Read this article today on the interwebs and thought I would share because we at SA Reptiles are experiencing this too.
http://reptileapartment.com/quondom-reptile-forums/
The rise in social media and their associated groups has led to a decrease in activity on dedicated forums. Why would you want to visit a special site for reptiles if you can chat with your friends, check pictures of hot girls (or guys) and visit reptile groups on a single, separate platform?
The thing that gets me is that reptile groups on Facebook (or others) are mostly poorly moderated and I have seen some grisly examples of misinformation, incorrect advice and misidentifications which could result in someone losing their life (venomous vs non-venomous) or at least someone's beloved pet losing it's life. On dedicated reptile forums like us, you get information from people with a vast amount of knowledge and experience, not just someone who opted to join a group because he was bored or has a single Corn snake and now he is giving advice on how to keep WC Uromastyx.
I have noted a very rapid decrease in our site's activity since the rise of Facebook. I wish we had the activity stats to show, but I am sure there will be a strong correlation between the start of Facebook groups and the fall in our members' activity. It is really sad.
I have done a lot of thinking on what incentive a reptile forum can offer to draw members, and although the less obvious incentives are here (organised set of information, experienced members, reptile-related comradery, historical topics etc.) people seem to flock to the comfort of social media. I wish that there was something we could do to draw back old members who made valuable contributions and are not active on SA Reptiles anymore, but on Facebook they are active literally daily.
Such a shame