Facebook Killing Forums

[Salty]

Facebook comments is the closest they will get to compete with forums.

Wordpress for blog / facebook comments for community. Perfect for someone with little sense to start up, manage, and create.

Forums are the discussion hubs for content on the internet. You want that information to belong to you, on your infrastructure. Because of that fact, forums will continue to do well.


Twitter lacks the ability to form an organized discussion around content.

 

[Blandt]

We're all competing for user time

facebook could actually help drive traffic to your forum ...

 

[Salty]

We're all competing for user time

facebook could actually help drive traffic to your forum ...

You will never find a global/unique 5 page organized discussion around a topic on Twitter or Facebook, let alone responding with any type of media other than text.

Facebook is good at driving traffic, and pushing content a long, but without discussion it will not kill forums.

Wordpress+Facebook comments brings it all together. Although, without ownership of the discussion/users, added with the fact it is a less superior way to reply, it cannot reach the level of organization.

 

[Blandt]

You will never find a 5 page discussion around a topic on Twitter or Facebook, let alone responding with any type of media other than text.

Facebook is good at driving traffic, but it will not kill forums.

wrong ... some discussions go well over 300 posts in less than 30 minutes

 

[Salty]

wrong ... some discussions go well over 300 posts in less than 30 minutes

300 posts. Let me just pop into a discussion with 300 posts and see what the quality looks like on Facebook; no longer than 2 sentences and without media.

There is no 5 page discussion, it's 5 pages of statements.

 

[Blandt]

300 posts. Let me just pop into a discussion with 300 posts and see what the quality looks like on Facebook; no longer than 2 sentences and without media.

There is no 5 page discussion, it's 5 pages of statements.

That's true ... all teen talk .. but nonetheless

 

[Salty]

That's true ... all teen talk .. but nonetheless

I'm not saying the discussion is "dumbed down" or even "juvenile." I'm stating that you would be hard pressed to find any sort of discussion apart from remedial statements with no regard to back and forth conversation.

The quality of discussion around content is far superior in forums. The ability to exchange content quickly is what Facebook does well.

There is a discussion about an ipad:

Do you think they will be discussing why the ipad is terrible, why it's good, what the specs are compared to other smartphones? Or do you think it will be nothing but people saying "I want one."

There is a discussion about linkedin:

(Here is a picture)

 

[FreshFroot]

I will say FB drove TONS of traffic to me for 1 day... but I think only 3 people out of 200-300 signed up. And even then only 1 of them is active. So to me it still means mission failed.

And this was even after I had a contest going on too.

 

[MYstIC G]

People only stick around if they're interested. There's nothing you can do to influence that as it's a decision they make for themselves. I'm here because I'm interested in the software. People are on Facebook because they're nosey (imho). If people aren't on your forum, get them interested, facebook isn't going to kill it one way or another because it's not a contest.

 

[Alpha1]

Forums provide much more useful information than facebook does (at this point in time). But none the less facebook does much better than forums as it competes for your users time in a very compelling way. While users are still interested in forum content, they have less time for it. Their attention is being sucked in by facebook and other internet media.

XF stands out above other forum software in this regard. While it doesn't solve the above problem, it is more compelling for users than other forum software. XF is on the right track IMO, and hopefully the future will bring more functionality that will rival facebook for users their time.

I think that people who think that facebook vs forums is comparing apples to pears are making a big mistake; even while forums and facebook are two different things, facebook will severely limit forum activity. Especially if forum software does not meet modern demand.

Imagine what would happen if facebook would start a super forum, similar to www.boards.ie ?
Facebook Comments(thread system that can be used on any site) facebook groups(social groups) and facebook pages do rival forums to some degree. I have no doubt that facebook will keep rolling out such functionality to further strengthen their position on the net.

 

[jmurrayhead]

XenForo.com/community is a perfect example of how facebook ISN'T killing forums. Get enough people interested in the theme of a site and they will come discuss in that forum, NOT on facebook. Look at all the discussion we have going on here...