Forums, again

This is going to be a discussion that might bump up against the limits of acceptable meta as far as blogging is concerned. I am not all that interested in being yet another blog about blogging or site design. This is mostly because my world really doesn't have much to do with blogging or site design beyond having a blog and having designed the site. And Meta Is Murder.
This post is about forums. Specifically, this post is about web forums and the communities that I've found around them over the last several years.
If you love forums, or even just like forums, even if just a little bit, may I suggest not reading this? Just because I don't like them doesn't mean you should do something that will probably just make you angry.
I will try to keep the meta to a minimum. The forum bashing, that I'll make no promises about.
I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again and again: I don't normally like forums. I understand that a lot of people like forums. I know there are some people that believe one cannot have a website without having a dedicated sub-domian dedicated to one variety or another forum software.
Fans of something frequent the forums. Real fans host them.
This wonderful topic comes up again for a couple of reasons.
The first reason is a posting on a game forum forwarded to me by a coworker.

Early on the communities were good for that, but it seems that the last 3 years or so forums are now:
15 % information
35% calling for nerfs to other classes
50% written trashjobs of the game the forums are intended for.
I can't say I agree with the person that posted this. I'd say 50% trash-talk is a little low. It might be because I'm including posts by people about how bad other people are in the number. But my feeling on the state of the MMO market is another post entirely.
The other thing buoying this topic in my mind has to do with the redesign of this site. I have a forum. I don't actually use them. Actually, up until a couple of days ago, no one could. Not even me. As the site evolved, I managed to break them in a way that just prevented anyone from posting to them. Since the discovery of this item, I have fixed this.
So today, I would like to announce that I am reopening the SysMango.com Forum.
Don't all go off and ignore me all at once.
No, you might as well ignore me about this, because we all know you are going to ignore me.
I sometimes wonder why I have a forum. The bit where I don't like them comes up when I think about SysMango having forums. The part of forums where one participates in what passes as conversations with other people smacks perpendicularly into fact that I'm the only active member of this site. Not much of a community to participate in the forum.
I did build it; no one comes.
I guess that part of me really does spend nights dreaming about having to deal with a massive number of postings from people I don't actually know all that well, if at all, about topics I may or may not actually care.
This is where we get into talking about how forums are possibly the largest and most efficient vector for the spread of Internet Syndrome (which we will define here as the removal of civility filters once someone is comfortable with the perception of anonymity on the Internet). So people who post to forums at some point forget that they are talking to or about other people. Rudeness and scathing comment ensue.
And there's also the variant where someone actually thinks a one-sentence (if that) reply expressing approval of an earlier post in a thread count qualify as a meaningful contribution.
So, why do I have them, why do I care, what do I actually expect to do with them?
I have forums because I thought a forum might be useful.
SysMango started as just a blog. Minimalistic (and ugly) just a blog.
My brother had at one point created his own site and he decided to put up a forum. It was separate from his main site. My brother, he's the social one. He almost needed forums to keep up with his social circle. And that made me start to rethink how forums work.
And working with someone at work on their personal website made me start thinking about how one could do all that without having forums at all. That site got to the point where 4 out of every 5 posts to the forum there went to the off-topic section.
Today, we have Facebook and Twitter. Neither of them have forums (that I'm aware of). I will say that sometimes I wonder if they would be better if they did, if only because sometimes I can't tell the difference between Facebook and Twitter and the insanity/noise one normally finds in the off-topic section of a forum.
When I started my forum here, it was with the idea that I didn't want to blog things like site-wide status updates. Why not put them in a “forum post”? And I wanted to provide someplace for any potential reader to maybe post something in the lines of feedback.
The user population never emerged. In the years I've been running this site, I think I had an active, regular reader maybe for 2 weeks. Then that person went off and started following Brian. I will admit, most days I think he is more interesting.
I'm trying to run this site better. I'm just looking to use it for the reasons I had originally thought about doing the whole website thing. And that was just posting the random nonsense that builds up in my head.
Since the new theme went live, I've actually been somewhat excited about the site again. I want there to be new content to go with the new (now current) look.
I don't expect anyone to actually read this. But on the outside chance that someone, anyone, might read this site and be interested enough in what's going on to post something in the forum . . . The forum is there.

References:
Coding Horror: Meta Is Murder
Forums are Not for Narratives | SysManGo.com
Fora and Images and other things, oh my. | SysManGo.com
Being A Better Blogger | SysManGo.com