What do you want....from us?

[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