Bulletin boards vs. social networks

[dennisuello]

I've had a few vbulletin forums over the past 10 years, including one that's still doing very well and making enough to pay for itself and more. So, I'm pretty vested in vbulletin and don't really want to mess with what is working. That being said, I see the trend of people using major social networks instead, as they are way easier to use, have dedicated mobile apps, etc, etc. I've looked at some private social networking software packages to migrate my community over to, but I'm hesitant to make people move away from vb and lose some in the process.
Where do you see forums and bulletin boards going in the next few years? Are they going to die, with most people migrating to ig, fb, twitter and the like? Have you tried social networking alternatives to vb? IS vb's only way to survive is to morph into social network software?

[Replicant]

I've seen this migration to social media as well. I think it's the wave of the future since being on a forum requires people to communicate and socialize with each other. What I see in the "new generation" is people tend to not want to socialize, converse, or exchange information in a semi-usable manner. We tried a Facebook group for a few months and it evolved into starting a forum. I don't think forums will die, but I do think activity will drop dramatically to the point that less busy forums will fail unless the owner is willing to operate at a loss to keep it running. I personally prefer forums and think social media is worthless, but that's just my opinion.

[vazonov11]

Увы, мир не стоит на месте и постоянно развивается. Все время что-то новое появится, и оставить старый.

[nicyone]

nice...nice...nice...