[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.