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The current trend is probably towards all-encompassing so-called content management systems as "jack of all trades" that map everything that the Internet has to offer in a single system.
This phase is already behind me and I will probably shut down the last such system on my servers this year. In return, I rediscovered the tried and tested forum software for myself and set up independent forums for the Europeans among us, which serve to keep the discussions about Europe-related topics going during the COVID-19 period and also the search for suitable software for a virtual European regulars' table.
Now I'm curious myself how this old format from the 1990s is received by users today?
Since then, forums on the World Wide Web have been supposed playgrounds for "nerds", but they also serve very well as discussion or knowledge platforms by passing on experiences and being able to offer first aid for important questions. Even today, thousands of users find themselves in a wide variety of forums every day, where they read and post articles, send or link attachments and make life a little more entertaining and entertaining for themselves and others.
The recently added forums of the European regulars' table should also achieve this for as many users as possible.
But the trend is already emerging that for many fellow citizens, the rather pointless but in any case very non-binding conversations via chat rooms and, if possible, with a video function, are the ultima ratio, whereby admittedly you can very well change your own hairstyle and a specially selected background, be it the photo wallpaper of a book wall or colorful certificates from lesser-known universities and institutions. Our own “show running” based on the well-known motto “More appearances than reality” still has our society firmly under control, even in times of COVID-19.
Traditional forum software is less capable of this. On the contrary, because this is where the wheat is separated from the chaff, because every active participant is forced to write down his thoughts in writing and thus present them to the other participants as plausibly as possible and also make them available for later consultations.
And if, in return, someone who thinks differently formulates his thoughts, it happens that new aspects come to the fore and everyone can at least rearrange their thoughts and ideas. A win-win situation for everyone who takes the trouble to formulate their own thoughts and offer them to others for comment.
For all those whose model for success is simply reading other people's writings as skillfully as possible and, with increasing practice, repeating them in a slightly simplified form, such forums are certainly a nightmare. But the same applies here Practice creates masters, and I'm pretty sure that as soon as they start their own experiments in forums, many will recognize their potential and thus enrich the forum world as a whole.
As said before, a forum has always been a win-win situation for everyone - regardless of whether it is a Roman forum or just a very simplified digital version of it.
Addendum
On March 7th, 2022 I removed this forum from the internet and replaced it with a forum on this weblog.
"I talk to myself and assert myself."
Jean-Claude Juncker, in conversation with Stephan Mayer in the "Alpha Forum"
