Future of the forums

[Matt]

Hi Guys,

As you know Facebook has been one giant machine in terms of communicating / buying & selling and in general browsing the internet. As such the traffic coming to / from the forums has been on a steady decline for the past 3-4 years.

However, I feel there is still a still a need / future for the forums but in a modified format as to what they are today. So, I'm looking for your feedback as to how we can improve on them.

I can program and make custom code, so if you have any idea please feel free to share it with me.

Cheers
Matt

[McLEVIN]

Idk if its google or me but im finding it ever more difficult to dig up old info...whether it be through the forum search or googling something ae86. In the past it would come up with ae86dc and a whole host of threads specific to my query....even archived threads are difficult to search for

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[Slimer86]

This is a good point Chris. I can remember bits of threads but it could take hours to find the section applicable to someones query. I don't use Fb and have gained so much from this and similar forums. It is a wealth of information and users knowledge.

[Matt]

Yeah 100% the search results are dropping down the list because to be at the top of google the threads have to be current / updated regularly. Searching through the forums natively has always been on the poor side.

I have plans for a tech library, but it would involve some volunteers to go through the tech threads and sort them into categories + mark them as answered / resolved etc. The other annoying thing was for a while we were hit with a redirect which hurt the search results too.

I know from a mobile unless you use tapatalk, its pretty bad to navigate through what we have today but there is also plans to sort that out too. Looking at the stats also, 70% of all traffic here is from a mobile where as a few years back it was lucky to be 20%

[cbjaust]

I don't think facebook can replace the forums for the technical knowledge that they contain.

[McLEVIN]

I miss the general shitposting that used to go on and the sense of cuminity of the forums, something you dont get from fb, everyone seems so hostile

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[Matt]

With friends / family / colleagues etc on FB you'd expect people to be more civilised etc, but that is definitely not the case. My purpose of posting is to think outside the box and collectively get a few ideas on what to do with information here and keep the site alive.

[jamiesbrain]

What about moving it all from this into a single app with no content in the forum other than a redirect to the app for everyone using on mobile maybe? Cover the bases with Apple and droid to begin with?

Unsure if its easy with the templates laying around to create apps or its hard....

Traditional web based forums are so 2012! haha!

But seriously I used this as a reference and tool for everything ae86, like others say getting some of the older threads has been really good to find what I need.