Facebook Killed Forums

 

There is much to be said about taking pride in things you do but at the same time why use old tech just for the sake of it when there's clearly a better solution.

 

Out of interest if Facebook is "clearly a better solution"  and forums are "old tech".....why are you still posting on TMF?

 

If you use 'Imgur' it is very easy to store and upload photos to forums in an instant.....

https://imgur.com/

 

 

I never said that! I said the photo upload on FB was a better solution .. personally I prefer forums for technical type things, FB is fine for advertising events and posting pictures of your breakfast.  Imgur is a pain to use.

I'm 65 Steve

Sorry,erroneous assumption.I am63.When we were young and things were not very reliable and there was NO INTERNET!! we had groups of like minded friends,help me change my engine and I'll rewire your gauges sort of thing.I read CCC and Custom Car,(Custom Car was notorious for answers to problems like ;Exactly how do I fit a V8 into my Anglia? replying along the lines of As you have had to ask you are probably not the type of person who should be doing this.Things have changed and there is very little need for lots of people to become DIY savvy.I am very jaded and Cynical nowadays( some say always was)Questions like"how do I change XXX?" I often see as "Please come and do it for me whilst I watch TV but only after 6pm on wednesday."this is I realise a sweeping generalisation.To me this is facebook.

"could anyone help me with this problem?I have already tried XYZ" is a forum.Enjoy what life you have left,yesterday a 50ft tree fell down on the path that myself and grandchildren had walked under only 10 minutes earlier,I had walked under it hundreds of times previously.Try to enjoy things however they are presented,things ebb and flow and sometimes the tide sweeps you along for a ride.Have fun,Steve..

Here you go, Steve

I've seen some of the worst advice offered on facebook ever. 

 

I reckon in the course of a thread you get at least 50% of poor advice, 40% of people arguing, 5% of people trying to sell something and then 5% of decent advice.

 

(and that's on a good day!!)

Facebook didn't kill forums, forums killed forums.

 

While Facebook is full of bad advice, idiots posting memes, and endless pictures of someones dinner/dog/cat/children, lets not pretend that forums weren't/aren't guilty of all kinds of wrong doing as well. A few Google searches for common mechanical issues will turn up forums full of absolute rot.

 

So on that front, I'd say they are as bad/good as each other.

 

What killed forums? On a technical front, someone has to set them up, pay for them, manage them and advertise them. Most forum software is quirky with a lacklustre user experience (e.g. look at the complaints about image hosting), and every forum requires a new username/password.

 

With Facebook there is no cost, most/many people are already signed up, and it's been written to work with every device you might access it from with a uniformed interface including 'free' image/video hosting. Not only that, but the same 'tool' can be used to talk to your grandma, your gaming pals or your chosen car community, and even run your business. It is, technically, a better tool. They built the better mousetrap.

 

And then there's the social side. Every forum is a fiefdom. Every forum I've ever used has had a number of cliques (TMF does very well on this front, to be honest). Fall out with one/any of them and you may as well give up on the forum. If that forum was the main community for your e.g. make/model of car, you're stuffed. The same can/does happen on Facebook but because most feel more accountable (the same user account can be used to call you, see your family pictures, lists of your friends etc..) I don't notice it happening quite so much. If it does there's a very good chance another group/page has been created that you can join. See the point above - it's free and easy to create a new group/page, there is virtually no barrier to entry.

 

Do I think Facebook is the better tool? No. Not for the content that goes on here or forums like TurboMinis. I am regularly frustrated with Facebook when I can't find a conversation or image I was looking at 5mins ago because the algorithm has decided I should look at something else now. When it changed from being a time-based to an algorithm-based feed, it became hopeless for documenting a timeline (e.g. your project build). If you could create a group and set the timeline to be sorted by date/time, and add a decent search function Facebook would have all it needs to finish off the last remaining forums (technically).

 

So what am I trying to say? Facebook is the better tool, like it or not. It's not perfect but it's clearly doing what people want and that's all it has to do. I don't like it, but I'm not quite ready to try and develop the Next Big Thing^tm

Edited by Icey, 25 August 2021 - 10:17 PM.

Facebook damaged a lot of things: forums, websites,… but it didn't kill them. Facebook is a closed network, not easily searchable, not available without registration and without providing your whole life to them. It's annoying when restaurants have their menus on FB and I can't even access it :-/

 

Anyway, I've never registered to FB and never will, even if some communities could be interesting to me: I prefer forums.
 

Do you still use a chemical film camera? Or do you prefer the 'instant gratification' of digital?

Funny you mention that: a few days ago I hired a professional photographer to take photos on film of my Mini. Well, I'll get to see the result later

Personally I love a 

 

 

Some people have mentioned the inability to be able to upload photographs instantly to forums. The fact that we have to go through a 3rd party to do it is a pain for most people, even with an Imgur or Flickr account. The RetroRides forum uses software where you can upload your own photo directly to the forum, thus cutting out the middle man as it were. I am certain it took a LOT of work to sort this by the Forum's tech people, but it works very well and is significantly easier for users.

 

I use Faceache to mainly find old friends, and I am a member of a couple of motoring groups on there. Some are fun, but they aren't forums. The wealth of knowledge usually comes from a select few posters whereas the majority of the rest of the posts seem to ask the same questions over and over.

Edited by MrBounce, 28 August 2021 - 10:15 PM.

Some people have mentioned the inability to be able to upload photographs instantly to forums. The fact that we have to go through a 3rd party to do it is a pain for most people, even with an Imgur or Flickr account. The RetroRides forum uses software where you can upload your own photo directly to the forum, thus cutting out the middle man as it were. I am certain it took a LOT of work to sort this by the Forum's tech people, but it works very well and is significantly easier for users.

I use Faceache to mainly find old friends, and I am a member of a couple of motoring groups on there. Some are fun, but they aren't forums. The wealth of knowledge usually comes from a select few posters whereas the majority of the rest of the posts seem to ask the same questions over and over.

I am the owner and administrator of a forum, and it allows you to upload up to 8 huge photos to any post. Very easy. It automatically resizes them so they don't slow things down and take up too much space, but as you mention it took some organising (and testing) to make it effortless.

FB does NOT only stand for facepage or whatever it is now called
Copulating cattle poo!!

 

Sorry,erroneous assumption.I am63.When we were young and things were not very reliable and there was NO INTERNET!! we had groups of like minded friends,help me change my engine and I'll rewire your gauges sort of thing.I read CCC and Custom Car,(Custom Car was notorious for answers to problems like ;Exactly how do I fit a V8 into my Anglia? replying along the lines of As you have had to ask you are probably not the type of person who should be doing this.Things have changed and there is very little need for lots of people to become DIY savvy.I am very jaded and Cynical nowadays( some say always was)Questions like"how do I change XXX?" I often see as "Please come and do it for me whilst I watch TV but only after 6pm on wednesday."this is I realise a sweeping generalisation.To me this is facebook.

"could anyone help me with this problem?I have already tried XYZ" is a forum.Enjoy what life you have left,yesterday a 50ft tree fell down on the path that myself and grandchildren had walked under only 10 minutes earlier,I had walked under it hundreds of times previously.Try to enjoy things however they are presented,things ebb and flow and sometimes the tide sweeps you along for a ride.Have fun,Steve..

 

 

I'm with a group on f@cebook associated with another type of "old" (~20 year old) vehicle which is popular among the masses at the moment. Its increasingly common and increasingly annoying for people to post questions like where do I buy this or that basic part or accessory; clearly having not even been bothered to google it themselves or... (old school I know)  ...call a parts shop or visit halfrauds! Like you say, people want things on a plate or done for them. 

Edited by jonlad, 06 September 2021 - 10:05 AM.

There are certain things out there in social media land that are useful although some of those you have to take with a pinch of salt ( think YouTube and certain Youtubers)

And the days of thinking for yourself and common sense are diminishing exponentially. And what is even more scary certainly in my industry (Aviation) I see on certain groups “ how do I do this as I cannot find it??) We have a cornucopia of manuals and stringent processes you have to follow and when you cannot find the answer you need even after asking your peers, there is another process you go through to get the CORRECT answer. That answer is gleaned from the manufacturers not some random bloke off FB.

But this is the world we live in now and it will only carry on and on down the rabbit hole.

Eventually all of us old dogs will die and what fun I will have to look down on from wherever you go when brown bread.
I used to think I was a helpful guy but one liberty too much(will you fit a clutch in my mates MGB?)resulted in me being less so.Whatever answer you like to pick which is the same as the one you are already thinking is the right one now and long may it live.Have fun while it lasts,Steve..

There are certain things out there in social media land that are useful although some of those you have to take with a pinch of salt ( think YouTube and certain Youtubers)

And the days of thinking for yourself and common sense are diminishing exponentially. And what is even more scary certainly in my industry (Aviation) I see on certain groups “ how do I do this as I cannot find it??) We have a cornucopia of manuals and stringent processes you have to follow and when you cannot find the answer you need even after asking your peers, there is another process you go through to get the CORRECT answer. That answer is gleaned from the manufacturers not some random bloke off FB.

But this is the world we live in now and it will only carry on and on down the rabbit hole.

I don't believe this is a new problem. All social media is doing is making old problems obvious. Way before social media people were shoving newspaper and filler into rusty sills and fitting all kinds of weird, badly thought out modifications to their cars (speaking specifically about automotive hobbyists). Forums did help to paper over some of those problems because bad ideas could be shouted down....but that wasn't a gurantee. As mentioned in my previous post, there is plenty of bad advice held in forums.

 

Equally, I think every generation has thought poorly about the next when it comes to skill levels. There's logic to that, you're looking at the inexperianced from an experianced perspective forgetting how much you've learnt and were taught over, potentially, a very long period of time. And yet how many times have we heard, even on this forum, lines like 'I took it to a garage who knows all about classic cars' or 'my friend/relative/other has been working on these his/her whole life' followed promptly by complete garbage or some long-since disproved piece of mythology. I've seen this with my own eyes, people apparently vastly experianced doing some really weird stuff (weird in a bad way...).

 

This seems to have stepped away from the original topic, I'll summarise my views again. There as always been incompetent people, those who struggle to learn, and those that should not be allowed near a set of spanners. All social media is doing is allowing everyone to see what they're up to. Take Facebook, Insta etc... away and those people will still exist. They have always existed.

ahem

 

 

facebook doesnt seem so good now does it??!!