What you prefer about forums over modern social media

Over time people have made the switch from message boards to the Facebooks and Twitters of the world. Obviously, you didn't need me to tell you that as most of you will likely have one or both of these, along with accounts at other websites that have popped up over the last 10 to 15 years.

This leads me to wonder, what magic is still retained in forums? What do you feel, if anything, was lost in the transition to the convenience of modern interaction online?

I like that threads are idea centric. You find a topic you're interested in, and everyone contributes to the discussion. Granted that Twitter has this, with their trending topics and whatnot, everyone has an opinion on whatever. But the "algorithm timeline" feels like a lot of shouting into the wind. I feel like at least in forum threads your thoughts are consolidated in one place and you're discussing amongst other friends what you're feeling. Where as Twitter can often times feel like you're shouting into the void.

I also feel like Facebook tends to be person centric instead of idea centric. "Here's what I baked today", "Here's where I went on vacation", where as on a forum the topic might be "Where have you all gone on vacation" or "where is your ideal vacation". Granted again, that Facebook has "groups" to discuss or be a fan of certain things.

There's a place for all of it, and I'm not saying messages boards are better or worse than social media as I have accounts at all of these places, too. However, I think overall I prefer the forum feel. Less pissing into the wind and more discussion. Topics stay around longer, as well. When I mention something on Facebook, it's often gone the next day.

I like that here, I’m connecting with people with similar interests and have made friends over the years. On Facebook, it’s just all of the people I’ve met but have nothing in common with that I end up connecting with. I do get to see a lot of Office stuff on Facebook though, which is a plus.

Everything. Forums are basically equal discussion where multiple people participate and respond to each other. Social media is basically comments on one particular person's account where discussion among several people tends to be very limited and usually only happens in cases of trolling. It's such a troutty arrangement. Even if you're interested in having multi-person discussion, the layout makes it difficult because everything has to be a response to a particular other post/comment instead of threaded chronologically, which is the ideal and superior way to foster discussion on topics. Social media is millennial trash.

I guess the fact that I don’t feel like a drop in an ocean

Reddit: I don't like Lightning, I think she's a terrible character.


Reddit : -30 Downvotes.



EOFF : I don't like Lightning, I think she's a terrible character.


EOFF : Okay, here's why I disagree/ agree with you, or why I think you misunderstood her character.

Basically, it all boils down to chronological posts.

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Originally Posted by Spuuky

Basically, it all boils down to chronological posts.

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That and I feel I can be more individual with avatar sand signatures. But the chronological posts things is nice. I hate branching posts cause things seem to get lost. and i hate "top feed we THINK you'd like"

There's an actual community.

I think forums make it easier to go back and find older topics/threads/whatever which makes it a good place for storing information that is still easy enough for newer members to find and benefit from. Trying to get that same sort of sorting on Discord or something just doesn't work as well, because even with sub channels there really isn't any good "search" feature that I know of to help find things that have already been discussed. Basically, going back to look at an old discussion is much easier on forums than social media. While I think social media is better for a quick response to something, forums are much better for more thorough and in depth responses. I also feel like forums give the option of staying more anonymous than you do on social media, where people I know IRL could find out things about me that I may not want them to know. I also feel that it's hard to "get big" on social media if you don't already have a large friend circle to help boost popularity, whereas you can be well known on forums even if you've got zero friends in real life, which I think is pretty cool. It makes me sad that forums in general seem to be dying in favor of stuff like Facebook, Twitter, Discord, Reddit, Instagram, Pinterest, etc as I feel that forums are honestly superior; but everyone else seems to prefer the instant gratification that social media platforms offer with their swifter response times. I also feel like forums just have more meaningful communication in general. Social media sites may get you a lot of likes, but to me a nice comment is worth a lot more than that, even if it's only a simple "nice idea, good job!". If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a comment is worth 1000 likes.

Can pick and choose threads I want to read - there's no real scrolling past of "stuff" before I find something interesting.

Someone mentioned community - thats definitely true in a world where you kinda have to accept friend requests from your co-workers or upset them. I think most of my social media "community" is actually in private group chats.

Finally, search is the big thing for me. If i want to read an awesome zinger someone made three years ago I can search. Or if Im stuck on a game, etc.

I will miss forums as they seem to gradually die out, but thats life i guess.

Forums of course! :bigsmile:

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Originally Posted by Karifean

There's an actual community.

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This. Unless you're in a rather small closed Facebook group, there's no sense of community in social media. While you might have your name and face on your profile, nobody really tries to get a long. People are vicious to each other in almost any sort of disagreement. Most people on a forum are trying to participate in that community in some way.

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Originally Posted by Hoju

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Karifean

There's an actual community.

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This. Unless you're in a rather small closed Facebook group, there's no sense of community in social media. While you might have your name and face on your profile, nobody really tries to get a long. People are vicious to each other in almost any sort of disagreement. Most people on a forum are trying to participate in that community in some way.

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I'm kinda reminded of those studies that say people can only have a limited number of people in their social circle before they simply can't handle it anymore. (Let me see if I can find it.... there it is.)

From my time on Reddit and Youtube, I can honestly say I did not make a single "e-friend" even after several years of using those sites. On forums meanwhile, at least back when they were still popular, I used to make friends pretty quickly and most of my e-friends are still from those days.

I think you can't really connect with people well on sites so big and fast as social media. You kinda need those slow-moving threads where you can put some thought and effort into your replies and get a conversation going. On social media it feels like a lot of it is chasing upvotes or short, superficial replies designed to get as many likes as possible. People are kinda talking over each other rather than with each other. And even when they're not, it almost feels wrong to ask someone for their email-address or any other sort of contact details, except for in the rarest cases.

Maybe it's because social media feels like a public space to me and its users like strangers, whereas forums feel a bit more homely and private almost, even though they're both public spaces in the end.

Self-hosted, federated social media gives the best of both worlds.