In the social media age, why do some online forums last...

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...and others dont?

Because social media giants, including Meta, have platforms such as Facebook which has a 'groups' feature, which is similar to how forums operate and makes forums redundant in many respects.

A forum will always keep people who value anonymity, and traditional features such as post count and so on.

In answer to the question, the most popular ones out of a dwindling amount of forums that exist, will last.

Interesting insight. If we could turn back time, what features/methodologies do you think traditional online forums should have adopted to stay more relevant in the age of social media/facebook groups?

I had never even heard of a forum before I joined here in 2017. I must have been living under a rock because everyone says they were really popular years before then, and that there were many others. It still doesn't occur to me that this is an unusual mode of communication, since I don't use any other social media.

One reason they are falling out of favor is lack of a mobile version that works better with phones and pads, since that's what many people use these days. I've tried reading WP on my phone. It was awful.

Another reason is social media sites like Facebook or Reddit which can house many interest groups under one banner. Rather than going to 7 different forums for 7 different hobbies or interests, people can just go to YouTwitFace or w/e and join 7 different groups on the one site.

A third reason would be sites (like WP) that effectively become abandonware, and no longer receive active updates or support, whereas the larger social media monsters offer security and feature updates fairly regularly.

It's also probably easier to start and maintain a facebook or reddit page than it is to start and maintain a forum.

Some forums persist despite this. Dedicated user bases, complex topics that wouldn't fit in the facebook twitter character limit, various reasons why some survive longer than others.

'Liking' posts or 'hearting' them would be a decent feature, though 'like farming' might be an issue then, as it is with social media content creators who tailor their messages to receive 'likes' rather than simply communicating normally.

An instant messenger would be good, instead of private messages, which on this forum is more like sending an email.

Yep.

Using a forum like this one in the current year, is the equivalent of using landline phones instead of mobile (cell) phones.

It is a very 'dinosaur' thing to do, technologically.

I know of some people who were/are very fond of the pre social media but post dialup internet of the 2000's.

I have a landline phone.

Landline numbers have recently been phased out in the area where I live.

A landline phone plus an old school forum for you, Isabella.

You might as well live in the 19th century.

A lot of very active forums were summarily shut down because their owners didn't have the wherewithal to properly moderate. Two on which I had been active were the IMDb forum and the Analog/Asimov's forums. Both very active then they just disappeared overnight.

I've read other fora but not joined.
There's quite a few for cat owners and I cruise them for info.

They're still up and running.

I have a landline as well. Never owned a mobile phone. I loathe the whole mobile phone culture, and the way that just about everyone you see in a public place is staring into one of the damned things.

Another thing about this is read is how forum moderation never become professionalised (ie no community college courses on how to be a good moderator) which meant moderators were almost always longtime forum users /or friends of the administrator.

I tried to imagine professionalizing moderation.

A scenario:
Colleges produce standarized moderators that behave the same way on every forum.
But that wouldn't be the main problem. The main problem would be:
Small communities can't afford paying professional moderators, so if those are somehow required, small sites disappear at even faster rate.
Big sites cut costs, too, so they overwork and underpay their required professional moderators, leaving most of actual moderating to AI.
Which is already happening, I think.

If we have likes, we should also have dislikes.

Unfortunately some folks really struggle with being made aware their positions are unpopular so I don't see it happening.