One thing I’ve kinda noticed over the last few years is how I’ve begun to use forums less every day and blogs more every day. There was a time where I’d be an active member of about 10 forums and I’d spend over an hour every day reading posts and adding my thoughts. Today, I probably spend under 10 minutes a day reading forums and over an hour reading blogs through my feeds and updating my blogs.
In some ways, blogs and feeds have replaced forums for me. Instead of reading forums where I can find out what random people think about random things to do with technology, I choose a few blogs about focused subjects I enjoy reading about – PHP, Linux, Windows, etc. And instead of posting my thoughts or complaints on forums, I now tend to post my thoughts on my blog.
With blogs and RSS feeds to easily consume a lot of blogs, blogs turn the web into one big discussion forum.
So are blogs really democratizing the web and broadening our horizons? I think not.
- I tend to read blogs only about PHP so I haven’t a clue what is happening in the ASP or JSP communities. On forums I used to visit, I might have occasionally glanced threads and discussions about ASP and JSP.
- Blogs are generally focused on the opinions of one person whilst forums are that of the community. With forums, we learn the opinions of the whole community rather than just one person with blogs. It’s possible that we can subscribe to multiple blogs and therefore read multiple opinions but people tend to only read blogs of those people they strongly agree with. Thus, blogs could actually turn a moderate into an extreme fanboy.
- With blogs, it’s a ton harder to get an audience. You can sign up for a Blogger account and write down your thoughts but no one will be reading it. On a forum, you’ll immediately get an audience because your post and opinion is treated equally with everybody elses posts. On a forum, it doesn’t really matter whether your a first day newbie or seasoned poster. If you’ve been blogging for a long time and you have an audience, your post carries a lot more weight on a blog than a forum.
It’s been said many times that blogs are making it a lot easier for people to share their thoughts giving everybody a level playing field. I wonder whether by replacing forums blogs could also be doing the reverse – making it harder for people starting out to get an audience for their thoughts and easier for seasoned posters (therefore creating a hierarchy). And have blogs really allowed us to expand our horizons or are they doing the exact reverse?
I’ve only ever been a long-term member of 2 forums – one went out of business and the other I’ve been neglecting the past couple of weeks ironically because I was working on my blog.
You’ve got a a really good point. Personally, I’m relying more and more on my RSS feeds to give me my information and I find it worrying. My RSS feeds concentrate mainly on technology, web design, friends and mostly factual based blogs. I’ve subscribed to a few Google feeds but no Microsoft. I’m reading Nintendo blogs but no Sony.
Also, your point about audience difference between blogs and forums is very noticable. In forums, my post is seen by nearly everyone and they can reply with what they think – you can usually get a reply in a forum by writing about anything – but in blogs, it’s hard to get an audience and especially an audience that stick with you. Over half my blog’s visitors come from random search engine searches and those that are regular are only from the USA and select parts of Europe.
No, I only read a few blogs, I get most of my info from large news sites.
Still visit forums, but I’m only usually tied down to one.
I agree with what you’r saying. Certainly for myself I’ve seen a similar shift.
I think that almost everyone who was a regular forum user before a couple of years back will have experienced a similar shift to some degree. Even if you have no blog and don’t use feeds. Blogs are so common place now as to be hard to avoid.
Now that you talk about it I’m not sure I like the more insular nature it’s given my view on the web.
I’ve never given forums massive attention, theres one I read occassionally and I’ve accumulated around 700 posts on that one, I’ve got accounts on probably 20 different technology forums which are basically just for any times I have a problem and need to make a quick post asking for advice.
Blog wise I don’t check many blogs, I check a few development blogs on some open source projects and then the blogs of people I know. I can’t ever really see loosing forums to blogs entirely however I think the time of the BBS is finally coming to a close and we’ll see some new form of community driven software.
thanks you