What do you want....from us?

[Dien Rice]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for your post...

Of course, many things have changed since Sowpub started...

This forum is good for more extended discussion...

A lot of the attention nowadays has been taken by places like Facebook and Twitter.

Twitter is not a place for extended discussion... It even limits you to 140 characters! It's very hard to explain anything in depth there...

It's very well suited for insulting each other, though.

Facebook rewards you for posting pictures and videos. They generally don't like pure text...

I believe attention spans have been shrinking for many decades now. Twitter and Facebook are great for short attention spans...

I play the game there too! (I am on Twitter and Facebook...)

But it also has its limitations...

However, these short "hits" on Facebook and Twitter give you a quick dopamine "buzz" and gets you addicted!

I see it (to put it in historical terms) as being like the difference between watching Jerry Springer, vs. Carl Sagan...

Seeing two women tearing each other's hair out on "The Jerry Springer Show" can be more entertaining (for a quick dopamine hit) than learning about the billions and billions of stars on "Cosmos"...

Best wishes,

Dien

Where's that "like" button?

Oh, dang it! That's Facebook!

Dien, you may be right.

I have never been "fully engaged" in the discussion boards of business, but I had a personal "go to" group of as many as six at one time.

Thinking back, this may be the last one still operating.

Groups are the big thing (well, one of the big things ... FB ads are pretty big, too!) now on FB. Every half-assed guru and special interest group has one, and they are pretty active.

FB provides an instant audience ... potentially, anyway.

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Robert J.

Dien, you may be right.

I have never been "fully engaged" in the discussion boards of business, but I had a personal "go to" group of as many as six at one time.

Thinking back, this may be the last one still operating.

Groups are the big thing (well, one of the big things ... FB ads are pretty big, too!) now on FB. Every half-assed guru and special interest group has one, and they are pretty active.

FB provides an instant audience ... potentially, anyway.

Hi Robert,

Yes, forums need to modernize!

One of the "problems" as I see it with Facebook is, you don't really "own" anything... Facebook owns it.

For example, do you "own" people who "Like" your Facebook page? Not really...

It used to be that Facebook showed stuff from your page to most people who "Liked" it. That percentage has been decreasing with each year...

So how do you reach more people who "Liked" your page? Easy - pay Facebook money to advertise to reach them!

That proves that it's really about the money... Facebook "owns" everything, your data, everyone else's data, and they also own your ability to reach anyone, including those who "Liked" your page, etc.

The same goes for any Facebook group... You "own" nothing, even if you started the group. Everything is controlled by Facebook... Facebook changes the rules over time. They'll change it to increase their own profit. So, however it works now, is not how it may work in the future...

To put it in other terms, where is the "toll position"? The answer is with Facebook - it is Facebook who owns the toll position for anything on Facebook!

It means they can "screw" you overnight if you are too dependent on them... And they've proven that they'll do it if it means greater and sustained profits for them...

I believe there is an opportunity to "modernize" things like forum software, to utilize more social media tools... (Maybe someone's done it, I don't know.) I don't have time to do it now... Otherwise it could be a good project...

Best wishes,

Dien

Dien:

Facebook can be monetized in the groups by using private group and charging admission...but my biggest problem with Facebook groups is that there is no way to create a knowledge base, and as a result the same questions are asked and have to be answered over and over again as new people join. A knowledge base could be built by the owner of the group (loads of time and effort involved) and then pinned to the top of the group....the problem is that only one item can be pinned to the top and other important items can't be pinned if the knowledge base is pinned....just my biggest complaint and pain in the butt with it.....with forums there is a searchable knowledge base.

Well said, Cornell!

You hit the nail on the head a few times.