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justruss wrote:
Thread drift alert!
That sounds anecdotal to me. I tried a quick search, and all I could find is something saying that Internet Brands reported worldwide forum traffic to be increasing.
I'd love to see REAL statistics that show worldwide forum traffic going one way or another. It's hard to imagine that with so many new people getting online each day-- that global forum traffic is receding.
How is looking at real numbers anecdotal? The only forum I'm on where traffic has increased is VO, and that's because the underlying movement has also grown. The rest have lost a considerable amount of traffic, this includes hobby forums, pet forums, extreme sport forums, local / social forums, etc. You can do the same for any forum you are on, it generally only takes a quick look or search to see how traffic has fallen off within the last 2-4 years. The ones where traffic has actually grown are few and far between, and this typically coincides with a rapidly growing pool of potential users.
Not only has the usage dropped off significantly, but forums have also lost their prominence in regards to real life. For instance forum sites that used to be the go-to place for local meetups, activities, and information have been all but replaced by facebook, meetup, and the like. In things like photography, forum sites used to be the go-to place for new users who had questions or needed advice. No longer true, at least not as common as it once was.
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