Saturday, Aug 31, 2019 at 00:01
What actually kills forums is poor moderation and poor webmaster interaction.
I've been on computers, the internet and forums since 1998 - only a few months after Windows 98 was released. I was nearly 50 before I learnt anything about computers - but I'm glad I did. I ended up building my own computers from scratch.
I can recall that the early internet was truly fascinating as people discovered a whole new world, forums of like-minded people, discovered marketplaces of products and goods and rare parts, that were not available to purchase locally.
I found several forums I really enjoyed (mostly based in America) and made a large number of new friends worldwide - some of whom actually visited me here in West Oz.
I helped out lots of people with technical and engineering and purchasing problems, and got a lot of thanks in return.
Then one day, after about 10 years, I started to realise I was getting burnt out and costing myself money, by being on forums, offering valuable advice and knowledge, for little monetary return.
I found that numerous people were taking advantage of my knowledge and utilising it to make money for themselves.
As a result, I started to retreat from the forums and stopped posting and reading regularly.
What we did discover as regards forums, was that constant and tight moderation is necessary to keep up the level of discourse to an acceptable standard, and to rapidly delete any posts that were nasty, vicious, personal attacks, or defamatory.
Offenders were warned they would be removed from the forums if their behaviour continued to be unacceptable.
There are quite a number of
forum posters who have sociological problems and personality disorders, such as autism, and related disorders such as Aspergers Syndrome.
These people seem to love anything IT, and they can be quite brilliant, but be very difficult to manage on forums, behaviour-wise.
They are generally the ones driving people away from poorly-moderated forums, with their pervasive self-interest, "me-me-me" behaviour, attention-seeking, and disruptive and uncivil behaviour in their postings.
They seem to delight in "baiting" people, and getting a sharp reaction.
Then there are other posters who have comprehension and reading difficulties, and these people often misread posts and take offence when none was intended.
But the basic problem is, in face-to-face contact, we place a lot of emphasis on facial expressions, tone of voice, stance, and other behavioural cues.
On the internet, all these things are non-existent, and the lack of them makes for difficulty in understanding others, who can also be obtuse, or cryptic in their
forum expression.
It pays to proof-read thoroughly, everything you plan to post, and make sure it is readable and understandable. It also pays not to put up postings when you are very tired, or have imbibed "a few"!
Often, what you have posted, looks completely different to what you planned to post, a day later!
But the bottom line today is, there is a vast amount of information readily available on the 'net - which was not available, when forums were really in full swing in the early 2000's.
This readily-available information is what helps kill forums, as people no longer join, or go to a
forum, to seek information, as they did 15-20 years ago.
Cheers, Ron.
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Follow Up By: Michael H9 - Saturday, Aug 31, 2019 at 07:17
Saturday, Aug 31, 2019 at 07:17
There are also people posting who've had too much to drink. You can't tell they're slur typing their words.
Another thing that is killing forums is the build up of knowledge that is already in the
forum that only needs to be read and not asked about. Then you get the annoying posts saying "use the search function and stop asking questions". This puts people off and stifles conversation. Facebook is more about what is happening now, posting a picture of where I am now with some sort of caption in a live time frame. In effect, forums are mostly used for asking for information that can be slow in coming, while Facebook tends to be about giving unsolicited information that perhaps draws an almost instant response. Forums can be similar in that people can post interesting pictures and videos of where they've been and that's great, but the timeframe is not instant so the content is not as active, there's a lag time that slows the overall discourse.
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Follow Up By: Jarse - Saturday, Aug 31, 2019 at 07:38
Saturday, Aug 31, 2019 at 07:38
One thing I like about FB is the ease with which you can find info (if the group supports it).
For example, ‘how to wire a brake controller into a (insert vehicle name). Look in the files section - people upload stuff like PDFs, DOCs, excel spreadsheets etc on all sorts of ‘how to’s’ pertinent to the page. Much easier than doing a
forum search and having to wade through a lot of chaff (and often unhelpful posts like “use the search function!”...
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