What can we learn from Forums?

Josh Miller is talking with

David Galbraith ✖

What can we learn from Forums?

Many people who have been involved in the web for a long time feel that forums haven't evolved, but they haven't died either. Vast rock pools of special interest from skyscrapers to politics are fed via channels based on a software model from the mid 90s. Forums tend not to answer a specific question but a specific type of question: What's you opinion on? And there's evidence from polling firms that people engage better when explicitly asked their opinion vs answering a question factually.

Just my my opinion, my 2c, but I feel that the generic question type that hasn't been addressed by questions in publish boxes and provides an opportunity has a form of something like a statement or link, followed by a text box that simply says: 2c?

Josh Miller

Hey David,

Forums were a big inspiration for Branch Groups. I too am astounded at how, despite little innovation and outdated software, Forums are still alive and kicking. Moreover, folks who use Forums LOVE them. They visit everyday, intimately know many of the members, etc.

With that in mind, what can Branch learn from forums? What should we attempt to replicate a/o improve?

Why do Forums work? branch.com

Josh Miller @joshm 19 Nov

Thank you, forums, Usenet, The Well, Yahoo Groups, BBS, et al. You served as inspiration for the future of @Branch: http://branch.com/meet-groups

David Galbraith

I think there's something about their 'bad' design that hides a deeper relationship between the role of the moderator, contributor and lurker (which are different from the roles of contributor, curator and consumer). and I suspect it's all about the moderator - a role that you are doing here for example but which will have to scale and become more complex.

Reddit, Slashdot, and Wikipedia all have sophisticated methods of moderation. For Wikipedia, the 'bad' design and difficulty of use also helped filter the contributors to maintain quality.

To be honest I've never understood how these hierarchies work and evolved over time. I wish there was a good resource to explain them.

Josh Miller

Which moderator tools do you think are vital? Are they important because they make the moderator feel a sense of ownership/authority, or do they actually improve the content/experience for everyone else?

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