@explorador, what kind of innovations would you have in mind?

And with lower numbers of visitors / participants in WebmasterWorld would they draw enough interest?

what kind of innovations would you have in mind?

Sound and title bar notifications when you have a like, reply, reaction, that would be the first. Personally, this has no effect on me, I just visit the site, scan and move to the next thing. But I see a lot of people appreciate this function, perhaps because they keep lots of tabs open (that's also something I don't do).

Personally:
- Success stories, realistically documented and subject to discussion
- Failures, like forensic stories, what went wrong, also subject to discussion
- Cases and examples of image optimization
- Exemplary cases of optimization, how specific websites handle lots of traffic while others (specially in WP struggle)
- The market for UX is growing, I see more people in my country asking about it

Now this would require more time and effort, but "labs?", something like testing the same content with the same traffic using Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla, Wix, etc. I've found other forums where people supposedly develop websites, but most cases are about Wordpress (it's ok, it's just a tool) but the forums are plagued with "how can I do this simple thing?", as they don't know anything else but installing and copying, and there are other questions that may be interesting, all of them about handling traffic or load on the server.

Perhaps... a face lift, an appearance change. I personally don't mind, I'm here for the information, but I see others (specially new people) are used to modern looks, and when they see this forum they react like "ok... this looks old".

I'm not exactly sure what to do or what should be done, it's just as I mentioned on the opening post: I'm seeing more and more people on quiet forums showing interest to find a platform for discussion, I still don't know more (what drives them), or what they want to discuss, it just hits me because these expressions appeared in the term of one week on several sites. Based on what I see and what I have read, there is an increasing number of people who basically want an emotion, not just information.

The whole thread is based on the contradicting evidence... that there is people showing interest on forums, while I thought they were a dying platform.

And with lower numbers of visitors / participants in WebmasterWorld would they draw enough interest?

I'm not sure. I remember how in the past threads had way more movement and action, this changed. Then, the interactions depend if there is an interesting topic motivating people to come out of their caves. This could be something, or perhaps it's just an unrealistic sign of people wanting interactions, like when people want to loose weight but they don't really do anything.

Hi explorador, while there are people like you here, with enthusiasm for the future of discussion and an interest in encouraging WebmasterWorld I think I will stick about and see how it can be revived :)

When people realize that WP (and other plug and play) platforms are not the be all end all, and that hand coding to achieve specific goals can be so much more effective, it is unlikely there will be much in new "exploration" such as we saw back in the day before WP.

Meanwhile, getting into deep discussion lookin for emotional context on coding might not have a very large audience! :)

tangor: Meanwhile, getting into deep discussion lookin for emotional context on coding might not have a very large audience! :)

Not sure, I highly doubt it, the answer depends on how people interpret those words.

Specifically about coding and emotional context/response, what I have seen on other forums that are still active, even at the level of literal explanation, is:

• People looking for, or finding some sort of excitement
  
• Success stories or motivation to keep coding or writing and creating content (you can see literal examples of that on this forum this month already)
  
• Interactions that provide some sense of belonging, being part of something, or just to avoid the sensation of isolation. This doesn't mean "people feel lonely", but in similar words with a very different meaning, successful creators are hard to find, and the feeling can be quite isolating.
  
• Engaging with some emotional context reduces the sense of being stuck, of being on a dead forum, where others already lost interest.
  
• Sense of community "I'm different than the rest".
  
• Reducing the effects of boredom, the usual "coding sucks, I'm tired of this" and renewing the motivation, it happens to everyone.
  
• Reducing the effect of defeat, you know... the opposite of what you read on diff branches where everyone sounds so tired and beaten by their work, job, tasks.
  
• Emotional connections or effects help to keep the creativity going, and this helps a lot to generate original content, you won't just generate content after reading a dead forum.
  
• Also, the usual perks of the job, sharing with others, how others solve the problems, etc.
  

Added (forgot to include this above). I'm part of an old forum going back to the 90's, I joined around the 2000's, it had HUGE traffic, you could post one question and see answers within the first 5 minutes, amazing, and the threads would grow pages and pages. There was an issue of scams and other problems with some moderators, and while the forum recovered... it's dying. That's one forum (out of many) that motivated me to create this thread. Someone opened a thread on why not renewing the dying forum, and among the answers, there are interesting comments complaining on getting the feeling that the founder abandoned the project. The place had specific uses, topics, etc. But it's funny how the "general discussion area" is what made the forum big and kept it going.

I've had people explaining to me how diff demographics have migrated to diff platforms and "why", but the difference I see regarding those diff platforms, is how int he past people interacted with people on forums, while as for now, I see in the examples and explanations on present platforms, people interacting with the content mostly, not with the other users.

@explorador
Another issue is the change in how people use any information online. The 140 character world is not just related to one particular platform.
People don't like reading long form content, and many can't be bothered reading into the detail of a conversation. They don't look around for solutions. They ask as if a question has never been asked previously. It's not just a trait of the young and inexperienced.
We can also bring this back to a time when a search engine would bring up threads with the topics. Search engines stopped favouring forums a long time back.
In part, there was no money involved in the search engine sending traffic to a forum, unless it's their own, or unless it's their own video site.

Could a good old generic search capability for well-managed forums benefit all these resources?

@engine: true. It's... complex and absurd: having a person asking a poorly constructed question around a problem, but not wanting to read the answer, as if all the answers could fit 150 chars.

Could a good old generic search capability for well-managed forums benefit all these resources?

I don't know, probably. On dev forums, where no true devs are around, the same questions about Wordpress appear over and over, IMO, these people are flies, not worth the effort. Other than that, I saw a forum featuring the most common questions, along with the most heated discussions, this brought light to diff threads.

On the other hand, on some forums I'm seen clear signs of people not doing well in the mental health department, and forums seem to be (for them) some sort of communication line. Using an extreme simplification, I could say that I perceived the web, originally, as a place filled with information, then lots of tutorials, and not, lots of people talking about get rich quick... and those constantly verbalizing they are not doing well, no job, relationship issues, loneliness, isolation, etc. Even general discussion threads often bring up these topics, it gives me the idea that it's not only algorithms, but also people lacking structure, support, etc. I think it's quite difficult to make a forum attractive to someone who is not doing well in life.

If it is not broken, why try to fix it?

Anyhow, I like it just the way it is.

But Kendo, I think it is broken. It is a mere shadow of its former self ..

It is a mere shadow of its former self

Only if judging by the number of participants. The forum itself functions well. Forums used to serve as a pastime time but today everyone has social media. One cannot compete with that. But as a forum, this one has survived. There is always something interesting to read and a lot of expertise is shared.

Other forums have not fared so well.

I don't know Kendo, I am a member of a very busy general purpose forum.
It is enough for me, I only dabble in social media myself.

If it is not broken, why try to fix it?

Anyhow, I like it just the way it is.

Same here, it's ok with me, and I got used to it.

But... sometimes during discussions on other forums I say something meaningful, or quote someone's wisdom from here, and they say "ohh how interesting, can you provide me a link? I want to check that forum because of the content you shared", and :S they just don't buy it, no traffic, no fresh discussions, no similar features, the design is, well...

Let me put it this way... what if I created a forum about... "The art of creating content", it's an interesting topic and I have lots of things to share, ok, I open the thread on X or Z forum (places I visit) to ask for opinions, and I give them the link, once they visit the website and forum thy get to see WebmasterWorld, it's no secret they will say "what? looks old, weird, no styles? you have to code the styles? no updates without refresh, and there is no traffic, etc... sure, they will say that. Now, what happens if I do the same here? would the forum members would say "hey, nice idea, but why that interface? why that system? looks old, abandoned, etc.

Group A would be right. And if group B (WebmasterWorld) doesn't agree, then, something wrong is going on... and then it's not a forum, it's almost a private webplace where old members hang out.