Are Message Boards going the way of the Dinosaurs?

[Gracie]

FB, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Things keep changing. Are message boards going to MySpace Hell, do you think? Or is there still a purpose for them? I know usmb is busy, but not like it used to be. And message boards tends to move around in the same galaxy, so although there are many of them, many are also uninhabited. Do people just wander off cuz they are bored with it all, or do other places like Twitter and FB lure them better?

What's your thoughts?

 

[Rouge Rover]

I think message boards will be around for awhile. Look at how the Internet has changed since message boards appeared, the boards are still here.

 

[Gracie]

And there are millions of them. The ones I have found are either empty, or rarely used, or are just old time friends that have hung out with each other since wagon wheel days and are suspicious of anyone new showing up and not very welcoming. Or worse, you have to ask to be allowed to post without even seeing whats IN the board.

One board I used to post at recently went to FB after many years of being just another board. Everyone was on FB so they said fuck it, and went there too. I do not do FB. I won't go there. So...I had to say goodbye when I heard they were closing it all down.

Some time back, I was looking for a Boomer board. Folks my age, to talk about our wagon wheel days, lol. It is one BUSY board, but alas, the owner is like Hitler, so I left. He is there 24/7/365 and will edit your posts if he thinks you did not express yourself well enough, or misspelled something or didn't agree with HOW you expressed yourself. Shit like that. I said fuck you and fuck it and left. Unfortunately, most of the lemmings stayed even though they complained about what he was doing. I guess Boomers want a place to hang out more than stand up for themselves.

 

[Kat]

I totally hate Fb, thought I peek at it daily....just to see if anything is going on with old friends.

Boards or at least some boards are pretty dead or gone.
This one is still very active.

 

[Jackson]

Hi Gracie...
I hope the boards aren't going anywhere...I don't see how in depth you can get on twitter and I don't do FB either. Sounds like we were on the same board. Mine went to FB, too.

 

[Gracie]

CK needs to put BOOMERS and SENIORS in the tags for this place. Really. I'm serious. If he wants new members...he will get a shitload of them. Problem is...is keeping them. Seeing some of the threads here scared the few I invited here and they ran back from whence they came.

Boomers are in the thousands if not millions. Not a lot of places they can go except a scant few. But the fruit is ripe for picking if he can get usmb to show up in google and bing and has the tags of Boomer and Seniors.

cereal_killer

 

[DarkFury]

FB, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Things keep changing. Are message boards going to MySpace Hell, do you think? Or is there still a purpose for them? I know usmb is busy, but not like it used to be. And message boards tends to move around in the same galaxy, so although there are many of them, many are also uninhabited. Do people just wander off cuz they are bored with it all, or do other places like Twitter and FB lure them better?

What's your thoughts?

There are millions of them and they start and die every day. The "customer" base is only so large so once it gets totally filled one site will eat another.

 

[Gracie]

Remember when the other place was rockin' BEFORE they changed it and took the forums away, DF? That is where they fucked up.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

I think message boards will be around for awhile. Look at how the Internet has changed since message boards appeared, the boards are still here.

“Message Boards” have been around since long before the Internet was accessible to the general public. Back in the early 1980s, up through the 1990s, until the Internet took over, we called them “Bulletin Board Systems”, or BBSes. In it's simplest form, a BBS consisted of a computer with a modem, set to answer incoming phone calls from users calling in with their modems; typically having only one phone line and allowing only one user to be on at a time. The user could post messages,and read messages that had been left by other users. More sophisticated forms operated in a loose network, wherein certain times of the day were designated for the BBSes participating in a network to call each other and pass messages around, rather than taking calls from users.

My wife and I met over a BBS network, called FidoNet. Back then, these BBSes were mostly inhabited by stereotypical nerds—intelligent, shy, socially-awkward male computer geeks, desperate for female companionship and unable to obtain it. I was probably one of the more extreme examples of such. Perhaps you can imagine the disturbance when a user identified herself as female, and expressed dissatisfaction with the dating prospects in her area. I consider it miraculous that I was the one who succeeded in attracting her attention to me, and convincing her to consider me as a possible romantic interest. After some months of corresponding, she made the trip from her home in Reedsport, Oregon, to visit me in Santa Barbara, California. Four days later, we were engaged, and a year after that, we were married, and we have now been married for almost twenty-one years.

 

[Gracie]

The "customer" base is only so large

Actually, boards die due to lack of customer base. But, as we all know, that customer base can become stagnant with no "fresh meat". Everyone gets comfy with each other. Newbs get roasted right off the bat because nobody knows if they are a sock or not. Familiarity breeds contempt. All boards need new people to keep it fresh, so to speak.

 

[Rouge Rover]

I think message boards will be around for awhile. Look at how the Internet has changed since message boards appeared, the boards are still here.

“Message Boards” have been around since long before the Internet was accessible to the general public. Back in the early 1980s, up through the 1990s, until the Internet took over, we called them “Bulletin Board Systems”, or BBSes. In it's simplest form, a BBS consisted of a computer with a modem, set to answer incoming phone calls from users calling in with their modems; typically having only one phone line and allowing only one user to be on at a time. The user could post messages,and read messages that had been left by other users. More sophisticated forms operated in a loose network, wherein certain times of the day were designated for the BBSes participating in a network to call each other and pass messages around, rather than taking calls from users.

My wife and I met over a BBS network, called FidoNet. Back then, these BBSes were mostly inhabited by stereotypical nerds—intelligent, shy, socially-awkward male computer geeks, desperate for female companionship and unable to obtain it. I was probably one of the more extreme examples of such. Perhaps you can imagine the disturbance when a user identified herself as female, and expressed dissatisfaction with the dating prospects in her area. I consider it miraculous that I was the one who succeeded in attracting her attention to me, and convincing her to consider me as a possible romantic interest. After some months of corresponding, she made the trip from her home in Reedsport, Oregon, to visit me in Santa Barbara, California. Four days later, we were engaged, and a year after that, we were married, and we have now been married for almost twenty-one years.

Geek

 

[Gracie]

I remember the first time I saw people chatting on a forum. Some guy on his pc my girlfriend was dating and I was staring at his pc with all these live chat things going on and he said "those are people all over the world..talking in one spot". I immediately went and bought a webtv. Learned html. Built my first page with it. Then when I got comfy and wanted a camera...I went to a real PC. That was back in 1988 or thereabouts.

 

[DarkFury]

Remember when the other place was rockin' BEFORE they changed it and took the forums away, DF? That is where they fucked up.

Ben Ogdens site. He wanted 1.5 million for it. He dropped forums and lost 200,000 members in one month. He is NOW DOWN to 200,000 members and his site value has dropped as well.

He had over a MILLION members when we were there and a great active rate. Have many forums did I have there? Five or six? Members were building new forums monthly.

Forums will live. Blogs are fine for what they are. But a well run even handed forum is harder and harder to come by.

 

[DarkFury]

The "customer" base is only so large

Actually, boards die due to lack of customer base. But, as we all know, that customer base can become stagnant with no "fresh meat". Everyone gets comfy with each other. Newbs get roasted right off the bat because nobody knows if they are a sock or not. Familiarity breeds contempt. All boards need new people to keep it fresh, so to speak.

That is why you see some boards buying others and thats why member/active rates are so important to overall board value.
Loan wise that is how the bank judges any risk factor.

You do recall 'Adam" was being sued for using a sever replicator program to boost ENTIRE boards to his site! Xenforo was suing him for boosting their platform programming and RE-marketing it as HIS.

 

[Gracie]

Ben was and is full of shit. I always knew that. His one love malarky was just that. Malarky.
There is a website that says what a board is worth but I don't remember what it is. I guess I can google for it.

 

[Gracie]

lol. I am not sure if this is bullshit, but USMB is worth this:
$ 4,292,860

Your Website Value | Website Worth | Website Valuation Calculator

 

[Kat]

My big question is why people think it is okay to abuse others on message boards. And why people think it is cute to come back as socks.

 

[DarkFury]

Ben was and is full of shit. I always knew that. His one love malarky was just that. Malarky.
There is a website that says what a board is worth but I don't remember what it is. I guess I can google for it.

Jabber will give you a review of the site. Its legal listed home plus where its server is at.

 

[Kat]

OOPS that is 2 questions. Oh well.

 

[Kat]

lol. I am not sure if this is bullshit, but USMB is worth this:
$ 4,292,860

Your Website Value | Website Worth | Website Valuation Calculator

Dat a biggun!