Hello friends, and welcome back! As-salamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
It's been a long time since this forum was created. Over the years, it has gone through several migrations and technology upgrades to keep it alive and running.
How have you all been?
I'd like to open a discussion with you and hear your honest thoughts.
Do you think forums still have a meaningful role in serving Muslims and those who are new to Islam, or has the era of discussion forums come to an end?
Do you still find yourself coming back to this forum to search its archives and benefit from the knowledge shared here?
Do you have any ideas or suggestions that could help revive this community and make the forum more active and useful?
And with the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and the massive technological changes we're witnessing today, do you believe that traditional forums have become obsolete, or do they still have a place alongside modern platforms?
I'd really love to hear your opinions and experiences.
May Allah bless you all with good health, well-being, strong faith, and safety. Best regards,
People should talk about everything, and forums are much better than Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc., but those platforms also reveal why forums have lost their popularity. People do not have enough bandwidth for everything they are subjected to. There is too much talking AT each other, rather than TO each other.
It's very hard to get a bulletin board going, even under the best of circumstances. I think they will have a resurgence eventually because it is impossible to have a meaningful threaded conversation on those other platforms.
Bulletin Boards do continue to exist and are used actively by some communities. The inability to get critical mass here is not indicative of anything really. It's a typical challenge.
Those other platforms (Facebook, etc) are serving up random content continuously, so it's not a real conversation. People are being emotionally manipulated.
I agree with you, especially your point about people talking AT each other rather than TO each other.
I think this is one of the good things forums still have: slower and more organized discussions that we can come back to later.
By the way, I also learned some new English expressions from your reply
talking AT each other rather than TO each other, critical mass,
and meaningful threaded conversation.
And thank you for taking part even though you're not Muslim. You're very welcome here, and I hope you always feel that you're among friends.
Questions or Comments?
Whether you are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or simply curious about Islam, you are welcome to ask respectful questions below. Our goal is to encourage thoughtful, friendly, and evidence-based discussions. May this forum be a place of learning and mutual understanding.
wa alykom as salam wa rahamtu Allah wa baraktu Akh Hassan,
Well, I agree with Steve, and I would like to add that media consumption in general underwent an overhaul change. The concept of citizen journalism that emerged early 2000 (around 2006, 2007) captured the majority of people, turning them into attention seekers by any and all means. I mean people would start taking pictures of an accident rather than rescuing. They want to be first and attain the trend, if you know what I mean. People take pictures of themselves in very risky and hazardous situations, some of them die, just for the purpose of viewers rates. As a result a terms like brain rot, and internet addiction surfaced. It is a challenge, true, a hard one. But we need to identify our purpose of looking at it as a challenge. I mean are we after viewers, replies, action on the board, or are we after spreading the word of Allah?!
Say (O Muhammad): "O you humankind! If you are in doubt as to my religion (Islam), then (know that) I will never worship those whom you worship, besides Allah. .(Quran 10:104)
there is another very important factor of why social media is now on the rise. Simply, most of serious activities are now on FB such as universities, schools, workplaces, public figures, even print media now they have their own pages, they meant to reach people where they are. So in brief, in some cases it is mandatory to be on social media, such as schools/universities pages, tutoring also takes place on Youtube. All of this together attracted users compared to forums..etc and Allah Knows best! In addition, the fact that such online activities became source of income, this on its own is a purpose and objective, to the extend that people may even create nonsense content to earn money, which takes us to the serious harm and damage befalling the audience specially youth and children.
Say (O Muhammad): "O you humankind! If you are in doubt as to my religion (Islam), then (know that) I will never worship those whom you worship, besides Allah. .(Quran 10:104)
