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Im currently thinking about how communication and information exchange can be improved over the internet. You can cut it down to two sides: 'Life' chat (e.g. irc) and 'delayed' chat. With 'delayed' chat I mean all those forum stuff, just like phpBB, vBulletin and StackExchange/Overflow. Now the main question: Is those 'normal' forum software outdated and will dying in future? This is, because the StackExchange system is considered so much better - Best answers are covered at the top, best questions too. Also, the bounty system really makes sense. On a 'normal' forum, an unbelievably awesome answer could be on page 16 of 52 pages. But no one would probably find that one, just for example.

The initial attraction to this question is that I was planning to create a forum (e.g. phpBB or vBulletin) about a specific internet/informatics topic. Thus I was wondering what really to do then, if the stackexchange network does already have a such good service in contrast to 'the others'.

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Hi Michael, it's impossible to answer this question as you're asking about what may happen in the future. That will only lead to debate, which isn't a good fit for our site. – Rahul♦ Jan 30 '12 at 17:12

closed as not constructive by Rahul♦ Jan 30 '12 at 17:12

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It really depends on the purpose you're trying to achieve. The StackExchange system is for a Q&A-style format while a forum is meant for a discussion. While similar, these are two distinct goals and the appropriate tool should be used for each.

Could forum software be improved? Yes, of course. Most of the larger forum software will allow you to install add-ons that will give you additional functionality like a user points system. Regarding a buried good answer on a forum thread, this could be solved simply with the ability to sort posts in a thread by some sort of user feedback metric, like votes.

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