i have been on FB for the last few years now and have noticed increase in many forum groups establishing quite good following with many members and topics increasing on daily basis.
is FB killing the humble Forum?
Marcin
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yes, but there are problems. Iām in the Apple II Enthusiasts FB group (3300+ users), and while the information exchange is great, FB is horrendous at presenting that information back to users - so often we get the same noob questions because the last response has sunk out of sight.
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Hm, I donāt think so. I think itās a good place for niche interest groups. For instance I found a Spetravideo and a BBC Micro group, great for Retro Computer Info, though I believe BBC at least has a forum as well.
Personally I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I basically use it to keep up with family and very close friends and people I used to go to school with, or used to work with. Itās nice to see what theyāre up to, but at the same time nobody every calls anyone and has a good old yack any more. You already know what everyone is doing, so why bother calling them?
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Not for me. Nothing beats a dedicated forum IMO. I donāt really enjoy FB groups, even though Iām a member of a couple of specific ones for people who have a similar degenerative spinal condition. I donāt think you can get the same type of engagement on FB as you do in a forum thread.
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Not in a long shot.
I think FBās strength is bringing specific groups of people together at specific times like car cruises for example. However, for sheer knowledge and breadth of resources forums canāt be beaten.
The well established ones (that arenāt fucked by niche) such as Overclockers Australia, Whirlpool, and MacRumors are still great resources whose user base is continuing to grow.
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I donāt think so. I donāt use Facebook as a forum. I use it as a social network to notify me of updates of family and friends.
I avoid Facebook. I hate how Facebook constantly changes your settings every time there is an āupdateā. Your privacy is at risk without constant vigilance, because lets face it, shopping you is how Facebook makes its money.
Anyway, I reckon you are right that some people communicate and participate via Facebook. Because I donāt have Facebook, it is easy for me to say I prefer dedicated forums, but plenty of people (e.g. Mrs Entropy) happily spend all day on Facebook.
Iām going to say yes, and very sadly so, for a few reasons.
Every forum has itās politics. What is allowed, what isnāt. The local troll, the local PITA, that one n00b who keeps asking seemingly stupid questions. There will also be a group who feel over moderatedā¦ I mean āwhy canāt I link to that blatantly pirated softwareā??.. Youāre just out to get me.
In the olden days the costs of settings up a forum were pretty decent. Servers arenāt cheap and as a community grows, so does the cost of running it along with the effort.
These days, anyone with half a clue can start a Facebook group for whatever they like and quickly build a small community of like minded people. Funnily enough all the political/trolly/n00by reasons above still apply so people split off and create another group ā¦ and another ā¦ and another ā¦ and so on.
The social aspect is there, people are always on facebook so it sort of works. With a great big BUT!
For me Facebook is about transient information. What am I doing now, whenās the next event etc etc. What it lacks is the permanent record and search function that forums provide. Want to know how to clear your SMCā¦ or change that oil filterā¦ or wire up that relayā¦ chances are someone on Facebook talked about it some time, but chances also are you will never find it. But google is going to turn up a forum somewhere where 50 different people have talked about it, taken photos and written up a detailed walkthrough.
I think Facebook has itās place, all that general chit chat, social meets and general back and forth is perfect for facebook, but people should be getting into the communities and posting up their builds, problem solving, tinkerings and fixing for people to see next month/year/decade!
Sadly I think Facebook encourages people not to ever leave, sucking in more and more people with total garbage. The amount of groups/pages/people Iāve had to unfollow or block form my feed is amazing. Yes Iām still there and like seeing the photos/videos of family and friends around the world.
As a forum owner/operator I do have a Facebook presence for that too, mostly because you sort of have to these days.
As a member (and webmaster) of a couple of different social clubs they all have a Facebook page too, but we try and keep all the stories, media, event photos and ā¦ well content, on the club pages so itās there for everyone forever more.
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I donāt think forums as a format are going to die anytime soon but it will be the larger ones that prosper IMO.
Smaller and/or low volume post groups seem to work better on Facebook though.
Iām a member of a few motorbike groups that post updates about rallies (camping weekends) and rides and the signal to noise ratio is very very high (almost zero rubbish posts).
But having a long involved conversation using Facebook is annoying.
Horses for courses as the saying goes.
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Well, weāve had a good run. Looks like itās time to move to Facebook.
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Youāre sounding just like when Apple āupgradedā from Aperture to Photos (or imovie HD to iMovie, or take your pickā¦)
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Iāve never joined Facebookā¦ or MySpaceā¦ etc etcā¦ and the more I see of my wifeās Facebook time, the happier I am with that decision. I cannot (will not? Canāt be bothered to?) grasp any way in which their platform could be useful in a āforumā setting.
They absolutely are. Groups is what did it. Many many forums are biting the dust and are replaced with exactly what people above have said, the same new people asking the same new questions that have been answered. Itās not structured as well as forums and doesnāt read in threads the same way, itās not searchable and it decides what you show you rather than you going to a forum.
I worry that maybe its nostalgia or something but before facebook started groups, forums were still pumping, ads were paying the bills, businesses had facebook pages that actually allowed them to communicate with customers and you could write on your friends wall without every random in the universe being able to read it because of the whole āpublic postsā thing.
Iām glad this forum is here, i only found it recently but think its important to make an effort to keep them alive.
Most importantly some of the community spirit of helping out people when they ask intelligent questions (and use search for the dumb questions) Actually resulted in a lot of positivity, saw it on car forums also in a big way.
Itās a shame really, i hope forums generally can bounce back.
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Donāt forget platforms like Reddit that are also replacing the traditional forums too.
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Hm donāt really like Reddit very much. Donāt get me wrong, all forums have their share of morons (Appletalk excepted of course), but Reddit just seems like it has more than most.
Iām on facebook, and I hate it. REason Iām there? People are lazy and would prefer to remain in touch that way. Nobody picks up the phone anymore. It can be useful for organising things but generally, if my few friends were not reliant on it for other reasons (their own family stuff etc) I would likely never bother. In fact I would not have bothered if it were not for one of my cousins nagging me to get on board with it.
I drew the line at Linked-IN though. Thats a nightmare, that is.
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I wonder if you posted the same question on Facebook whether youād get the same engaged number of responses that this thread has had?
Not only is it killing forums I think itās also killing brain cells judging by the shear amount of rubbish that people like and share as āfactualā
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Hell no! Youād get half a dozen ālikesā if you were lucky, or maybe more if you had some friends who were actually interested. Or if they even saw what you posted. What I find is that people only look at the newsfeed, they never ever visit other peopleās timelines, and so, if its not in the first few posts on the newsfeed, it doesnt even get noticed. As people gather more āfriendsā (and I use the word very loosely) it becomes even less likely that your posts will be noticed.
Iāve noticed (since this post) that little automatic popup that encourages you to create a groupā¦ from within a group/page/event/post (I havenāt paid too much attention to whatās driving it).
But it seems to take you and all your āfriendsā that are part of whatever it is and suggests you create a groupā¦
For example, all my friends that attended a particular event. Surely this just encourages more and more fragmentation of communities.
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