It started. Should I be sad? (Facebook)

[Anthony Parsons]

They must learn... and their not stupid, so I don't think the web should be changed to suit the Facebook generation.

 

[FredC]

member profile pages are pretty similer to FB and not many people on my forums use that form correctly.

 

[erich37]

So.. this actually happened on my forum today. I am deciding if I should be sad, impressed, or if it is funny.



Cuteness aside, and nevermind the fact that she created a thread to ask how to created a thread....

This is the first time that I get a member that knows Facebook, but does NOT knows how a forum works. I expect to start getting more like that as time progresses. She is 13.

I did follow up, and I am doing some analysis

1) People have to choose a FORUM to post INTO, not post into a generic timeline. That is somehow different.
2) The term "thread" seems completely alien to them
3) The instinct somehow is to look at the top of the forum for a textfield in which to share something, not to click on a button and then write a lenghty text

I do think this would give a slight improvement to the issues you have mentioned:

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/add-a-post-new-thread-button-onto-the-forum-homepage.46272/

Compare posting a reply to starting a thread.

• When you look for a way to post a reply, you see this rather large text box with your avatar next to it. It's fairly obvious what needs to be done.
• When you look for a way to start a thread, you must locate a button to start the process.

There's been talk of changing where the button is ... Changing the text on the button ... Having different buttons for different levels of forum experience.

None of those are bad ideas, but maybe a solution would be to put a "Quick Thread" box at the bottom of the thread listing. It could be identical to the way quick reply is done, but with an additional input for the title.