Before, forums were fun. I was able to do something enjoyable, and make some money off of it. Lately, it's gotten to be a pain in the lime. Like, going to forums is fine, but just the aspect of running them seems boring to me. One reason is Digitalpoint has gotten harder and harder to sell any of my forum related projects on there. It seems like maybe the whole economy has hit its toll on forums just a little? I've also just seen a decrease in a lot of my online friends forum activity. Seems like I'm not the only one getting bored of forums. So.... my question is.... Does anybody else feel like forums are just getting boring?
Not boring per se but obviously the internet is becoming saturated with forums and social communities. Personally I feel that stuff isn't selling either like domains or sites but my income on my sites has been still growing as well as my daily uniques. So I have ditched a lot of projects in favor of focusing on the profitable ones. Sad too since I have some amazing forum names.
I think after all this time with huge sums of development, things are starting to flatten out a bit. We now have competence round-about on both ends of the stick. Linux - Microsoft, MyBB - vB, Facebook - Twitter, OpenOffice - Word. They're all starting to level out for a while.
I find foruming to be very fun!
Especially when you meet some one you like, and make a new friend. Even if they're only online.
Its also a place for creativity, I mean, yes. I may take forever to make and finish MyBB themes, as sad as that maybe. But it gives me a chance to be creative, and take all the time I want.
Heck, I can even test out my skills in making smilies. Yes, a lot of people use forums for socializing, and there is nothing wrong with that.
It's easy for me to see how it could become boring as a business.
I run my forum as a hobby. As long as I'm passionate about the subject matter, I'll stay interested in the forum. I don't know how to invest so much work into something I'm not personally passionate about. The idea of developing forums just to sell them doesn't appeal to me at all.
(2008-12-30, 08:05 AM)Ryan Gordon Wrote: [ -> ]I think after all this time with huge sums of development, things are starting to flatten out a bit. We now have competence round-about on both ends of the stick. Linux - Microsoft, MyBB - vB, Facebook - Twitter, OpenOffice - Word. They're all starting to level out for a while.
Not necessarily so, a lot of new startup companies have yet to launch their services, which scares me. The web continues to regain its popularity more than ever, including investments, new technology, etc. It seems as if we're following the path of the 90's when the .com "bubble bursted" but we're in a more dangerous state. With a lot of companies solely on the web, we are relying so much on it: buying, selling, trading, creating, sharing, school, knowledge, and so much more. I just hope for the best.
(2008-12-30, 02:36 PM)Rcpalace Wrote: [ -> ] (2008-12-30, 08:05 AM)Ryan Gordon Wrote: [ -> ]I think after all this time with huge sums of development, things are starting to flatten out a bit. We now have competence round-about on both ends of the stick. Linux - Microsoft, MyBB - vB, Facebook - Twitter, OpenOffice - Word. They're all starting to level out for a while.
Not necessarily so, a lot of new startup companies have yet to launch their services, which scares me. The web continues to regain its popularity more than ever, including investments, new technology, etc. It seems as if we're following the path of the 90's when the .com "bubble bursted" but we're in a more dangerous state. With a lot of companies solely on the web, we are relying so much on it: buying, selling, trading, creating, sharing, school, knowledge, and so much more. I just hope for the best.
Sure, you will always have the inventors and the entrepreneurs, but for the biggies, things are starting to level out.