[Darth-Apple]

I'm just going to call this decade the 20s. I think this year kicked it off. We've been through enough. Here we go.  

Anyway, I've noticed a lot has changed. Most free softwares have sort of fallen by the wayside. Those that are still running free forums are running simpler (not more advanced) communities, almost with fewer features. 

MyBB's support forum is only a shadow of its old self. It's still alive and has a dedicated following, and a number of developers still contribute plugins and themes. But the software itself lacks responsiveness and basic features that come with more modern softwares, so it's been difficult for them to attract the new users they deserve. I absolutely love MyBB, so it's a bit of a shame that it seems slower. It seems that it doesn't have the fire it once did though, and I hope that this can change in the long term. 

Forums have really been taken over by more modernized solutions, such as Facebook groups. FB groups is huge. I actually thought long and hard about making a presence for MS on FB groups, but my fear is that it would detract from the actual forum itself. We will probably expand long-term into more modernized solutions, but the makestation.net forum is the absolute first priority, and we won't do anything to the detriment of this forum. 

That being said, it truly seems that the landscape has changed. The opportunities that were available to us when MS was founded in 2013 just don't seem to be as plentiful now. 

What are your thoughts? Where are forums going in this next decade?

[Guardian]

I wish I knew the answer... I've mulled this one over a lot and its really hard to predict. I see some people ditching social media because of the politics and drama, but i haven't seen an influx of forum use because of that. Maybe forums will never be as big as they once were, and we just have to accept we're more of a niche crowd. That said, I think forums that can build a solid community, and offer features that keep people coming back is the idea. Take HF, a lot of nonsense, but at the same time they've created games where you play with forum currency. People post to get currency, and then use the currency to play the game, whether its simple gambling, make bets on real sports events, or using the currency to nurture a virtual pet to fight others, or to buy virtual items used in another game. People stick around for the games longer than they would have, post about the games and features, post elsewhere to earn currency, and you have micro-climates within that one forum. I only use a few forums, others stay in different ones. Its crazy but it works.

That's a lot of work though. So far, providing a service (plugins) helps bring some people in, but they don't post much for it.

[Kyng]

I think "Surviving, hopefully" is the best way to put it .

I've long since accepted that they aren't what they once were (and they're never likely to be), but they do still seem to have a loyal base. We'll probably also see a few people coming back after many years away, either because they've grown bored of social media or because they have more time on their hands.

Of course, this all depends on the continued existence of a forum software that can be maintained and kept secure. This in turn depends on it either being profitable to do as a business, or able to maintain a sufficiently large group of volunteers able and willing to do it for free. Given that we have no idea what technical or legal challenges will arise, it's hard to say whether either of these will be able to succeed.

I dunno. I don't see forums moving forward in the 2020s, but if the goal is merely 'survival', then I'm cautiously optimistic - at least in the short-to-medium term.

[tc4me]

As long as the 30s are not the same as they were a hundred years ago, everything is fine with me, just NOT that anymore!

#######################
1930: Mahatma Gandhi's salt march
Great Depression, mass unemployment until the mid-1930s
Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia (1932–1935)
The NSDAP came to power in Germany in 1933: Adolf Hitler
Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
1937: Japanese invasion of China
December 17, 1938: Otto Hahn discovers the fission of the uranium atom, the scientific and technological basis for the use of nuclear energy
September 1, 1939: beginning of the Second World War (time table)

########################

Unfortunately, Covid-19 is doing its negative part, mass unemployment, economic crisis, masses are dying ... but somehow strange:

As for us here, We are We and will not let ourselves and MS go under!

And FB etc and its mafia, well I avoid that on a large scale by not having an account in:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Snapchat
TikTok
VKontakte (Russia)
Renren (China)
WeChat (China)
Blogs (one of the oldest forms of social media)

have !