Forums will never go away. The internet in its infancy was a forum of sorts; the whole concept behind forums predates all the "social-networking" sites out there today, and offer alot of the benefits without alot of the drawbacks. Youc ant really ask if forums will go away..because its more of a concept than it is a concrete object. People always have, and always will feel the need to belong to a community, so forums will always exist in some form or another.