why r forums not used frequently

Forums aren't used much because they're broken. You can't tell which conversations are active; you can't tell when someone answered you in a topic, or even what topics you posted in (unless you started them). This makes it a chore to keep up even if you remember to check back manually. And there's not much else to do.

P.S. You double-posted.

Oh my bad 

I haven't been here long, but I noticed that too. I'm surprised that notifications aren't a thing on this site even if it's supposed to be like retro social media sites 

Yeah, being able to subscribe to any forum topic to recieve notifications would be a great help. 

Currently you only get notifications if you are the topic creator so most threads die a lonely death.

thats what i be saying. too many ppl here dont understand the difference between blogs, bulletins, and forums. fuck it tho, we gotta keep this shit alive and teach