Do you see social networking as important.

I see it as important, because the internet really is an extension of our social circles whether we believe it or not (which I find funny when people say they don't want "social networking" on their sites, which is contradictory to what a website community actually is, just a basic format).

It's just the execution that's important to me. :)
 
Yes. Social networking is the way of the future. It allows for more exposure, content delivery, and more members if used properly. Having social network features (non-facebook, twitter, etc.) built in (post liking, statuses, etc.) allow for a more friendly, interactive community that I see as being more helpful to your site.
 
I'm sure I'm in the minority, but no. I want nothing to do with social networking. I don't want people on the internet knowing who I am. I don't particularly want to know who other people on the internet are. Perhaps my members would like it, but I want anonymity.
 
Social networking is important if you want traffic, but for a closed private board i don't think it will interest people. Like ive said before we shouldn't be competing with social networks rather consuming their resources and using their api's etc.
 
Yes, and no.

Yes, because it helps the site create return traffic,
no, because statistics show it's only getting abused by spammers.

People can't use things in moderation.
 
I got traffic with no SEO, no social networking, and no frills what so every. The month before I moved I got 800 new members and had 6000+ active users on an old dumpy SMF forum.

Not big by any means but was good enough traffic for me.

I think you can get traffic without it. Candlepowerforums certainly gets traffic with out social networking functions.

I do think they help many sites but I think traffic can be obtained without them if you are in certain niches.
 
I say yes, not because of my own opinion, though more because I'm not prepared to neglect the millions of users currently fantasising hourly over facebook and twitter can't be wrong as a majority vote for social networking trends from the websites they choose to interact with.
 
I say yes, not because of my own opinion, though more because I'm not prepared to neglect the millions of users currently fantasising hourly over facebook and twitter can't be wrong as a majority vote for social networking trends from the websites they choose to interact with.
This view I agree with. While personally you may not like social networking as an idea - and I know many people who take this view, the millions of pagehits and greater reach of audience cannot simply be discarded into the scrap pile.
 
Social networking can help boost a forums community feel by engaging users with each other, creating sort of a 'home' where users want to come back. Good relationships between users can help create a better atmosphere in the forum in general as well and a sense of trust.

The sort of features included in a forum package though should not try to move things away from public view IMO though. For example is a user uploads albums, they should be seen from a main album page where you can browse all user photos and comment on them instead of having to go to the users profile then accessing them from there. Distracting users with too many social features can result in less activity on the forums which creates more trouble than good.
 
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