I remember back in the late 1990s modelers posted on the old USENET newsgroup called rec.models.scale when these newfangled modeling forums appeared. All of the sudden modelers could include photos within posts instead of uploading and linking to alt.binaries.models.scale
Many were complaining about this new format because instead of having the post go directly to your email and being able to read them at your leisure offline, you now had to view the posts online. This increased the amount of time you had to remain online and often led to the tying up of your phone line. Remember dialup?
Those detractors from the "new" format said it caused too much time to open up the posts because of all the photos. Additionally, users now had to find a site to host the photos.
Other modelers who were interested in multiple modeling subjects complained that the model websites were breaking into aircraft sites like Hyper Scale and armor sites like Missing Lynx. They now had to visit multiple sites to pontificate about modeling to a wider audience.
To answer this, some model sites added other modeling subjects (for example Armorama in 2001) and Fine Scale Modeler began as an all-inclusive general modeling site in 2002. Even the new general modeling sites had their own detractors who say that the quality of information on a general site is less than at sites dedicated to a specific subject. They're not always wrong since the best place to find out about 1/48 scale armor models is at Track48, a site dedicated to 1/48 scale armor. But that doesn't mean it's the only place, but it is the best place in this specific example.
Now replace model forums with face book and you see the same discussions. I'm not saying one will replace the other, but fb has effected online model forums the ways the online forums effected rec.models.scale.
Al Lefleche and I first met online while discussing modeling on AOL's old model newgroup in the mid 90s.