The future of sharing forum content

[Digital Doctor]

137,000 image attachments.

Your site is clearly not the norm for a forum.
Thus, your forum needs, are more niche than mass market.

I bet xenforo.com has less than 1,000 images.

 

[Salty]

137,000 image attachments.

Your site is clearly not the norm for a forum.
Thus, your forum needs, are more niche than mass market.

I bet xenforo.com has less than 1,000 images.

Then I would argue, image content can't be expanded for ANYONE regardless of their size because there is no way to do so. Power users in a certain field are able to improve that piece of the product because they can see the issue at hand in a much bigger way.

The problem being lots of images. When you have a lot you can't expand their usage/reach.

My solution, allow users to share their images, and sites of all sizes will grow, because the product doesn't exist for anyone.

 

[Digital Doctor]

What percentage of your 137,000 images are created by the users ?

 

[Salty]

What percentage of your 137,000 images are created by the users ?

100%

There is no auto posting or feeds of any kind going to the posts, threads, or forums. All of it is by users all over the world. It's a forum with community discussions. I keep it that way~

 

[Digital Doctor]

Is it at all realistic that people other than the poster, and few forum member friends, really want to see the images ?
=============================

I would look for an images only blog and tie that into xenforo.
or hack wordpress MU to be an images only blog.
I did a quick search for an images only blog tool. nothing jumped out at me.

The blog could then be RSS feeded anywhere you want.

 

[Salty]

Is it at all realistic that people other than the poster, and few forum member friends, really want to see the images ?
.

The 137,000 attachments on the forums contribute to an overwhelming amount of the forum's traffic referrals. So my answer is yes.

There is, off the top of my head, 15 power users that would expand our forum's traffic if they had the ability to get their content moving around the net using our forum as the basis for all discussion.


Twitpic, for example, has upload only image content that you can stream throughout the net; ridiculous traffic.

We, theoretically, should be destroying them at the same game, using the forums as the base for community. The image feed lures to the discussion in our case.

 

[Salty]

So, I decided to work on this; posts/threads/blog feeds update in realtime.
Every piece of the block is fully customizable.
Customizable image feed based on forum/thread/user underway.
When you click a button on the left the ad disappears and the feeds display.

 

[craigiri]

I'm going to be crapping my pants when Google TV or something similar takes off. Forums with HUGE amounts of video can't stream fluedly to the TV let alone have a feed directly devoted to video content. How are we legitametly going to compete effectively with all the content providers

Dominate all future hurdles, that's what I'm about. Montage should open eyes, or at least I'm using it to lobby this effort.

I'll put that new MS product right next to Bob......maybe a Zune-Killer!

The first fallacy is that people want or need something on their TV -whether apple tv, google tv or some other streaming box, etc. - This was predicted to be the future back in 1996 when WebTV launched. MS was promoting it for years - the confluence of the TV and the Internet. They simply don't get it.

When I turn my TV on, I want Boardwalk Empire - my wife wants "16 and Pregnant", etc. - we don't want email, web-based news, etc.

Forums are in NO danger of being replaced by anything else. They have existed since way before the internet (BBs), then morphed into Usenet, Compuserver, AOL, The Well and finally the first wwwboards.

If you need to find out about your Boston Whaler, you aren't going to find it on MS TV.

Actually, I personally dislike Video for most things - oh, and I teach Final Cut Pro and had videos on the web back in 1996, so it isn't from lack of familiarity. There are some things suited to video, but many (most?) are not.

The future will be some of everything. But probably less of "portals" of any kind - especially those made by someone sitting at home with some MS software. Google and other search have made the internet ONE BIG SITE in effect - the only thing that needs to happen now is that the population has to catch up (in ability to search and understand results).

Sure, as I said, some people want content served to them on a silver platter. But the demise of the big networks seems to prove that is a smaller, and older, part of the population.

 

[Fred Sherman]

When I turn my TV on, I want Boardwalk Empire - my wife wants "16 and Pregnant", etc. - we don't want email, web-based news, etc.

I'm going to have to disagree. As an engineer, I look at the convergence of technologies and what I see is that the time is coming soon when television, phone, FCIP, cloud computing and other niche technologies will converge to create a single infomedia technology.

Consider this. The television handing on my wall is connected to a satellite receiver which also acts as a DVR and connects into the internet for content download. Lets expand that technology slightly. Instead of network adapter, lets make that a dual-function adapter, internet and FCIP (fiber channel over IP). Now instead of downloading content to the DVR, I'm connected to the provider's storage cloud and can immediately acccess any content as though it is on my local hard drive. Maybe I even have access to personal storage on the cloud so that whatever I record is available to me on any access point - other receivers in the house, my computer, iPad, cellphone, etc.

Now, let's replace the satellite receiver with a computer with a satellite receiver PCIe card. The story gets even more interesting because now I can get even more service out of the storage cloud than just upload/download videos. My unit can now provide more capability than just video. I can do everything my Satellite reciever/DVR could, plus its a computer.

The problem is how to control the computer. Wireless keyboards are the easy answer, but not so much for the mouse control. So lets borrow another technology; lets steal the xBox360 Kinect. Using that technology, we have mouse control without the mouse and it adds a camera wich brings us to VoIP and video conferencing.

For that matter, lets steal the voice control technology from Dragon too. Now you have something far more responsive than your keyboard and mouse.

So, you're watching any one of a million video programs (or music subscriptions), when a call comes in. Your video is paused and you are notified whether its a voice or video request and do you wish to accept as video or voice only. You opt for voice only and take your call. While you're talking, an email comes in, which you reply to and then you return to your movie.

Lets take this a few steps further. Your computer isn't a computer any longer. Back to the satellite (or cable) provider...

Now what you have is a satellite receiver/cloud enabled thin client which uses a technology called VDI: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Your "computer", which is really a provisioned virtual machine, is at your access provider, which enables you to have multiple "computers": you have a MAC OS session, a Windows session and a Linux session. You can freely switch between any of them - as all are active - and your receiver. You can even do Picture in Picture and split screen. You have no OS to maintain and you subscribe to software.

Consider this. You get MS Office Professional for $3/month. It is always the latest version. You subscriber can do that because they license it on a concurrent user basis. They have 1 million users, but only 25,000 licenses because no more than that is ever is use at any single moment. Even at your incredibly ridiculous rate, they turn a profit.

Now, lets advance it one step further. We're 20 years down the road from today. Everyone has fiber to the curb. All of your services come in on that fiber. Your "television" already has your thin client, kinect-like technology, video camera, and microphone built in. You have a combination remote/wireless keyboard (it'll be harder to lose, but you still will).

You will make two connections: power and fiber. Your surround sound system will be bluetooth wireless. You turn it on, enter your subscriber info and you're on: television, video and music on demand, thin client, storage cloud, VoIP and video conferencing (with more call services than you're dreamed on - forwarding video conferences to you iPhone while in progress?).

This is where the future is heading. All of the technologies above already exist. And security? Better than passwords. Facial recognition and voiceprinting are already possible using this same technology. Kinect already does a very basic facial recognition on a xBox!

Oh yeah, and did I mention no more game consoles? You have a console virtual machine and games on demand.

So do I see a world where forum software could be obsolete? Sure. In the early 90s, I ran a Wildcat BBS. Not many of those left today, are there? Technology advances made them obsolete.

 

[HannahP]

I'm going to have to disagree. As an engineer, I look at the convergence of technologies and what I see is...

The problem is you are looking at it "as an engineer." craigiri more accurately states the real-world reaction to internet/TV convergence, and that is, the overwhelming majority of people don't want anything to do with it. Normal, non-engineer people, who know TV as it is now, anyway.

In the future, when we're all driving hovercars and there is no one left who remembers TV, books, movie theaters, hearing living musicians play music or walking on actual grass, yes, then everything you consume as "entertainment" will be served up to some crappy little device, and society and humans will be much the worse for it. Hooray.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Alot of people would love Facebook alerts on the TV.
I wonder if GoogleTV will allow FaceBook alerts

 

[Fred Sherman]

The problem is you are looking at it "as an engineer." craigiri more accurately states the real-world reaction to internet/TV convergence, and that is, the overwhelming majority of people don't want anything to do with it. Normal, non-engineer people, who know TV as it is now, anyway.

Partly, okay mostly. I understand the tech. But also notice how much of it was new paid services and subscriptions? The biggest reason why this will happen alot sooner is because the people you are already paying for your cable, satellite, phone or internet are looking at how to do this to earn more revenue. You won't be able to stop it or avoid it.

 

[HannahP]

...the people you are already paying for your cable, satellite, phone or internet are looking at how to do this to earn more revenue. You won't be able to stop it or avoid it.

I avoid paying my cable company for internet and telephone service. It's easy. But stop it, no, nothing can stop technological advances. But avoiding them is completely possible.

I don't disagree with your vision of the future. I jut think it's further off. You - and most of us - are surrounded by people who enjoy, or at least use, technology. But we are still the minority. Younger people adopt more easily, because they have no history of a world without a cellphone or an iPo/ad. So they will more willingly accept the degraded aesthetic and human experience that technological "advances" provide.

 

[Fred Sherman]

I don't disagree with your vision of the future. I jut think it's further off. You - and most of us - are surrounded by people who enjoy, or at least use, technology. But we are still the minority. Younger people adopt more easily, because they have no history of a world without a cellphone or an iPo/ad. So they will more willingly accept the degraded aesthetic and human experience that technological "advances" provide.

Aside from it being further off - I actually think its sooner than I believe, I completely agree. I've seen two kids in the same room talk by text message instead of actually interacting. If seen two people out to dinner, doing something on their cell phones instead of being present to each other. Heck, 1/3 of all new couples meet on the internet now.

At conferences I've explained it very simply. If you think of the technology age as a country, most of us are immigrants. We'll never fully comprehend it as well as our children and grandchildren who are native born citizens. To them, its the only culture, if you will, that they have every known. To us, it is foreign.

Even those of us that work to implement those technologies don't actually know how to use them. I've never tweeted in my life and doubt I ever will. Facebook is simply a place to find out what my daughters are doing at college and to sign into xenForo (thanks for that second use, BTW!)

 

[Salty]

Intel to push out server processors with 50 cores each would do the trick.

edit: more

 

[Salty]

While Facebook is displaying an individual's real life information for any 3rd party app you place on it, forums cater towards the content rather than the individual.

Been lobbying this lately with some game studios to give our communities more content to grow.

Media creation through online games allows us to have tangible content to share externally. This content is then shared throughout the internet to increase the game's reach. Figure below shows an Apple patent, using the content created by a user in a game to share with others through e-book comics. What studios need to do, is allow us to generate image/video content in-game so that we essentially, market the game by sharing our top moments or content stream/feed.

What people don't "get" until it's already churned out to the public, is that when you push out 50 million dollars worth of content creating software such as an Online Multiplayer Game, then you would think the point would be in showing off the content to any potential customer in mediums that guarantee interactivity and ongoing discussion.

Would you say Google Ads are a better way of describing the experience? I don't think it does.

This would be extremely handy for content to be shared on our community forums (discussion hub for content).

 

[HannahP]

Weird night...I can't stop yawning. That ever happen to you?

 

[Fred Sherman]

I'm going to have to disagree. As an engineer, I look at the convergence of technologies and what I see is that the time is coming soon when television, phone, FCIP, cloud computing and other niche technologies will converge to create a single infomedia technology.

Consider this. The television handing on my wall is connected to a satellite receiver which also acts as a DVR and connects into the internet for content download. Lets expand that technology slightly. Instead of network adapter, lets make that a dual-function adapter, internet and FCIP (fiber channel over IP). Now instead of downloading content to the DVR, I'm connected to the provider's storage cloud and can immediately acccess any content as though it is on my local hard drive. Maybe I even have access to personal storage on the cloud so that whatever I record is available to me on any access point - other receivers in the house, my computer, iPad, cellphone, etc.

Now, let's replace the satellite receiver with a computer with a satellite receiver PCIe card. The story gets even more interesting because now I can get even more service out of the storage cloud than just upload/download videos. My unit can now provide more capability than just video. I can do everything my Satellite reciever/DVR could, plus its a computer.

The problem is how to control the computer. Wireless keyboards are the easy answer, but not so much for the mouse control. So lets borrow another technology; lets steal the xBox360 Kinect. Using that technology, we have mouse control without the mouse and it adds a camera wich brings us to VoIP and video conferencing.

For that matter, lets steal the voice control technology from Dragon too. Now you have something far more responsive than your keyboard and mouse.

So, you're watching any one of a million video programs (or music subscriptions), when a call comes in. Your video is paused and you are notified whether its a voice or video request and do you wish to accept as video or voice only. You opt for voice only and take your call. While you're talking, an email comes in, which you reply to and then you return to your movie.

Lets take this a few steps further. Your computer isn't a computer any longer. Back to the satellite (or cable) provider...

Now what you have is a satellite receiver/cloud enabled thin client which uses a technology called VDI: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Your "computer", which is really a provisioned virtual machine, is at your access provider, which enables you to have multiple "computers": you have a MAC OS session, a Windows session and a Linux session. You can freely switch between any of them - as all are active - and your receiver. You can even do Picture in Picture and split screen. You have no OS to maintain and you subscribe to software.

Consider this. You get MS Office Professional for $3/month. It is always the latest version. You subscriber can do that because they license it on a concurrent user basis. They have 1 million users, but only 25,000 licenses because no more than that is ever is use at any single moment. Even at your incredibly ridiculous rate, they turn a profit.

Now, lets advance it one step further. We're 20 years down the road from today. Everyone has fiber to the curb. All of your services come in on that fiber. Your "television" already has your thin client, kinect-like technology, video camera, and microphone built in. You have a combination remote/wireless keyboard (it'll be harder to lose, but you still will).

You will make two connections: power and fiber. Your surround sound system will be bluetooth wireless. You turn it on, enter your subscriber info and you're on: television, video and music on demand, thin client, storage cloud, VoIP and video conferencing (with more call services than you're dreamed on - forwarding video conferences to you iPhone while in progress?).

This is where the future is heading. All of the technologies above already exist. And security? Better than passwords. Facial recognition and voiceprinting are already possible using this same technology. Kinect already does a very basic facial recognition on a xBox!

Oh yeah, and did I mention no more game consoles? You have a console virtual machine and games on demand.

So do I see a world where forum software could be obsolete? Sure. In the early 90s, I ran a Wildcat BBS. Not many of those left today, are there? Technology advances made them obsolete.

I love being right. I told you this was the direction things were headed. if anything, I've underestimated the timeframe.

http://www.samsung.com/us/2012-smart-tv/

 

[craigiri]

Obviously some people confuse result with transport!

The car has not and will not be replaced in a time frame that we can clearly see. Whether a one cylinder ford or a Prius, the car functions in the same way.

Fred's first forum is almost exactly like these current forums - they bring people together to discuss topics.

A more apt comparison is to separate things out into:
One to Many - this is TV - "content", radio, etc.
Community - this is a forum, facebook, chat, etc.

Many people, myself included, do not and will not spend an hour in front of the TV per day - no matter what is on it.

Let me know when the Apple TV has as many tens of millions of sales per year as the ipad and iphone. Even then, look at it closely and I think you will see they are not replacing anything except the remote controls and PITA of all the various different TV and cable and internet streaming. Still, at the root, it's the same. Entertainment. Not forums. Not person to person sharing of knowledge.

My friends started The Well back in the early 80's. That's almost a 40 year run for forums and, considering the increases we and others are seeing now, there is no reason to believe that it won't last as long as the car or longer.

Heck, we still don't have fuzzy (google like) search on these forums - we're in the stone age.
Fred, if you want to engineer something, do that!

 

[Fred Sherman]

Heck, we still don't have fuzzy (google like) search on these forums - we're in the stone age.
Fred, if you want to engineer something, do that!

I wish that I could, but I'm a hardware guy.