Which is great if you are discussing one or two topics that are related to each other, but how would it work if 100 to 200 unrelated topics were being discussed at the same time? Imagine this board if all the responses to all the threads where dumped into a single thread, posted in order of appearance. Now, you might consider separate Facebook pages for every forum, which might knock the number of different topics being discussed at the same time to 20 to 30. Still next to impossible to follow, and only an idiot would want to moderate that mess.
And just try to find a post on Facebook!
How does one Google a Facebook conversation? If a five page thread(100 responses per page) were transferred somehow into a Facebook conversation, how much would be accessible a year later, a month later or even the next day?
I can’t answer that, but this is what happens to me. I’ll see a post that looks interesting, but I accidentally click on something and go to another page. If I use the back button, the interesting post is no longer there. If I reload the page, the post is no longer there. So I have to scroll down – waiting for new content to load when I get to the bottom of the page – and hope to find what I’m looking for. In the end, I usually wind up saying ‘Screw it. This is Facebook. I don’t need to find that post that urgently.’ It sucks though, when you saw a meme a few days or weeks ago that would be a perfect reply to someone’s post.
Another question or two about revenue and Facebooking the Straight Dope: Would TPTB be able to charge a member fee and, if so, what perks could they offer members that non-members wouldn’t get? I ask this because they own the name and (presumably) want to monetize it.
I agree. But it comes down to density… forums in general and this one in particular are extremely dense in their content. There’s a ton of stuff, almost too easily accessible. (It can be distracting.)
Most social media is Cool Whip by comparison. You have to scan and scan and scroll and scroll and click and click to read a comparatively tiny amount of content.
And free the hamsters.
Won’t somebody think of the goats?
I think Reddit looks, upon first inspection, like a mass of tri-color spaghetti (is there such a thing?), but I’ve found it quite useful on specific topics. And finding those individual topics is fairly easy.
For example, the forum on the game Rimworld (and several other games) is quite well-moderated and focused, as well as the Game Deals forum. While I thought that the SDMB would live well there, I admit I hadn’t considered it’s “quality goes at the top” ordering versus our chronological; that would, indeed, make it seem much more like a bunch of individuals responding to the OP, rather than to each other (though as pointed out you can respond specifically to a post, and people often do, several layers deep).
Traditionally, it seems subreddits are rather topic-specific, though I don’t see why you couldn’t have more general topics, like the “Explain Like I’m 5” one. There is at least one “straight dope”-named subreddit currently, though it gets little action.
I suggest reversing that and locking the plane after the treadmill comes to a stop.
I spend very little time here now that I’ve gotten into Reddit. You can focus on pretty much any topic - broad or very niche - and get a good conversation going with people on those topics. There’s bullshit to deal with in the bigger groups, of course, but I’ve found that the tenor and quality of discussion in some of the smaller subreddits blow this place out of the water. For one thing, there’s a distinct lack of pedants over there. You can make a minor mistake and not have the rest of the thread be distracted by it. The mods are pretty on the ball over there also - again, some better than others depending on the sub.
Also the number of people over there dwarf this place by magnitudes. And on top of that there are many members/active posters that are either celebrities (Val Kilmer posts a lot, for example) or noted experts in their fields. The science sub has verified experts and they also delete any posts that are jokes or not on-topic.
Anybody slagging on Reddit here has no idea what they’re missing. Seriously. Take some time to learn the ropes and you’ll find it to be a bottomless font of information and lively discussion.
I mean, they even have a sub dedicated tobaby elephant gifs…
Subs can be set up to eliminate the up/down votes completely and sort by only New. The admins of each subreddit have WIDE latitude to customize the experience for their sub.
I also agree with you both (Siam Sam and the Barbarian, Amateur)…My activity on other forums and sites has really dropped off since I joined the Dope. So much fighting elsewhere, that even the Pit here seems refreshing.
Im a lurker. It would be nice to post photos without using other sites…but…no complaints. I like the phbb format. Simple and functional.
And hats off to the mods. Great job you guys do.
I don’t believe message boards will die any time soon. Twitter and Facebook are fine for short staccato comments made on the spur of the moment with as much thought given to them as a brief few seconds of composing them will allow (and that obviously isn’t much.)
For more intelligent discussion, with time to express one’s own thoughts and to consider more fully those of others, we still need boards like this. If we ever reach the point when all we can do is jabber excitedly at each other using emojis and icons in short rapid bursts then I’ll forgo electronic communication completely.
Amen. I finally created a Facebook account because the social, as opposed to operational, aspect of a couple volunteer groups I am active with had moved there. Maybe it’s the learning curve involved but I have yet to get anything useful out of the goldfish attention span postings there.
Now, if you’re going to go the clickbait route, go whole hog.
**
A mother in <YourTown> has found a weird old trick for saving on designer clothing.**
So what constitutes an active member? Does it require posting or does merely logging in count?
I’m logged in at least 5 days a week and spend more hours than I care to admit reading, but I rarely post. I guess my internal filter is too fine - inevitably, I think about posting and then decide - nah, someone else will post the same thing, only better.
Who puts socks on elephants?
I would buy this on a coffee mug.
I’m mainly active in the MMP, so I’m at least generating posts and page views, if not monetizable content.
Which of you am I?
Can’t come to a stop, it’s frictionless, remember? Or is that the plane…
Message boards will shrink slowly but certainly. The rate of drop off will be higher than the rate of new participants, because the younger generation doesn’t find message boards to be interesting enough. As the regular members slowly die off, or find other things to interest them, participation levels will decline and eventually, the board will stop being viable for whatever entity is sponsoring it.
It’s not just here I notice the drop off. I participate on the Paradox Development Studios message boards because of my interest in Europa Universalis. You’d think that a board like that would not have issues, because after all, they are the go-to method for figuring out how the game works, or how to maximize the result. But even there, drop off occurs for much the same reason: people are now using new ways to figure out how to share tips and strategies. For example, if I want to know how to be more efficient at using a game mechanism, rather than looking through board threads, I would simply start looking on YouTube or Twitch or some similar video service for examples of people sharing how to make that strategy work. I can’t even fathom trying to make such a video, but for my kids and their friends, they do it by second nature.
It’s sad, because I’m used to message boards. But, then, I was very used to AOL, and I haven’t logged into that site in almost a decade now, though I understand you can still use it to chat in rooms and such if you want. Time marches on, or some such thing.