Richard_H
Grand Master
So not to derail the podcast thread any further here's my take on things:
We planned to do a roundtable on the topic of facebook and ask questions what I've seen and read many times on forums. All 5 of us on the podcast have dipped our toes into fb with differing levels of engagement but none of us think/thought that fb would/will replace the forums. Then spontaneously a post on fb necessitated the speeding up of the interview and it happened over 3 days. The guys who came on the show were extremely eager and all, not Matt, were regular forum users. Ross stepped in at short notice to cover.
We knew exactly the reaction we'd get. Everything you guys have put in the other thread some or all of us agree. We will have a follow up soon with guys from forums presenting their take on fb. And I'm sure we'll get issues from that too. And that's cool - debate is healthy. It is interesting to note though that a few extra guys have dipped their toes into fb since the interview which is interesting and it'd be cool to hear about their experience in a month or so time.
Now this bit is me personally, not the other 4 dimwits. I think you get out of fb exactly what you put into it and let come out. The second bit is easier to explain. I was a member of loads of groups. Loads! My facebook feed was full of SW. It was when I started to see the same post in 5, 6, 7 groups that I started to think. I learnt a bit about fb controls and tools and then I began to restrict notifications. This meant that I missed some posts. Well, if I wasn't on fb I'd miss them anyway so nothing lost there. But it meant that it became manageable. So, which groups to follow?
It makes sense to join a UK selling group - so I'm in Yavin 4 and Echo Base. And that would be a sufficient starting place. Take off notifications if you don't want bombarded with posts and you just want to skim at the end of the day or week. Then there's the SW 12/21, ESB, ROTJ and POTF groups. Now these groups are interesting. The first one is where the majority of the action is. Although it's primarily SW if anything needs posted of interest (new topics to debate) it goes here. So I follow this one. The other three (I'm not sure if I'm in the POTF group) I may browse from time to time. These groups are where you'll find many swfuk, RS, TIG and non-forum guys. Yes it may look unwieldy at first (it did to me) but once I joined in I figured out how to use it. I don't search often unless I'm researching. I scroll past posts that don't interest me. simple.
Then where do you go? Well, this is where it is down to you. Jason's group is huge. 15,000 members. I can't manage that group - sorry Jason, but I do know that many like it so try it. You've got groups for different areas of interest (Joe's trilogo, JoeY bootleg, Todd's International, Jenni variants, Boba Fett focus, Johnpaul cardbacks, etc....) you get the idea. But don't join them all. Keep out of the ones you're not interested in. Don't care for bootlegs? Don't join. You can also change your settings so people can't add you to groups which is a pain at times. By using the tools and controls you can filter out the noise and be left with what you can manage. I can manage what I have now and very little more.
There has been a lot of criticism of features and tools. I agree with many! FB may not be here forever. Although searching is simple you need to know what to search for and in which group. It's a pain at times. It'll not replace the forums as we know it. And there in lies the issue. FB evolves. It changes. It's a business and needs to stay relevant. An example, FB are taking business from ebay. Is that going to continue? Yes! Will FB look at this and start thinking, can we make money from this? Damn right they will. In the groups there are already FS options. It won't be long. FB will evolve and keep changing. It's interesting reading posts from 2002 decrying the need for forums when there was nothing wrong with RASSCV and other mailing lists! I kid you not. They're easy to find on RS.
And now the biggest benefit of FB for me. It's not the information, I use swca, trilogo.info, forums for that although good information does come up on FB. It's not for the FS posts, although it's easier to post images and there's a hell of a lot more stuff FS. It's not to see the limelights, again there's a lot of that and many examples of cool stuff I've never seen before. It's the personal interaction with the community. I've doubled, tripled my friendship group. A lot of guys from RS, to whom I was just a username on a forum typing BS; a lot of guys on here with whom I've not interacted with as much due to different interests; and a lot of guys who do not like forums. Guys like us, well not weasel. Guys who enjoy the hobby and want to share their passion in a different manner. Guys who I'm looking forward to meet up with in London next year and talking about my hobby. the personal touch that fb gives is not equaled by forums. FB messenger (a bit like whatsapp for those who don't know) is a major selling point. And that's what I mainly enjoy.
So moving forward in this hobby I will 100% be participating in forums. They're my home. But I will certainly be spending a lot of time on FB. I expect more in-depth discussions to continue on fb. Do I worry about archiving? Certainly do. But I think FB will be here for a long time and that when it looks as though it's ready to die (like RASSCV) then the archivists from the swca or wherever will pull the most useful posts and store them once again.
We planned to do a roundtable on the topic of facebook and ask questions what I've seen and read many times on forums. All 5 of us on the podcast have dipped our toes into fb with differing levels of engagement but none of us think/thought that fb would/will replace the forums. Then spontaneously a post on fb necessitated the speeding up of the interview and it happened over 3 days. The guys who came on the show were extremely eager and all, not Matt, were regular forum users. Ross stepped in at short notice to cover.
We knew exactly the reaction we'd get. Everything you guys have put in the other thread some or all of us agree. We will have a follow up soon with guys from forums presenting their take on fb. And I'm sure we'll get issues from that too. And that's cool - debate is healthy. It is interesting to note though that a few extra guys have dipped their toes into fb since the interview which is interesting and it'd be cool to hear about their experience in a month or so time.
Now this bit is me personally, not the other 4 dimwits. I think you get out of fb exactly what you put into it and let come out. The second bit is easier to explain. I was a member of loads of groups. Loads! My facebook feed was full of SW. It was when I started to see the same post in 5, 6, 7 groups that I started to think. I learnt a bit about fb controls and tools and then I began to restrict notifications. This meant that I missed some posts. Well, if I wasn't on fb I'd miss them anyway so nothing lost there. But it meant that it became manageable. So, which groups to follow?
It makes sense to join a UK selling group - so I'm in Yavin 4 and Echo Base. And that would be a sufficient starting place. Take off notifications if you don't want bombarded with posts and you just want to skim at the end of the day or week. Then there's the SW 12/21, ESB, ROTJ and POTF groups. Now these groups are interesting. The first one is where the majority of the action is. Although it's primarily SW if anything needs posted of interest (new topics to debate) it goes here. So I follow this one. The other three (I'm not sure if I'm in the POTF group) I may browse from time to time. These groups are where you'll find many swfuk, RS, TIG and non-forum guys. Yes it may look unwieldy at first (it did to me) but once I joined in I figured out how to use it. I don't search often unless I'm researching. I scroll past posts that don't interest me. simple.
Then where do you go? Well, this is where it is down to you. Jason's group is huge. 15,000 members. I can't manage that group - sorry Jason, but I do know that many like it so try it. You've got groups for different areas of interest (Joe's trilogo, JoeY bootleg, Todd's International, Jenni variants, Boba Fett focus, Johnpaul cardbacks, etc....) you get the idea. But don't join them all. Keep out of the ones you're not interested in. Don't care for bootlegs? Don't join. You can also change your settings so people can't add you to groups which is a pain at times. By using the tools and controls you can filter out the noise and be left with what you can manage. I can manage what I have now and very little more.
There has been a lot of criticism of features and tools. I agree with many! FB may not be here forever. Although searching is simple you need to know what to search for and in which group. It's a pain at times. It'll not replace the forums as we know it. And there in lies the issue. FB evolves. It changes. It's a business and needs to stay relevant. An example, FB are taking business from ebay. Is that going to continue? Yes! Will FB look at this and start thinking, can we make money from this? Damn right they will. In the groups there are already FS options. It won't be long. FB will evolve and keep changing. It's interesting reading posts from 2002 decrying the need for forums when there was nothing wrong with RASSCV and other mailing lists! I kid you not. They're easy to find on RS.
And now the biggest benefit of FB for me. It's not the information, I use swca, trilogo.info, forums for that although good information does come up on FB. It's not for the FS posts, although it's easier to post images and there's a hell of a lot more stuff FS. It's not to see the limelights, again there's a lot of that and many examples of cool stuff I've never seen before. It's the personal interaction with the community. I've doubled, tripled my friendship group. A lot of guys from RS, to whom I was just a username on a forum typing BS; a lot of guys on here with whom I've not interacted with as much due to different interests; and a lot of guys who do not like forums. Guys like us, well not weasel. Guys who enjoy the hobby and want to share their passion in a different manner. Guys who I'm looking forward to meet up with in London next year and talking about my hobby. the personal touch that fb gives is not equaled by forums. FB messenger (a bit like whatsapp for those who don't know) is a major selling point. And that's what I mainly enjoy.
So moving forward in this hobby I will 100% be participating in forums. They're my home. But I will certainly be spending a lot of time on FB. I expect more in-depth discussions to continue on fb. Do I worry about archiving? Certainly do. But I think FB will be here for a long time and that when it looks as though it's ready to die (like RASSCV) then the archivists from the swca or wherever will pull the most useful posts and store them once again.
