Is Twitter the forum killer?
Ironically enough I brought this conversation up with my Twitter friends last night. I received several responses all saying they are on the forums less.
Why do you think people are spending less times on forums?
I can only speak for myself but the main reason is the diverse crowd that Twitter brings. I went from averaging 8-12 posts per day on NamePros.com to 8-12 per week. At the same time I am at about 30-40 updates per day on Twitter. Twitter allows me to hold more conversations about everything and anything with short, to the point answers. Twitter has no rules. If I were to post an lol or something with no meaning on a forum I would be penalized and possibly banned. Plus the majority of forums frown upon self promotion. For the most part I am not allowed to throw up a forum thread saying, check out my new blog post. On occasion I will get away with it if it’s a valuable post.
There are days that I want to have my domainer conversations. I can still do that with Twitter. Whatever type of comment I put out will dictate the people that respond. If I talk about a TV show that I like, I get responses from my fellow TV viewers. The same works for talking about domain names.
Not to be negative but I really can’t think of too many reasons for a forum. One possible reason, at least for the domain industry, would be domain sales. Other than that all conversations could be held on Twitter and any articles housed on individual blogs. Now having said that I still plan on being a part of a forum or two. I do enjoy reading some threads and chatting with the members. Not all of them are on Twitter.
One last thing, all of my references above have been about public forums. There are too many reasons why a private forum is different, that is an entirely different subject.
What do you think, do you spend less time on forums and why?
PS…follow me on Twitter 
Patrick, you are spot on, i was having the same thought earlier this week. I spend alot less time on the forums, other than scanning names for sale i really do not do much reading or posting now. Twitter is more real time and loose which I like. Nice to see that I am not the only one thinking this:)
“Not to be negative but I really can’t think of too many reasons for a forum.”
Have to agree 150% with this.
I have held off posting a blog post for the potential flame wars.
For me, the power of twitter is evident while others may not “get it”.
The forums may still be a good place for NooBs. But less face it – twitter is a less hostile and more friendly environs.
DNhop on Twitter is just one of 8 accounts I manage, soon to be 14.
For my primary business, I have seen traffic pick up substantially along with AdSense Revenue. All in about a month and a half being on Twitter.
“One possible reason, at least for the domain industry, would be domain sales.”
Looking for Twitter to ultimately trump forums in that arena as well. Already seen some awesome communication and retweets for some great alerts to sales/auctions.
Naturally, I won’t post the ones I am after
but I still seen Twitter as one powerful tool and strong mojo.
Look forward to more news and events coming out of the “kitchen” of da Chef
Chef:
Great post (even if I did suggest it but we’re even because of forumkiller.com) I think we will find domains are going to be sold via Twitter. I think it’s DotSauce already does have a means of doing that.
Anyway, take care and I’ll see you on Twitter
CallerBrian
That´s right Chef.
Since I joined Twitter the time being on forums has constantly shortened
Twitter is so much more powerfull than expected and that will grow up for more
There will be more and more folks come and tweeting instead of posting something on forums.
Regards, Chris
There is a tool for every need LOL
I don’t think of twitter as a forum killer. First off, at 140 chars limit you can’t make epic posts (Gerry!)
Second, all tweets are 100% public and searchable, which can mean trouble. Not all forum posts are indexed and can be edited and/or retracted.
Lastly, because I used IRC from day #1 of my Internet use, I still think it’s the best communication application after email. Twitter is like IRC with no refresh built in. Unless you use tweeterdeck etc.
Hey, come on over to http://telsucks.com for some conversation
I know you love Forums…between DNForum and NamePros you have 23,956 posts.
Has your posting dropped off at all since using Twitter?
Twitter is another micro community, like forums!
When you visit DNF you allways seen the same for many years, Accro and a dozen of others domainers that make most of the conversations. There are there everyday, it’s the place where this group meet daily and caution on what you say if you are not part of the group, you are immediately agressed.
It’s exactly the same in NamePros and exactly the same in others forums.
The other day I was thining it’s the same thing in Twitter, the people I follow are most all domainers, and everytime I look I see a micro group allways chating, I am following hundred but finally here again there is a good dozen that make all the posts. They find their place where they are happy.
Exactly the same experience as you Patrick. I’m spending way less time on forums (fora?) and getting most of what I used to get from them via Twitter.
@Francois I’ve always been “prolifique”
with forum posting, some 11k posts at WHT and numerous others I don’t even recall, since the mid 90’s. Twitters are lost in a sea of “cliques” that seem to gather around in “nests” LOL
I prefer to view twitter as a short thought depository; some of my tweets are preludes to blog posts.
Hey, I justed wanted to give you a compliment on your blog, keep up the great work. I will be back to check it out in the near future.
For writers, yes.. Forums might be dead. But for readers, forums are better as it separates the wheat from the chaff. It is a real pain going through tweets to find something that is worth.
But, as more and more writers prefers only to tweet, soon forums might die
Well said patrick but I will add this. The strong forums will survive and find a way to thrive. When blogs became popular we also thought it might be the forum killer. However the popularity of forums will dwindle expecially in our domaining field.
I have been leveraging twits more lately, in part of performing both things at once – short blurbs on twitter, including domains I have for sale, with links to NP/DNF auctions. It gets extra traffic there and meanwhile I can still do both things.
Its all a matter of opinion on both fronts. There are things a forum can not do but there are also things twitter can not do. A forum on one hand can easily be searched and archived derived on a specific forum title or post. Twitter can do much of the same but only in the context of the tweet. So in the instance you search “domains” on twitter you will pull many many irrelevant tweets relating anything from a computer passwords/account domain to an actual domain name on the web. Where as you search the same things on a forum, it will be pulled from tags, titles, and posts themselves AND it can be done with an “advanced” search. Plus forums are “spidered” a lot easier than twitter(if at all).
As you say you have conversations on twitter, well that’s what it essentially is, a conversation “portal”. A forum on the other hand is more of a resource and wealth of searchable information “engine”. This is why the old or “niche” forums will always survive, they are a “resource”. Twitter will not kill the 400 word posts that make so much sense that you have to link to it through twitter…
Good Post
Hi Biggie Pat,
Nice angle and article… but to me, Twitter is unproven. While I have sold domains by the hundreds and gained new clients on forums, I have yet to get some sort of meaningful response from Twitter.
It’s like this:
FORUMS: Post detailed information, questions, domain offers, with no limit on characters/words used
TWITTER: Chirp about something within 140 characters, hope someone is paying attention, and join the masses in trying to be heard. On Twitter, if you “follow” 100 people who post 2 “twitterings” a day, that’s 200 “twits” a day for you (or anyone) to read.
Ever read a “twitter” comment and been impressed? Ever acted on that Twitter comment and upgraded your business from it? No? Me neither. I’ve been using/studying Twitter for about six months. Twitter has brought me… NOTHING.
I just posted on Twitter about this comment I was posting here, and I have 155 followers. Let’s see how many people, out of ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FIVE actually respond, on Twitter or otherwise.
Thanks Patrick for the opportunity to form this test project about Twitter.
You’ve sold hundreds of domains through forums which echos one of the uses I said a forum would be good for.
I agree that Twitter being 140 characters or less more than likely will not hold much substance. What it does allow for is building a relationship, something that can be taken offline.
Perfect example would be meeting you. You first commented about my domaining video through Twitter. We then took it offline to email.
For someone with your experience and vast knowledge a forum would more than likely provide a low value. You are a seasoned vet, 10+ years if I remember correctly. I doubt there is something you can learn on a forum. If anything it would be you teaching.
I agree with you Stephen, and Twitter one day may prove to be a better vehicle for domaining than the forums but it is nowhere close right now. IMO
My goodness, since I started twittering, my sites traffic has gone up tremendously and best of all-I am becoming famous!!!
Hell with forums-forum cannot banned me now for some stupid silly rules.
Man, I have so many followers and people are wanting to know me.
What is your Twitter name?
The web is a multimedia conversation. Twitter is killing a lot of things, and it’s also growing a lot of things. It’s not going away anytime soon. Just like YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Blip, Flickr, Yelp and the blogosphere are all powerful tools, you gotta ‘use’ them enough in order to really know how to ‘prove’ them.
Ever since twitter first went public I was surprised how many ‘domainers’ failed to comprehend the inherent values that twitter stood to offer, as well as the potential values that it might bring in the future. Twitter is just getting started and it makes a lot of sense on many fronts. You just gotta look beyond the screen and into the personalities if you truly intend to unveil the real power and opportunity.
@stephendoulgas – I’ve been able to meet many new customers, new clients, new partners, and new people of interest through all of my various social media accounts. Social media is all about how you use it and how often you use it.