one was released (or BattleField) he'd lose traction.

Yes, think I recall this site/forum. Sad days, but agreed with ya. I'd rather make a forum around the FPS genre or so than just for COD or Battlefield.

 

[Cedric]

Is this the guy who buys random dead forums and merges them with his existing multiple forums? I personally never understood the reasoning behind this. To each their own though. But that’s for another thread I’ll make.

 

[Cory]

Everything nearly feels oversaturated on the internet, you can find something for every topic on the internet in every corner of the internet. Of course, there are niches that are more-so oversaturated than others due to how popular they are in today's society, but I digress everything to me seems oversaturated to a point. That doesn't just apply to forums, but sites as a whole.

 

[Arantor]

Probably are... first name starts with a "C", and he ended up getting banned on several sites from his blow-up tirades?

Yes that's him.

 

[Heatman]

I'm not sure if I have any forum that's strictly on football niche. Most forums that I come across football discussions is general discussion forum with a sub section on football which never gets blown up well. So, football is one niche that's not oversaturated in my opinion. But the rest, seems like it in one way or another.

 

[Reverie]

For a while community type forums were overly done. The same people join them and the same conversations were had.