The future of bulletin boards?

[KingGlamis]

I've often wondered what the future of bulletin boards (forums) is? I mean, a LOT of people are addicted to them. Bulletin boards have changed many people's lives... such as making new friends, learning new things, etc.

So what will become of bulletin boards in the future? Will this board be here in 5 years? 10 years? If so, how will it have changed? Will greed get the better of those in the 'puter world and suddenly each board has a monthly or yearly charge?

What about technology? Will it get to the point where you can speak into your watch and a voice recognition program posts what you say onto the bbs?

I wonder about all these things because we KNOW change is inevitible. The question is... will those changes be good or bad? Most of us live for "today" while the computer companies are most certainly thinking of the future. That future, whatever it may bring, is both exciting and worrying.

[Drooling Iguana]

I've often wondered what the future of bulletin boards (forums) is? I mean, a LOT of people are addicted to them. Bulletin boards have changed many people's lives... such as making new friends, learning new things, etc.

So what will become of bulletin boards in the future? Will this board be here in 5 years? 10 years? If so, how will it have changed? Will greed get the better of those in the 'puter world and suddenly each board has a monthly or yearly charge?

I've been using bulliten boards for more than five years, and they've changed very little in that time. We can now post images in our messages, and link to web pages (the first boards I used were on dial-up BBSs with no Internet access) but beyond that they're basically the same thing.

What about technology? Will it get to the point where you can speak into your watch and a voice recognition program posts what you say onto the bbs?

Speaking and writing are two different things, and various nuances are inevitably lost when translating between the two. If you're going to be communicating with text, it would be best to just type it out yourself. The convenience of voice-recognition is more than offset by the errors it would produce.

I wonder about all these things because we KNOW change is inevitible. The question is... will those changes be good or bad? Most of us live for "today" while the computer companies are most certainly thinking of the future. That future, whatever it may bring, is both exciting and worrying.

Change isn't inevitable. If something already does everything people want it to do, then there's no reason to change it. If you want to try to predict some way in which bulletin will change, try to think of something that you wish they would do, but don't. If you can't think of anything, then there's a pretty good chance that any changes would only be cosmetic in nature.

[Shinova]

Bulletin boards will probably stay.

But chatting could change. There's already some voice chatting programs. The next level could be video-chatting.

[DPDarkPrimus]

The next level could be video-chatting.

Sexy.

[Lord_Xerxes]

The next level could be video-chatting.

Sexy.

Or particularly not.

*shudders to think of some of the people that play character on Yahell Chat Rp.*

[phongn]

But chatting could change. There's already some voice chatting programs. The next level could be video-chatting.

Not at the popularity levels of simple text, though. Too much bandwidth and without the anonyminity that simple BBSs give.

[Ghost Rider]

The next level could be video-chatting.

Sexy.

Or particularly not.

*shudders to think of some of the people that play character on Yahell Chat Rp.*

C'mon imagine that sexy lady name is really a cover for a womyn who devours pizzas by the fist and is at least a quarter ton