The last, and perhaps most important, is community. Not in the boring, technical sense by which we refer to all forums. People from all over the world coming together to talk about things, blow off some steam. I've seen countless friendships form on forums, dozens of relationships and even marriages. Is this possible on other forms of social media? Sure, I'm betting it happens all the time. The nature of social media dictates that all forms of said media share the benefits of all the others. Community is where forums really shine though. Facebook and Twitter can be your private Oasis in a sea of private Oases, but a forum puts you together in a shared environment with dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of other people. You all follow the same rules (hopefully), read the same threads, love and hate the same personalities.

Other forms of social media allow you to share content better than ever before, but forums allow you to share a culture, a dialogue, a community. They require work, expertise and curation in the way that short-form social media don't (or at least don't admit to), but nothing compares to the rewards you'll see from them. Those rewards are greater than ever.