Site Management Success Stories of Forum Launches in Recent Years?

[Ludachris]

New to this forum, but have been running forums for over 20 years, several small ones and a couple medium to large (depends on the standards). The largest one that I've owned had traffic up in the 400k unique visitors for month on average in its heyday - not huge, but it definitely wasn't bad. I managed some that were larger in my early years. That was all back in the golden era of forums though, pre FecesBook and FecesBook Groups.

I just read through several articles here, and one in particular got me thinking about the major challenges of launching forums these days, compared to 15-20 years ago. The odds are stacked against you these days, with social media and the big forum networks that have devoured all the active forums, and began launching their own for new niches too. It made me wonder how many independent forum owners out there have had any real success in launching a forum and growing it to a significant size in the last 5 or so years. In order to not be vague or subjective about size, let's say, to 100k unique visitors per month, maybe with over 25k threads. Something that can be well monetized.

Has anyone been successfully able to do that? I've seen some that look like they have, but not many. I don't know that the ones who have would be in here sharing trade secrets, but for those who are willing to chime in, it sure would be nice to hear that it's still possible in the right situations. It's one thing to have a forum that's been around for 20+ years doing well. It's a whole different story to see forums that are less than 8 years old doing as well as some of the successful 20+ year old forums (assuming similar situations with niches, etc).

 

[joelr]

I agree. When I hear about forum successes, it usually boils down to two very narrow groups:
- You started 15-20 years ago and built a huge membership before social media
- Youre a new forum and you have moderate success

The reality for new forums - and I don't think many have thought about this - is that not only are they fighting with social media, they're also fighting with the legacy forums in their niche, and the blogs, and the WordPress sites that have all popped up in the last 20 years. It's not just social media that's grown up in the last 15-20 years, it's the entire web.

 

[Ludachris]

I agree. When I hear about forum successes, it usually boils down to two very narrow groups:
- You started 15-20 years ago and built a huge membership before social media
- Youre a new forum and you have moderate success

The reality for new forums - and I don't think many have thought about this - is that not only are they fighting with social media, they're also fighting with the legacy forums in their niche, and the blogs, and the WordPress sites that have all popped up in the last 20 years. It's not just social media that's grown up in the last 15-20 years, it's the entire web.

There are literally billions of dollars being spent on the attention spans of the people we’re trying to draw into our forums. It’s not impossible, I’ve watched new forums pop up and gain critical mass. But it’s pretty uncommon these days. If there are people in here that have done it in the last 5 or so years, I’d love to hear some stories about their journey. Those are the people who have accomplished something much more difficult than those of us who have 15-25 year old thriving forums.

Hopefully we get some responses.

 

[Ravenfreak]

ResetEra comes to mind. After the owner of NeoGAF faced sexual misconduct accusations, some members came together to make a new forum instead since NeoGAF was going downhill. This was back in 2017, so not too long ago. I have a feeling the same thing might happen to Romhacking.net, since it's going to switch to just posting news and their main site is going offline. (Though the forums are staying online. Not sure for how long though...)

 

[joelr]

There are literally billions of dollars being spent on the attention spans of the people we’re trying to draw into our forums.

This is a great point.

Independent communities of the future will need to be "success" communities that provide solutions, resources, and deep value rather than "social" communities. This means pivoting from forum only platforms that offer generic discussion to platforms that offer resources, user expertise, and more.

 

[Ludachris]

Bummer, was really hoping to get some replies to this. I'm sure those who have found success in recent years might be too busy running their forums to participate in threads like this, or maybe there just are very few success stories like this.

 

[Shortie]

I often hear many claiming that social media is dominant over forums now and that forums are dying because of social media and many seem to believe that is true because of how popular social media is in the current state.

I am always seeing new forums popping up and they either succeed to a certain point or people give up with them too soon because they firmly believe that the competition from social media is killing off forums.

I used to run my own forum from 2009 - 2017 when I made the tough decision to close it due to the rising costs in the hosting I was using and also wanting to move on to try something new. Back then I would always hear about success stories but now, it's few and far between which is a shame.

 

[Ludachris]

I often hear many claiming that social media is dominant over forums now and that forums are dying because of social media and many seem to believe that is true because of how popular social media is in the current state.

I am always seeing new forums popping up and they either succeed to a certain point or people give up with them too soon because they firmly believe that the competition from social media is killing off forums.

I used to run my own forum from 2009 - 2017 when I made the tough decision to close it due to the rising costs in the hosting I was using and also wanting to move on to try something new. Back then I would always hear about success stories but now, it's few and far between which is a shame.

It varies from community to community and niche to niche. I believe it really depends on how many of the "leaders" in the community your forum is focused on are fully immersed in (meaning: addicted to) social media. Do the "influencers" in that niche talk about the subject matter of your forum on social media daily? Are they answering questions about it in FB groups? Are they sharing their journey and experiences for said topic over on social media, instead of in your forum? What can you offer in your forum that would draw them away from the network they've curated on FB?

Unfortunately for us, a growing number of the "important" users that used to help mold forums and post long form content spend a lot of their time on social media now. Some do it because they are able to carefully curate their network of people they interact with. They can post something on their wall and converse with people they know and like, or jump into FB groups if they choose to. Some do it because they are "influencers" or are mainly online to do marketing, and they know they can reach a larger audience with their messages - which the people they do business with appreciate. Some feel they'll get replies to questions faster, which a lot of the time is true (the accuracy of the answers, well that's a different story). And nobody will find that potentially important Q&A exchange later if it takes place on someone's wall.

Part of the limitation with forums is also what makes them so nice in the age of chaotic and fragmented information exchanges. Forums are focused around one main topic or subject. And though most all forums have sub-forums for off topic discussions, it's simply not the same as a massive social network that has all the topics in one place. With alerts for any of your posts all in one place. What draw can a forum have when the user can find just as many enthusiasts or subject matter experts, or more, on social media compared to the forum, and it's a more convenient user experience?

Again, some forums have still been able to grow and be pretty successful. Not all of the older ones have faded away. Some are doing pretty well. And a growing number of people either don't like or are tired of social media chaos. But I think if forums are to remain strong and actually take back some of the viewership lost to social media, there has to be a shift in approach. They/we have to deliver an experience that isn't just the same old forum experience. Forums cannot just be a place where people discuss a focused topic. There has to be a draw beyond Q&A, which can take place everywhere these days, and where social media can be just as useful for most people. There has to be a vision and execution that goes beyond just the sharing of information or providing a place to have conversations, even though that will always be an important aspect of all forums.

Certain features the average user has become accustomed to have to be integrated into the user experience somehow. A few things that forums still lack (or are clunky at) that make social network apps so "sticky" include:

- Stable/reliable device push notifications for relevant content updates - not just email updates.
- Ability to take a photo with a phone and share it immediately to the forum with the Share button.
- Ability to open an app and post a question or share a thought with a photo in 30 seconds or less, without clicking around and deciding which forum to post it in.
- Quick and easy paths to simple participation.
- Quickly finding the answers to the user's question or the info they need.

Though push notifications are now FINALLY possible with XF on android and apple, from what I've found, they're not always consistent for all members.

Again, these are just my observations. Some will see things differently based on their experiences.

Not that we've had any successful forum owners chime in on this thread with how they've grown a new forum to critical mass yet, but if we do, I'd be curious to hear what type of content they focused their daily efforts on in the beginning and what worked best. Sharing niche news doesn't seem like a great strategy since people share that on social media too. What strategies have worked well for those who have made a new forum take off?

 

[Cedric]

We often say content is king, and that hasn't changed for over two decades. It still applies. But all that content is found elsewhere too. You can't bring unique content without it being found somewhere already. And yes, it still applies, but it will take a few years for that to be recognized. You can't turn a website in a success overnight. It takes literally years.

People who started their forum in the heydays got a huge advantage not having social media alternatives. While forums once had the bigger audience, we can only DREAM of 1% now.

So yes, it's still possible to build out new communities, but you'll rarely see the same success from the past two decades.

I got quite lucky with Admin Junkies before I sold it to joelr, and at the same time it was the first time I ever worked so hard in the past two decades too.

If you want something building out quickly, the adult niche is still growing rapidly.