The comeback of Forums - What I am doing about it.

Kleazy

Active member
I watched episode3 of Xenforo Insights and towards the end a question was if forums are having a comeback.
Starts at timecode relevant to my post:
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Please don't get stuck on Left/Right politics during this post. Big-Box-Store social media platforms are in decline because they do not adhere to core values of a sane person.

Your content data is being analyzed and used for many reasons you did not give consent on. It may get sold for simple cash. It gets aggregated based on best outcome for the platform you are on. Whatever their motivation is you most likely don't agree with it. We don't even know what the data is being used for since there is no transparency and little legal oversight.

Next Big-Box-Store SM censors content overtly or through shadow banning or weighing your content in a way it gets indexed low. Censorship in principle is not a bad thing and a necessary when it comes to a protect class of humans. Children. Censorship is about responsibility and ownership. Adults need no parenting. No thought control.

I now think that the most sensible approach to social media is to claim ownership. Legislation won't fix nothing. Absence only isolates you from the human collective. Jumping from one platform to the next only kicks the can down the road.

Instead of me continuing to always scream I hate SM and listing all kinds of reasons why I now take ownership of my own need to also wanting to publicly broadcast my thoughts, pictures, videos, connect with people far away, write history that I decide when to erase.

Change comes from within and not from external. Nobody will come to safe you. Its not always easy however good things require a price to be paid. You want easy keep posting on IG and friends and be the pawn on the FB chessboard.

Own the data. -> Run your own server. Protect the data.
Own who indexes it. -> Create access levels. Private/Public boundaries.
Own the users that comment, emoji react, reply, upload multi media. -> Create access levels.
Own the functionality and aesthetics. -> Xenforo (or other softwares as well) are open source and allow limitless customization.

Downside:
You will lose friends that currently follow you.
You have to put effort into regaining those online friends if thats important to you.
Your wont get that many thumbs up validations. Hidden upside is you may grow up a little.
It takes time, effort and discipline to start such a project.

Upside:
You will gain higher quality friends that now follow you and become part of your online community.
Your validation comes from other things.
You may regain the fun it was when you first tinkered with forums because now you run your own playground. You may already run server resources, so there may not be additional costs involved other than licenses.
Ownership = freedom

I started my personal forum yesterday. Little to show for today yet.

My intention is to make it my exclusive only SM presence. All other SM platforms will get a redirect link/Image/Text sharing where I can be followed. Now its out of my control if people do or not. I will encourage google indexing so my content can be found that way and be useful to whoever finds use in it. No tracking codes of any kind. Not even analytics. No monetization for now...if one day its super busy perhaps I sell some t-shirts, post some Amazon type commission link or self promote whatever else I might be doing in life for tokens. A bridge to cross upon arrival. I picked a theme that i am currently trimming to my needs. I will lean it out, simplify things, make it as easy to use as any main stream SM platform. Xenforo matches just about every SM feature they use plus many can be custom coded.

After long and hard searching for a good domain name I settled for my FirstLastName.com as my name is my most precious currency IRL and also online...this makes me vulnerable online however I also see strength in it once I completely master being comfortable with that idea.

I feel that this needs to be a trend where everyone at the end has their own domain name, some platform software on it. You think of your buddy...go to their name.com domain and see what they are up to. Subscribe to notifications if you are a big time fan/follower.

Many people I know that are not even online type people own their name as domain name...their kids name even; they are just holding on to it waiting for a better day to do something with it. Stop waiting already.

A revolution of attraction vs. seduction that will bring power back to the individual publisher. The owner of his content.

Now if your intention is to make money or be famous this post may appear loonie to you however in that case this in the long run benefits you and everyone around you as well. @Kier and @Mike even mentioned that in the YT video where companies reclaiming control of their customers that way.

Imagine if big time famous people like an Elon Musk would simply run XenForo on elonmusk.com instead of Twitter. He would own it...ahhh there is that word again. Ownership.
 
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Hope things are going well for you, this is an interesting topic.
I will read this in detail after I watch the "XenForo Insights" and reply again!
Cheers!
 
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Yes its amazing.
2-3 weeks after my hobby forum launch I have 5 users on it. If anyone wants to directly follow what I do there you may ask me via DM/PM for the url.

I mentioned to about 10 people what I am doing. Each one once only with a personalized invite during a digital and analog face to face conversation. Not twice...once only as I am not desperate nor spammy. I care for merit not followers.

Google is indexing the domain. I see the bots. I don't run analytics software for this site as my mission is to reduce tracking of web traffic. There are 2 remote domain requests currently that need to be localized. One is a .js that came with the theme I am using and the other is a google font.

I love long winded article writing...as you may see in my posts here on XF. Perhaps very annoying to many and inappropriate at worse. Well..on my own platform I can do whatever I want without the feeling of shame or guilt. I now have an outlet to write strange politically incorrect articles on how I see the world... repost randomness I find on the internet. Be vulnerable and it feels amazing.

When people send me a text with some cool link...I now sometime reply on my own platform without mentioning who I got it from. If they are already on my platform they see it or not. Not my problem. If I have not invited them yet... I have my own opportunity to invite them with a link back. That link back contains my long ass article. Now they may follow me there or respond back to me via SMS/email or wherever it originated.

I have found a new slightly lost joy in forum nerdyness as an admin. Some of that is now making its way back into my business forum.

Just this morning at the sensory deprivation tank studio I go to the guy that runs it asked me when I will write a new article. He liked what I have written so far.

I invited him once. He made a profile...is not using it. Hmmm.. I think he is technically challenged... that tells me what I have built is too complicated. Now I am thinking about what UX tricks to use to make it IG dumbed down simple. Again what I learn will make it to the business forum.

Thank you for your interest.
 
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