Facebook

[Armin]

Apparently, you're closing the forum that posts messages about MIB demo events, in favor of a Facebook page of some kind.

Since I object to the way Facebook operates, I will not visit pages there. Without the regular new posts to the forum you're closing, I suspect I will now not be aware of any local demos I might wish to attend.

I am disappointed in this decision.

[Mack_JB]

Same here, Facebook is something I absolutely refuse to cave in to.

I can't imagine it costs that much to keep the thread active, unless moderating it is just a nightmare for an SJG employee?

[adm]

Considering how often Facebook decides what posts it wants you to see, instead of letting you see the ones you ask for, is this really your best move for the MIB program?

[Tom H.]

I'm not sure of the source of this thread, but I too wanted to chime in my assent that maintaining a measure of independence from third-party powers like Facebook can be wise.

[mook]

Originally Posted by adm

Considering how often Facebook decides what posts it wants you to see, instead of letting you see the ones you ask for, is this really your best move for the MIB program?

As far as I know (though happy to learn otherwise), Facebook's algorithms only affect what you see in your personal timeline. Posts to groups seem listed chronologically, without gaps.

Moving to FB may not be ideal, but it's completely understandable -- that's where the majority of people are. The last numbers I've seen have the average American checking FB 14 times/50 minutes every day.

It should go without saying, but today it can't really be assumed, so: of course, anyone who doesn't want to support FB is free to do so.

And the forums here sure don't seem to be going anywhere, so there's always an "out" if they need it.

Admittedly, I check both here and FB at least once a day (though not 14 times!), so I don't have much of a dog in the fight.

[Parody]

Originally Posted by Tom H.

I'm not sure of the source of this thread, but I too wanted to chime in my assent that maintaining a measure of independence from third-party powers like Facebook can be wise.

The source of the thread is this post about the pending closing of the MIB Demo Events subforum.

Originally Posted by mook

As far as I know (though happy to learn otherwise), Facebook's algorithms only affect what you see in your personal timeline. Posts to groups seem listed chronologically, without gaps.

True, but you have to visit the group to see that (or have notifications about new group events enabled.)

As far as the actual subject goes, I don't particularly care as I don't follow the MIB events forum.

[rosignol]

Originally Posted by Tom H.

I'm not sure of the source of this thread, but I too wanted to chime in my assent that maintaining a measure of independence from third-party powers like Facebook can be wise.

Yup.

Using FB as a supplement to other communication channels can work well.

Using FB as the one channel has bitten a lot of people on the butt when FB changed their policies (or ranking algos) and something that had been working suddenly stopped working.

[Anaraxes]

FB has a seriously inferior interface for anything other than temporary, throwaway text. It's slightly better than Twitter if you were trying to actually communicate or interact, but it's much more like Twitter than it is like this forum. No useful search function, no threading, no sub-groups, no ability to format text, exactly one sticky post allowed. I belong to other groups that moved from Web forums to FB groups, and the online community is poorer for it.

Certainly, you have to have a presence on FB. There's too many people that have FB accounts to ignore it. But that FB group is going to be mostly announcements and links. "For more information, go to our real site". FB is analogous to perhaps the Daily Illuminator, not the forum or the whole website.