This post is a follow up to 'Forums Suck'. Thanks to everyone who commented on that post with additional insight.
Social media took off in the second half of the last decade, and revolutionized communication online. The cornerstones of this movement are now household names and it's easier than ever for anyone to create, share, and discuss content online. Brands are also prevalent, constantly finding inventive ways to piggyback on the viral nature of large social networks. Thus, in addition to personal relationships, social media has become the new home of customer relationships, tackling anything from significant announcements to individual customer responses.
In comparison, forums have remained pretty much untouched for over 10 years. Packages like vBulletin have wedged in a few web2.0-esque features, but pretty fundamental cracks are beginning to show. There just isn't the same focus on building networks, so each member soon becomes lost in the bustle of larger communities. However, these larger communities are probably the only reason forums still exist as such a major component of the web today: No other platform offers quite the same scalability, thanks to the straight forward categorization and navigability in the way it presents a massive number of interactions. That said, while it can cater to the size of large communities adequately, it's only in the shallowest sense. You just can't influence the flow of content enough to ensure that members are finding that which interests them most without adding endless layers of categorization and losing the ease of navigation. Conversely, and equally as bad, members wont feel like their content is being found by those it is intended for, instead being drowned out by sheer numbers.
So, how do we go about modernizing forums to solve some of these issues? What lessons can we learn from the success stories of the last few years? Where to start...
The field of online community management has changed significantly in the last few years with the growth of social networking giants like YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook. Substantial new services spring up at an impressive pace, providing new and interesting ways to engage our audience. Not only that, but as part of catering for a modern audience these services are under constant pressure to revise and innovate. It's an inspiring landscape of entrepreneurs and enthusiasts, with the most successful entities dominating large chunks of the web as we know it.
