Can Mike Arrington Make Forums Hot (Again)?
Lost in all the the blogosphere hype is that online forums have long been the best example of online community (unlike blogs, the only purpose of a forum is a community discussion). There are numerous active forums that people rely on heavily for political discussion, technical support (my favorite), personal advice and more.
So Mike Arrington starting a Techcrunch forum and that may serve as a reminder to people that in the midst of media going social with blogs as a driving force, forums are still one of the best places for online discussion. In other words, forums are pure social media. The biggest advantage is that a popular forum site allows anyone to start a discussion that, if it hits the right note, can take off. As Mike Arrington note, the forum allows anyone to pitch their startup to readers. Even if it’s only those that read the forum, it’s better than praying that Arrington happens to notice your company. I wouldn’t be suprised if he read the forums (judging the pitch, measuring the number of responses etc) as much as, if not more than, more than emails and suggestions from his network.
And so far I would say it may serve both as a reminder of the value of forums and be a hit. Since launching yesterday, there are already 72 threads and 522 messages.
