Facebook Killing Forums

same with me re posting. :rolleyes: might have to set up some "dummy posters". :)

I think that the big problem is how fb empowers the end user and while xf is the best forum software available today (by a country mile!) they still need to deliver a knock out blow. notwithstanding, I am still of the view that fb will fail just like myspace!(y)
 
aussie said:
same with me re posting. :rolleyes: might have to set up some "dummy posters". :)

I think that the big problem is how fb empowers the end user and while xf is the best forum software available today (by a country mile!) they still need to deliver a knock out blow. notwithstanding, I am still of the view that fb will fail just like myspace!(y)
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I am hoping that is the case...

I dont like fake profiles... the good thing is that forums are well indexed :D

People like anonymity of forums unline faceahce...
 
My member posting has only increased. A year ago we had a daily posting average of 300 per day, its now 400 per day average, and the graph is still trending towards another incline of 500 per day average.
 
Anthony Parsons said:
My member posting has only increased. A year ago we had a daily posting average of 300 per day, its now 400 per day average, and the graph is still trending towards another incline of 500 per day average.
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can I take a look at your forum and see if anything I can do to replicate :D
 
I don't do anything radical. I change to meet consumer demand, as it changes. I constantly adapt to the way the web shifts, users interaction and so forth. Nothing game changing.
 
I've told our hearth.com story before - Facebook has had no affect on it - and it's grown every year for the 19 years the site has been active.

FB has a weakness that's big enough to drive a train through! It does not properly archive, search or thread material. It's a quick conversation just flowing by. Also, google does not give good ranking to most FB stuff...another big weakness.

In some cases (yours?) it may temporarily draw away some members to these new "pages" but once they realize that there is no real "curated" information, they will be back to yours.

The main thing is to keep curating good content which is useful over the long term. That's where all the value is.

FB will not fail. It's perfect for that quick chat and keeping up with family and friends. That has nothing to do with real information.
 
FB groups are also passing moments... the majority are not well moderated, and people use them, then quickly stop using them due to the toxicity of them by people wanting to be everyones friend, instead of being an admin.
 
I have had a FB "page" for years. I recently started a FB group as well and have a small following of about 300 members. I basically link to my Xenforo community when a question arise in the FB group as well as share good quality threads weekly that link back to the site. We will see how it goes.
 
I have found that FB is a double edged sword when it comes to online communities. FB is active and usually attracts people who stick with it because it's easy and all their friends are on there. However, it still brings traffic to a forum. The trick to converting FB traffic to forum members is giving FB folks and sneak peak at a unique but awesome feature that they can only use on the forum as a registered member. I also think the niche of the forum is going to have a significant impact on this subject as well. I know of many big time bloggers closing their FB pages (Copy Blogger was one of them) and focusing efforts more of Twitter - might be something worth researching, there.
 
dethfire said:
I run a community that was destroyed by Facebook and there was nothing I could do. My community is vastly superior in all but one way. Convenience. Turns out, that's what was most important to my members. No one can beat FB on convenience.
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I agree, it seems lately every time you turn around FB has added another cool feature, lately they've been really pouring it on too it seems.
 
MQK8 said:
I agree, it seems lately every time you turn around FB has added another cool feature, lately they've been really pouring it on too it seems.
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you have to beat it with "services".
so people come back to your website because you have that particular service (an example is @digitalpoint)
 
I think fb really is killing forums, my facebook page has over 13k likes and when I post an article most of the discussion takes place on the fb comments for that particular article I posted. I do point out to open discussions in our community but it just doesnt go anywhere, they prefer to discuss the topic on fb.
 
FB has killed off many forums and more by the day, it seems unless you've been established for a very long time, have a unique niche or a big corporation behind your forum, running a forum is becoming a hobby or a passion. There are exceptions of course but forums simply cannot compete with FB. People simply rather post on FB. :(
 
yep, same story here. it is all about numbers and humans just don't want to miss out so until forums can deliver new functionality to compete with fb and twitter we will just have to grin and bear. we really do need a mobile app for a start!
 
Loving this discussion and hoping more of you pile in.

As a new forum admin/owner, but 20 year vet of their use, this fascinates me in the modern context. My own limited take on it is: these days, both FB and conventional forums must compliment each other and draw audiences into and from each other in a synergistic flow. In that way, growing the overall audience.

Because for the time being, despite young folks deserting FB in droves, it remains a real force for a significant older audience.
 
The Xenforo forum I admin is a replacement for a previous forum that was shut down by its owner, who thought moving to FB would be the better way to go. Several of us disagreed, having experienced FB groups and not liked them, and decided to start our own, community-governed replacement forum. So FB isn't really a concern for us in terms of member retention since most are there because they either didn't want to move to FB or because they had friends who didn't. It could be an issue in terms of getting new members but we haven't been too actively trying to build the community anyway.
 
I think getting PUSH notifications to MOBILE figured out for forums is a big key. People are attracted to facebook for the quick results of reactions, comments and answers. People can ask a question, others will get notifications through a PUSH to their phone (not an email) that someone posted something. Someone will reply with an answer to that person. The answer comes as a PUSH to them (the person who asked the question) seconds later.
 
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