Facebook Groups are terrible. Disagree ? Show me a good one then.

[Digital Doctor]

I fail to understand why people think Facebook groups are good or more specifically that Facebook groups are "competition" for forums.

I checked out a Facebook group I was interested in ... Sony Vegas video editing.
It was a total waste of time.

I also picked another random topic: Unusual plants. No information. Waste of time.

Can someone show me a good facebook group ?

Bueller ?

Please tell me what you find useful in the Facebook group as well please.

I'm all ears.

 

[Arty]

No need to setup and maintain website, no need to create new accounts, no need to deal with spam, you can see everyone's real names and extended profiles, notifications for all groups are in one place, its 100% free and very reliable.

I can see the attraction for FB groups for average user. Many years ago small communities all used to create forums to discuss things, they often used free forum hosting providers because setting up forum was above their skill. Today vast majority of them are using FB groups.

I'm not saying FB groups are good. They are simply too convenient.

 

[Sheratan]

Try to maintain a facebook group with 100+ topic and then you need to find some explanation in old topic.

Facebook group is full of asking the same question over and over again, creating a new post with same thing, again. With forum, you can point the user to the thread and let them discuss in 1 place.

 

[Alpha1]

What is useful is that members can easily start their own subcommunity. Like reddit or yahoo groups. The closest thing that some forums have is social groups.

And they can do so in any language they prefer. Thats simply not possible on forums as very few sofware offers multilingual functions.

Joining a facebook group is 100 times easier than joining a forum.

 

[Nebulous]

I have no interest in facebook in the first place.

 

[The Geek]

Its convenient and "gets the job done" for the vast majority of people out there.

Content is transient, but most people value the convenience and "one stop shop" way to consume content more than skipping around "mobile friendly" web pages with next to no filtration/quality methods.

Sadly, forums are continuing to serve up content in the same way they always have, yet consumers are radically changing how they interact with that data. FB, Twitter, IG, Snapchat, etc... are all influencing and changing the way people interact with web content. Forums are not.

 

[Digital Doctor]

It's so easy to use and the users are already there, whether it's through Facebook, messenger, groups, instagram, so many will stick with the groups. It's very difficult to tear them away from that without great unique content on your site, a decent userbase and consistent activity to keep them returning regularly. The user experience and features of most forums just aren't on a par with it for photo and video sharing and discussion, particularly for new media content discovery and engagement.

Where are all these great Facebook groups ?
Everyone I've seen is terrible.

 

[Divvens]

no need to deal with spam

This is not true. You have to deal with spam even on groups, some accounts just join a group to spam links such as get more fb likes/other scam sites to get FB details. I run a group with a mere 1000 members and new joins are to be approved by an Admin, yet spam still slips through.

 

[Teapot]

@Digital Doctor I think we can't ever convince you of the value of Facebook groups, because you're determined to think Facebook groups are entirely awful, all the time, and without exception. As it happens, I think Facebook groups have their place – they're no replacement for most forums or dedicated communities, but they're useful for small communities or those that specifically benefit from Facebook's reach or unique features (like their events system, for example.)

Realistically, they're different tools. Both work for their specific purpose. For most forum communities, Facebook groups aren't the right tool for the job – and that's fine, because for some they are.

 

[Digital Doctor]

@Teapot - try showing me one.

I have realized one thing they are social groups not content groups.

 

[Wildcat Media]

@Teapot - try showing me one.

I have realized one thing they are social groups not content groups.

And the very few times I've been forced to look at a "group" there (or just about anything, for that matter), it's usually a dumbed-down version of a dedicated forum. Maybe the slight learning curve of forums helps weed out the dimmer bulbs among the human species?

 

[DRE]

They're good for maintaining a community geared to a specific topic.

For example, buy/sell/trade garage sales facebook groups are popular in every city.

 

[Digital Doctor]

buy/sell/trade garage sales facebook groups are popular in every city.

OK. I'll check those out.
But local garage sales aren't really a forum niche.