From time to time we’re hearing that the dedicated forum – be it for shaving, computers, woodworking, or any other hobby or interest you might care to mention – is dead, pushing up the daisies, kicked the bucket, shuffled off  its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisible. Killed by groups on Facebook and Reddit, if the reports are to be believed.

It’s easy to blame “social media” for the alleged decline in the activity on dedicated forums… except that a forum is also a social media, so finger pointing in that direction don’t really work. Onion in my belt, get of my lawn etc… I can recall when Yahoo Groups was the hot place to hang out, so that kind of dates me when it comes to social media and online interactions.

Facebook, Reddit and the like have both lowered the bar and (over)filled peoples time and attention – but the fact that the dedicated shave forums are still here speaks volumes; they offer not just an interest based camaraderie but also a deep well of knowledge that’s hard to beat. In addition each board have a certain, how to put, feel to it as a venue… there is no doubt in my mind that people interact differently on places like Facebook and Reddit than they do on a traditional forum, and there is big differences between the various forums as well. To me at least it’s more participation on a forum than on what most people think about when they say “social media” – to me the later seems to be more about telling people what you do, rather than about listening to what they do.

But ignoring all that; the traditional shaving forums is still a community of friends first and foremost, and while people come and go it’s always great to have a friend come back to the forums.

So welcome back to the forums if you havn’t hung out there for a while – and if you haven’t hung out at all perhaps you should come over and see what they offer that Facebook and Reddit does not.