Defibrillating the forum

[EpsilonX]

You make a few excelent points. What you are saying is true, people do connect more online and forums are declining.But does not spell doom for forums. Most of that actually works to our advantage in several ways if we think about it:

-There are more people online than ever, who like social media.
-There are more ways to get online and stay connected (phones, tables, computers even in game browsers)
-most social media (like facebook) keeps you in touch with friends, but there are few places better than a forum to meet new people with similar interests.

Facebook is more of a continuous wall of images and "make me feel better" mood updates. What a forum can offer is much more interesting environment in several ways.

What everyone is saying about having a welcoming and friendly community is true. We need to create a place where people can talk about common interests on a deeper level, and a place that is consciously aware that it needs to be welcoming. And also as a forum those members that make up its core need to go out of their way to express interest in what others are posting if they can.

Forums are struggling, but if we worked at it there is no reason we could not take off in a big way.

I was more referring to the fact that Facebook pages and groups sort of fill the void that forums used to. It's easier to find these groups and easier to connect with multiple people. You also don't have to go through the hassle of registering. It's not the same, but because of that I feel a lot of people don't need forums. I'm sure there are more active forums than I realize, I just never go looking for them, so I don't see them.

I feel like we just need to have more incentive for people to join. I wish there were more active game reviewers. I know i'm a game reviewer on here but I hardly come to the forum as it is and I don't really play that many games anymore. However, now that i'm done with college (for now) I might have time to do a review or two here or there. I have some games i'm almost done with/currently working through/about to start, so I can throw together a quick review of them. If we could get a dedicated team of people to review new games as they come out, maybe people would enjoy that? I don't even know if that would work well, just a thought.

I think we should have a Facebook page that posts frequently for sure. We just have to figure out the right kind of content. Memes always go over well on Facebook, so gaming memes might get us some attention. Then we'd just include a link to the forum on every pic we post. It could work.