Bazzmund
Active Member
Not my experience. It's fine if your childhood was 47s and Met-Camms but those of us who grew up with HSTs, 91s and Pacers are generally requested not to fill people's feeds with rubbish.
Can Forums and Websites still play an important role?
- Thread starter Osgood
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bambuko
Western Thunderer
No thank you to FB 
It is not a replacement for decent forum.
We have the same problem on another forum I frequent...
It is beginning to split into two crowds those who adore Discord, Facebook, X etc and those of us who understand the value of forum.
It may be that majority will end up on Facebook or something similar... it will be a sad day
It is not a replacement for decent forum.
We have the same problem on another forum I frequent...
It is beginning to split into two crowds those who adore Discord, Facebook, X etc and those of us who understand the value of forum.
It may be that majority will end up on Facebook or something similar... it will be a sad day
Dog Star
Western Thunderer
So the (niche) market is yours.Its worth noting that nobody on here is selling T shirts......
adrian
Flying Squad
Thankfully you choose T-shirts for the example rather than ruck-sacs - that's can of worms I don't want opening!!Its worth noting that nobody on here is selling T shirts......
I think there's room for all options, all have a role to play in different circumstances, i.e. you can't please all of the people all the time etc. I suspect it's more about building a community that welcomes the sort of people you want to appeal to rather than the platform it is built on. There are good and bad forums just as there are good and bad groups on Facebook etc.
I use both - web forums and Facebook groups - in pretty much equal measure and cross-post my content to the relevant groups/forums. Some (of both) are better than others, so over time I've dropped out of some forums/groups which became less relevant to my interests or which imploded for whatever reason.
With Facebook, you don't have to post every detail of your personal life to join and take part in the groups, I know a few friends who have a fb account solely to contribute to the (better) groups. The fb groups are searchable to fair degree, by layout name, user or subject and there is a lot of useful info, photos and discussion across them.
Very niche-interest forums, in my experience, often have a 'shelf-life' and die without regular new blood (members and things to discuss).
There are also still email groups around, groups.io took on a lot of the old yahoo groups when yahoo pulled the plug - I'm in a couple of very active egroups with daily post count into the dozens.
The more transitory systems (tiktok, instagram and twatter) I've never bothered with, but the 'yoof' do and apparently that where they post their railway interest content, both prototype and model. Perhaps, as a wider hobby, we shouldn't just dismiss them and risk losing 'the future of the hobby' simply because we don't like/understand their preferred outlet?
With Facebook, you don't have to post every detail of your personal life to join and take part in the groups, I know a few friends who have a fb account solely to contribute to the (better) groups. The fb groups are searchable to fair degree, by layout name, user or subject and there is a lot of useful info, photos and discussion across them.
Very niche-interest forums, in my experience, often have a 'shelf-life' and die without regular new blood (members and things to discuss).
There are also still email groups around, groups.io took on a lot of the old yahoo groups when yahoo pulled the plug - I'm in a couple of very active egroups with daily post count into the dozens.
The more transitory systems (tiktok, instagram and twatter) I've never bothered with, but the 'yoof' do and apparently that where they post their railway interest content, both prototype and model. Perhaps, as a wider hobby, we shouldn't just dismiss them and risk losing 'the future of the hobby' simply because we don't like/understand their preferred outlet?
John57sharp
Western Thunderer
A good forum, like this one, is invaluable. I guess that, like our hobby, it takes a lot of work to achieve quality, and some firm but gently applied management, otherwise you end up with one great row!
Feels like a good opportunity to thank the team on here who keep things very fine indeed.
cheers
John
Feels like a good opportunity to thank the team on here who keep things very fine indeed.
cheers
John
Heather Kay
Western Thunderer
I accept all that. The problem I have with Facebook is, like nearly all the social media systems, it’s a closed proprietary system. If you’re not a member you can’t access much of the stuff posted. To me, that goes against the whole notion of the World Wide Web as invented by Tim Berners-Lee. If Meta decided to shut Facebook down, all that shared knowledge would disappear.
(Anyone remember Google+? I do.)
Now, while forums can also be closed, the world of blogs and web sites makes a much better method of sharing information while ensuring it is shared in the widest possible way.
Eastsidepilot
Western Thunderer
....and once AI ( biggest mistake humans will of made this century) gets going full bore then the scammers, abusers and the greedy will fill it all with further s**t. !
Max M
Western Thunderer
By 'democratic' does that translate into do and say what you please?
There is a faction who believe they can say whatever they like without any consideration for how it may affect others.
When you sign up to a Forum you agree to abide by the standards that the site has set to ensure that members conduct themselves in an acceptable manner.
Is it unreasonable that those who can't or won't abide by the standards are asked to modify their behaviour? As for bossy Mods, perhaps you can guide me to examples of this?
I have top admit I have very little experience of Facebook but where I have I found that there was no structure to the posts, a bit like chucking all your cutlery in a draw and having to sift through all the knives and forks to find a soup spoon. If I want some info. then I don't want (or more accurately, can't be bothered) to sift through lots of detritus to find it.
With Forums provided the title of the thread describes the content then it is, IMO, easier to find threads and topics of interest and pass over those that aren't.
bambuko
Western Thunderer
There is one fundamental difference between forum and Facebook.
Forum is (usually) run by and for the benefit of members,
whereas Facebook is run by and for the benefit of Mr Zuckerberg
end of the discussion (for me at least)
P.S. I am not bashing
just trying to educate
(I know I am wasting my time)
Forum is (usually) run by and for the benefit of members,
whereas Facebook is run by and for the benefit of Mr Zuckerberg
end of the discussion (for me at least)
P.S. I am not bashing
just trying to educate
(I know I am wasting my time
)
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Osgood
Western Thunderer
Oh no you're not (wasting your time) !
All useful views for which I thank you - yes, the conversation has probably runs its course (but please feel free to continue).
There is no doubt that all forms of communication have their place, and like everything from cars to solder flux, what suits one might not suit another.
It would appear that within a matter of days of launching a public FB page, despite the overwhelming traffic coming from genuine folk within the related community, the page has to be managed in order to moderate certain people intent on 'making an unrelated point' and new members have to be prior-approved in order to keep out those with yet other agendas.
So on that basis it would appear that all types of platform require some degree of moderation (pretty obvious really).
My take-out is that, in terms of building an archive of valuable historical material (images, stories, etc) it seems quite clear that most material placed on a social media platform is likely to become lost once the moment has passed (how can you search for a randomly placed image with no description?) - and the broader the subject base and the more diverse the strands of conversations the worse it gets.
But it is very clear that a lot of this material is unlikely to ever be placed on a forum due to the media preferences / habits of the material holder.
The only sensible solution I can see is to accept the (current) prolific use of social media, and regularly (I guess almost daily) transfer any valuable resource posted by its users to a forum-based platform where it can be archived viewed and retrieved whenever needed.
Next stage a website and (hopefully) a well-designed forum - and if the forum works half as well as WT does, I'm sure it will be deemed a great success.
All useful views for which I thank you - yes, the conversation has probably runs its course (but please feel free to continue).
There is no doubt that all forms of communication have their place, and like everything from cars to solder flux, what suits one might not suit another.
It would appear that within a matter of days of launching a public FB page, despite the overwhelming traffic coming from genuine folk within the related community, the page has to be managed in order to moderate certain people intent on 'making an unrelated point' and new members have to be prior-approved in order to keep out those with yet other agendas.
So on that basis it would appear that all types of platform require some degree of moderation (pretty obvious really).
My take-out is that, in terms of building an archive of valuable historical material (images, stories, etc) it seems quite clear that most material placed on a social media platform is likely to become lost once the moment has passed (how can you search for a randomly placed image with no description?) - and the broader the subject base and the more diverse the strands of conversations the worse it gets.
But it is very clear that a lot of this material is unlikely to ever be placed on a forum due to the media preferences / habits of the material holder.
The only sensible solution I can see is to accept the (current) prolific use of social media, and regularly (I guess almost daily) transfer any valuable resource posted by its users to a forum-based platform where it can be archived viewed and retrieved whenever needed.
Next stage a website and (hopefully) a well-designed forum - and if the forum works half as well as WT does, I'm sure it will be deemed a great success.
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So what's stopping you from starting a group for HSTs, 91s and Pacer photos and bashing memories?
The better FB groups are as well run as most forums, with a set of rules/standards that members sign up to upon joining. The degree of moderation varies depending on group, the better ones are quite 'light touch' (I moderate a fb TT120 group with close on 1000 members) but the tools for moderating posts and members is little or no different from most forum set-ups (I've also moderated/admin-ed forums).
Anything/everything on the net could disappear tomorrow - remember photobucket, anyone? RMweb lost a whole bunch of photos not that long ago and egroups and forums have been known to just cease existing overnight. If XenForo suddenly pulled the plug on their forum platforms, WT and all the knowledge on here would just vanish into the ether...
Better that it's shared somewhere, than not at all? Agree that FB isn't perfect but the better groups are as much a community as a forum.
adrian
Flying Squad
Actually to be clear on this - no it wouldn't. Xenforo simply supply the forum software. I know Xenforo provide hosting options but we don't use it and the forum is hosted separately, so I have a full software download.
Thanks for everyone's contribution however as I believe Tony has got the feedback he was asking for I'm not sure this has any more mileage.
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