Will Facebook Kill Forums?

[FriendStein]

I said this in a different thread...

I'm just going to say that there is no community software can match up with FB.

 

[PeterH]

Forums are useful for technical topics, social media sites are more interactive but you can't get useful answers on a particular topic as in forums.

 

[jayonrails]

I want to write some words about the initial questions if Facebook (or let us talk about social networks in general) will kill forums.

In my opinion, it depends on what your forum is related to. For example, if your running a community about animals, something like the german-based Rennmaus (which is based on WBB 4.1 and very well customized), Facebook will never get you out of the place.

Smalltalk, News sites / communities and classifieds sites (for example to recommend designers) won't live very long if they don't have something very special which binds the user to the site. I'm participating in many of these Facebook groups to find and offer coding, designs, etc. and they doing their job very well.

What makes forums to be in good standing in my opinion is:

1. Do something specific.
2. Be different than others (in general and especially in your topic)
3. Always take care of what your users think and want.
4. It may be a good idea to make contests or meetups or something special
   to keep your users in a good mood.
5. Be individual (design, pagination, etc.)

What do you think about that? What are your breakpoints for a good standing community?

 

[Rosey Lumina]

jacboy : It's more difficult these days to make a unique forum, since so many larger forums are out there that people can go to and get quicker answers. However, I have to agree, contests, looking different from the competition and generally being a certain niche will get you somewhere. Being like everyone else won't go anywhere since they won't have a reason to come to your forum.

 

[gilmoreren]

(apologies for the slight thread necromancy here - seems to still be relevant tho!)

I agree jacboy because it's useful to identify the things that forums offer that social media networks like FB won't or can't offer.

Facebook normally requires your username to be your real name and as a result people may feel less willing to discuss difficult or sensitive topics. People may not want their friends and family seeing what they are discussing, liking or joining.

The user experience and moderator experience of FB groups leads a lot to be desired. I've recently been invited to be form of a community manager group on FB (we voted on a place to move the group after Google + died). I'm trying to organise a meet-up which has been very difficult due to the way FB groups operates, what it shows to members and what it allows you to do. Even the events feature isn't helping with organising and promoting the event.

Larger, more active and well run forums that are meeting the needs of their members (design/functionality/content/experience) and keeping them engaged seem to be staying put.

If a community offers value for a user then it will be used.

 

[Gnomenclature]

Exactly. One of our areas will be a private Military only forum. There are unique needs for that community, which range from a need for anonymous posting to OPSEC.

There are groups on FB that are constantly shifting because trolls get them shut down. If someone wants to relocate to a forum where I'll happily let you run your space, sure. I don't care if you're eccentric as long as you aren't illegal.

Just pleast do not mention chemtrails anywhere on the forum. That might be the one term I put in my filter lol.

 

[Joeychgo]

Rudy submitted a new Article:

Will Facebook Kill Forums?

Okay - this thread was started 7 1/2 years ago. I'm still here, my forums are still here and busier then ever, Taz is still here.

Soooooo I guess the answer to the original questions is no?

 

[Pete]

Are forums dying? Not all the time there are people in forums asking if forums are dying.

 

[R0binHood]

Facebook normally requires your username to be your real name and as a result people may feel less willing to discuss difficult or sensitive topics. People may not want their friends and family seeing what they are discussing, liking or joining.

That may seem like the case at first glance, but I’d definitely not the rule. The amount of crazy **** I see people posting under their real name boggles my mind. It seems a massive number of people really don’t give a ****.

Soooooo I guess the answer to the original questions is no?

There’s no simple yes or no answer to that. I would say that Facebook has definitely claimed a large number of small new and grass roots communities through their ecosystem, groups that 5 years ago would have likely launched their own independent sites but the instead now have thriving and active Facebook groups.

 

[gilmoreren]

R0binHood Yes, that may be the case in some circumstances, which is why I used 'normally' and 'may' as qualifiers. From what my users tell me (in feedback) being able to choose an anonymous username and post in a different space away from their friends and family is why they use the forum.

It is more common to see people post personal and sensitive issues where they can be identified on social media, as you say. I wonder what the long-term impact of that will be!

I think you're right about FB taking some ground. It has only been around since 2004, and it looks like it may be in the 'late adopter' stage. I suspect there will be groups who breakaway when it doesn't offer what they want, which ironically is how FB gained some traffic in the first place...

 

[Dubbed Navigator]

No it will not kill forums, for 2 reasons.

Facebook provides no anonymity. They have no reason to, you are the product. How many people do you see with thier real names as a profile, over a selected name?

Facebook just isnt the same as a website tailored to its niche, you lose stuff within hours depending on how busy a group or page is, and the system is glitchy as hell.

That said, people are also damned lazy. Facebook is easy. But on the other hand, do you want the content a lazy person contributes that badly?

 

[Deleted member 34406]

Forums will be around for a long time as some people don't like Facebook (including me) due to them spying on there customers activities like the Messenger from hell.

Don't get me wrong I do use it but very lightly to contact friends and family, not in the UK.

 

[cheat_master30]

Yeah, and that feeling of disliking Facebook has definitely been growing in the last few years or so. It'll certainly keep a certain percentage of the population using smaller internet forums.

 

[Julie Encabo]

I think that we cannot really consider facebook “killing” forums. When you are on facebook, you can share comments and arguments with your friends. Compared to a forum where people are from all walks and just share a specific interest. Surely, your comment and like about anything on facebook, but forums are still avenues to share ideas with people who you do not frequently meet and know at all for this matter. Not to mention they have enormous privacy issues.

 

[Antonio8]

No it will not kill forums, for 2 reasons.

Facebook provides no anonymity. They have no reason to, you are the product. How many people do you see with thier real names as a profile, over a selected name?

You can create a fake FB profile, you know that, right? Of course, it's harder to do than using forums

 

[Pete]

Eh, this is just another candidate for Betteridge's Law

 

[Dubbed Navigator]

You can create a fake FB profile, you know that, right? Of course, it's harder to do than using forums

Until they find out and delete you

 

[R0binHood]

Delete my fake profile - or delete ME!?

Sounds like this facebook website is getting a bit too big and powerful if they can go around completely deleting people.

 

[Philpug]

Even though our site is relatively young (2.5 y/old), we have built a archive of images and information that people do search for. We share that information on Facebook. While there is a good size group of similar interest on FB, when something gets posted there, it cannot be archived and it is buried and lost in a matter of days..or even hours, to me that is a shame.

 

[Pete]

Even though our site is relatively young (2.5 y/old), we have built a archive of images and information that people do search for. We share that information on Facebook. While there is a good size group of similar interest on FB, when something gets posted there, it cannot be archived and it is buried and lost in a matter of days..or even hours, to me that is a shame.

And this is why Facebook won’t kill forums, we are way better at categorising and finding data.