Well, the forums run by the company I work for are even more of a "ghost town" than this one. So maybe the traditional forum is going the way of the Dodo (Raphus cucullatus), as Steve R Jones says. I would also corroborate Steve's other observation, that "they are only as good as the members make them".

To go on at length ... as for participation from the community, we discussed some of our detractors/distractors a little in this old thread, we have competition from other sites, including some dedicated to PHP and some dedicated to programming in general (StackExchange's "schtick" on this seems to have convinced quite a few people [and search engines] that they are the bees' knees), and then there's the whole question of whether or not PHP is a dying language.

Finally, speaking of dying, I'm of the opinion that this community and F/OSS in particular suffered bigtime when Tim Perdue died, even though he was no longer associated with PHPBuilder directly.

    Seems like for technical "forums", stack(overflow|exchange) is where I usually end up when searching for answers, but they don't have the social aspect of traditional forums; but then you can get "social" stuff at Twitter, Facebook, etc. (if you can put up with the "algorithms" and ads 😉 ).

    Also, summer is traditionally slower than the rest of the year, IIRC.

      NogDog

      Do you think that SEO/traffic grew organically? I can remember when PHPBuilder would appear pretty high in SERPs for a lot of questions I had BITD (early 00's ...)

        dalecosp

        Heh...SEO is all smoke and mirrors to me. Fortunately, I don't have to deal with it for the stuff I work on (mainly APIs for contracted clients). 🙂

          It's nice to see the other names pop in. Maybe I just caught the forum on a bad week.

          SExchange and I just do not mesh. I find it incredibly anti-personality and seems driven almost entirely by +1's and accepted answers. It's just not the place for me.

          I have asked PHP questions in other forums but have never gotten the level and quality of assistance that has been provided here. I can say without exaggeration that Everything I know about PHP has at the very least been sprung from a topic I started here.

          You guys are the bomb.

          Weedpacket in particular has made my career, for what it's worth (hint: not as much in Joplin MO as either coast, for sure, or even STL or KC MO, nonetheless it's paying the bills). The other guys that were around in the early 00's were stellar as well, and the current crop of regulars still sharpens my blade quite often.

          SO bothers me a little as well ... it's like they co-opted the FB 'like' button, added job listings and created a heady scramble to get to the top of the rat heap ....

          schwim

          I don't participate at /stack(overflow|exchange)/, in terms of asking or answering questions -- I just end up there a lot when googling for answers. 🙂

              For many years, I have never seen this site appear in search results (Google). StackOverflow is often top two or three results. Possibly it's an SEO issue or possibly somehow momentum

              Popularity? Nearly Javscript everything...

              About a year or so ago here when I looked in I saw a bunch of weird posts - people attacking others. I know too well how hard it is to help people online, but this seemed quite spiteful to me.

              Slack. There are so many communities of varying size where there is always somebody around to help out.

              I learned so much from this place - I've always looked in over the years (didn't always post though). I noticed years ago this place was slowing down - I could never even answer questions because they were ALWAYS taken care of. I think the best thing I learned from this place, beyond just PHP, was RTFM.

              Forums are totally dying. Did you notice that there was a major IRC announcement today? Maybe forums will have their day again, too.

              Vaskerville Forums are totally dying. Did you notice that there was a major IRC announcement today?

              irc.org saw an update to their site?

                8 days later

                As I just mentioned in another thread. The new forum killed it for me. I dont come here anymore.

                Weedpacket

                Hey Weedpacket!

                I lurch in the shadows around here. @NogDog has a really good handle on answering the posts around here so I am not really needed. Plus this new forum design is rubbing me wrong for some reason. I am pretty active on a couple of the other forums.

                    14 days later

                    "I don't come here anymore."

                    Am I the only one who saw the irony in that statement?

                      12 days later

                      Is there any info about people reading past articles via the main page? Maybe the main page should default to the board?
                      The main page is so generic looking...

                        8 months later

                        hello every one there ....i want some who could teach me how to develop and design a data base system ..as for a company etc .. please..feedback on Poelssemambo65

                          Thanks for making the forums a more neat, well organized and useful place to hang out, @poel .