While I do find that AI cites our solutions, they are still ranking well

This is very possible and requires a careful evaluation and the subsequent implementation of "more or less" what the AI is likely to present however it is very much a learning curve for AEOs at the moment.

If people aren't discussing stuff here, I wonder where they are now? Still loads of valuable content on here.

Good point. Maybe it has all been discussed at length before - maybe need a new topic - maybe a waste of time adding yet another post to the billions of misguided opinions already online.

@Mark_A, people are discussing things on a lot of other forums. I am on Hacker News most, for example. A lot of people discuss things on social media. People still write blog posts and get comments. A lot of discussion happens on private or restricted places such as chat - forums were killed by social media, and the noise of social media has pushed people to chat apps and private groups on social media.

As I said in my first comment on this thread people have become more specialist and technology more diverse. WW is both a generalist forum (it does backend, front end, SEO, etc.) and narrow (it is good at things like PHP and MySQL but not Go or even Python) so its less often relevant. On the other hand, when it is relevant there are a lot of high quality discussions here and a lot of people who know their stuff.

Kendo, you have a point. Google must still find a way that people paying for ads get a return so that G can continue to charge them.

graeme_p:
#1. @Mark_A, people are discussing things on a lot of other forums.

#2. A lot of people discuss things on social media.

#3. People still write blog posts and get comments.

#4. A lot of discussion happens on private or restricted places such as chat - forums were killed by social media, and the noise of social media has pushed people to chat apps and private groups on social media.

#1. True, there are some specialized forums out there, but we have to really pay attention to "people" + "other forums". I won't mention the tech forum, it has gazillion views and forum members, but it's mostly a closed ecosystem. I joined there because while searching for X info, found Z info, someone had a problem I faced and solved, so I said "why not staying a few minutes to share the solution?", but my post was completely ignored, even received downvotes. What happened? I checked the place, and while it has a huge user base, each branch of that forum is a separate ecosystem, with THE SAME PEOPLE TALKING TO EACH OTHER.

I've seen the same behavior at other forums: same people talking to each other, same old and boring mods and power users bashing others and pushing them to be suspended or banned, it's insane, it's a power-place for sick people.


#2. True. But we have to check the what and how, because a lot of post are just complaints, or disguised advertising and spam (and bots!)


#3. True, but lots of it is try to get rich quick, and people thinking they can make a living out of "writing" with AI. The amount of questions and discussions on how to build a website or blog with zero effort is devastatingly high.


#4. True. I mentioned old forums that vanished, and some that moved to a paid mode with very few members, but it's how they keep the platform alive, and don't forget discord, gosh, I've been on some and it's a nuthouse, some last a few months in order, but then you see tons of crazy people posting crazy random stuff.

@explorardor,

#1 they vary. There are good forums out there too, right? Well moderated and with a good community?

#2 True, and its terrible on other ways. Its designed for engagement for all else, but for that very reason its the first place people go.

#3 Once you find a good blog follow it. Most blogs have RSS feeds, use a reader.

#4 Discord depends. I have only used it a little, but what I have used has been good. One good forum I use has paid options. Actually, WW has too, so make that two good forums I use.

graeme_p: #1 they vary. There are good forums out there too, right? Well moderated and with a good community?

Yes, no, it depends, I'm not sure. A few years ago I decided to search the web for good webdev forums, why? some topics never took off here. Also, there are new challenges you can't discuss if people can't see them (like people failing to read, that took a while... some years to take off and people notice it, I mean, really) and I could give you some other reasons, but that's not needed for the reference. The point is, I really... REALLY navigated on everything I could find on the web, and most were abandoned forums... or sites created by people who were learning, MFA, even people who didn't like their old forums and decided to create their own, etc., you can name the reasons. But the problem is, most were abandoned, no traffic at all, about 2-3 users posting, rest of people asking questions on how to code in Python or PHP, wanting tutorials, and lots of people asking help to solve homework.

I made a list, went over it, and along the way even found forums who explained "this site is about to close". Results? I literally wasted hours of my time with nothing valuable, at all. It's not only that I have some experience and this created a gap, no... it's just that forums seemed at the time like a dying resource, and if I update my opinion today about that, well, several of those forums don't even exist anymore.

- - - - - - - - - -

Back to the "quiet here" thread title. I've mentioned this before: tons of places on the web discuss css, html, apps, webapps, etc., it's the how-to, things you can literally find on W3schools and free tutorials <--- it doesn't even make sense that so many people are asking questions about it. Then, you can find some weird places where some few discuss how to achieve some complex stuff, one of them is stack overflow, a place that has experienced it's own issues on toxicity.

&#8593; but I'm trying to paint some context to make a point there: discussing all those topics is like explaining 2+2, adding, multiplying, etc., and that at the end of the day offers very little value to the community and readers, it's redundancy.

On the other side, comments like "I learned basic css+ html to create this and that, and it evolved to... etc", I've seen that catching the attention of lots of users. So, you have multiplication on one hand, and "how learning to multiply changed my life", that's content people read, that's content I'm also willing to read, but almost nobody talks about it.

I've seen the same with university students, there is an increasing population more interested on learning HOW THIS CAN HELP ME TO IMPROVE MY LIFE, rather than "oh, I just learned Autocad", these people are questioning universities, because at the end, those institutions sell education and a premise of future skills for jobs, but people want and need jobs, they want to understand how their investment of money and time translates into income for a living.