As for the talk of forums being obsoleted by things like Discord, Facebook, Reddit and Twitter in some ways they are although I argue that Reddit is sort of just like a big forum. But there are other sites out there with forums that are still thriving and surviving. Neoseeker and Something Awful are examples of large forums doing alright. I don't know what the state of NeoGaf is like these days but it seems to work.
The advantage they have over a place like this is a large userbase/community and because of that there is a lot more instant communication. Posting something will generally see a lot of other replies be made in response. So, for NWR with a lower base and less posters will have a lot more stuff that doesn't get a reply right away or doesn't seem to get much traction even if people read or respond to it. With the NWR Discord, you can now have that benefit of finding someone else online at the same time and trade back and forth communication. Moreover, a conversation can take a turn leading to a subject of interest that one can delve into right away rather than posting on the forums and hoping others will respond in return.
The difference is, and this is something Mop it up mentioned the other day on Discord when we were chatting, it "just feels like a waste to put effort into messages here that just get pushed up and disappear." I agreed and mentioned that I know a lot of users don't even bother to look back at the scroll of past messages so people often miss previous comments and topics of interest or start posting news that's already been posted.
When I checked into Discord today and caught up on all the messages that had been made after checking out yesterday, I was very disappointed that having you, Deguello and Bill Aurion show up on the Discord last night / this morning seemed to make no waves. No one else was talking about it or mentioned it. The endless scroll had moved on and I think most users didn't bother to go back and see what they had missed while off. Now if the three of you had come here and started posting in a topic with me here then I think it would have made bigger waves with the community here. Plus, there are users that may check in here now once a week or once a month or however infrequent their pattern may be but, when doing so, they'd have a chance to see such a thread and catch up and get to witness the grand reunion themselves. Most people probably aren't going to scroll through Discord a week later to catch up on everything they missed.
That is a bit of an advantage that forums still have over something like that. If you want to make some thoughts or keep some archived conversations/reference points then a forum can still have some benefit. If you aren't concerned about instant response and having a real-time chat then the forum, to me, still makes sense as a place to post things to allow for a bit of a record for yourself and others.
Topic: Infernal Monkey's still got it! (Read 3148 times)
