Are Facebook groups replacing Internet forums?

rookie7

Outdoorsman
Full Member
Minuteman
Jan 26, 2009
984
250
Georgia
Curious what others think and witness. Do you feel Facebook groups are slowly replacing Internet forums like the Hide and will Internet forums slowly fade away?
 
No. Facebook restricts and regulates way more than most forums. A place like this, with the content, language, politics, and BS, wouldn't last a week on FB before it was shut down.
 
I don't understand why gun owners would participate in feeding a company that works to undermine their rights. Facebook is the enemy.
 
While there are a whack of folks on the fb site, aside from the 'Hide here, I'd say sites such as MeWe is much better. No ads, no 'oversight', and no 'rules' so-to-speak.

Law Abiding Citizens being a good place to start. ;)
 
Facebook groups, even for relatively benign topics, have a way of going zero-Full Retard in no time flat.

Never underestimate society's ability to make themselves look like total fucking idiots with their words and behavior, even with their face and name associated.
 
I see a large number of Facebook forums in coexistence with internet forums. the fb forums are much smaller than net forums and have a more "like minded" group of people whose social interactions are much "friendlier" and less confrontive than net forums. post a rant on most fb places and get removed almost immediately. it's a different world of different minded people choosing to be more within a group of like minded people.
 
Facebook won't replace forums because it has too many anti-gun rules, and because many people simply don't want to give up that much personal information to a web site with questionable security.
Most forums don't require as much personal information.
 
From MeWe's terms: "Post content that is hateful, threatening, harmful, incites violence; or contains graphic or gratuitous violence."

Who determines if content is acceptable? I'm bettin' most threads here would be deleted and users suspended/banned.
 
The fb forums my children/grandchildren inhabit would not and do not tolerate things like the topics that go hot here. i dont know who moderates them because I stay as far away from them as I can, but what I see is when the majority of the users "lock out" the offender, it' like forum banning. The offender is still in the group but his/her content locked out never appears on "your" screen. at some point, big brother, who ever that is, removes them. that's what i see on grandchildrens fb pages.
 
I use Facebook and belong to a number of audio related forums there. I gain a lot of valuable info. The Hide wouldnt last a day on FB.
 
I don't think FB groups will ever replace internet forums completely, but they will take a lot of traffic away from them.

I am on FB and am a member of a good many groups, and admin/moderator on a few.

I think groups are great for small groups to communicate, but are pretty much only entertainment for larger groups of like minded people, and definitely not the place for serious discussion, or to look for real advice.

There are too many idiots, trolls, mentally ill people, and fake accounts on FB.
 
The Facebook interface is just too clumsy to support a thread related conversation like forum software. As others have posted, getting the "word out" on Facebook meets with a limited audience because so many people choose not to dick around with social media. I know this from personal experience.
 
They had an accident, I hope:rolleyes:

Too well shielded by false accounts and internet savvy. still loose to do it again, much to my disgust. 13 year old is now 19 and a lot smarter now...

As an aside, the grumpy woman, now 60, wanted Facebook, to look at the out of state relatives pictures..... neither of us had the sense to set up an account. said something in front of the great great grand demon 7 year old..... little turd walked over, took the tablet from grumpy, and 5 minutes later, handed it back with her new fb account... now demon answer all grumpys fb questions.
And at 7, he shoots the ar very well too, except he doesn't just walk over and get the ar like he did the tablet. I'm trying to get him to buy his own ammo though...... he's resisting....
I'm waiting for him to do a "go fund me" for ammo, the little shit is very capable of doing it too. ..
I sit and shake my head and just wonder some times wtf.... at his age, I was catching snakes in the hay barn and bringing them into the house to mom and a hell of an asswhipping while pop was laughing his ass off...
 
Curious what others think and witness. Do you feel Facebook groups are slowly replacing Internet forums like the Hide and will Internet forums slowly fade away?

I do not like FB and prefer the forums, but I spend the bulk of my time on FB groups to help answer questions. Lots of ignorance and spam on those forums and a lot of duplicity since they are so easy to make. 90% of the new shooters are finding the information on FB and the like. Forums like SH provide a more measured, intelligent approach with accountability. I can't tell you how many times I have proven a point wrong on FB and the ignoramus will delete their posts (good) or start a new group or even block me. I might be old school, but when proven wrong, learn, move on, pay it forward. When I need a question answered for myself, it will usually be someone I am sure knows, or a forum. Some groups are hypersensitive, others are worse than anything I have seen on a forum.

Forums won't go away, but the traffic on some will decline. To some degree, FB is a good pre-filter. :)
 
Let's see. Company led by a near insane sociopath with a god complex, run by hard leftwing SJW zealots, thinks they are the law and are above all rules and regulation of any country. A company that openly admits to playing mind games with you and letting others pay them to play mind games with you to see if they can make you happy / sad at whim on change what you want, what you believe and who you vote for. A company that has no actual real rules just what we say at the moment goes and our decision is final and uncontestable, it's whatever the SJW loonbat at some desk said that day and we are sticking with it. A company that exists to sell as much data about you, your friends, your children, your family as possible to anyone who will pay. A company that will make you like you or your friends never existed on their system at the drop of a hat for any or no reason, with no recourse.

You want Them to be your primary forum?
You want Them to be your only way to contact friends / fellow enthusiasts?

Good luck!
 
I used a fake account to join and monitor a couple of long range/PRS shooting groups in my local area because that's the only place to get up to date match information.

My profile contains nothing but a fake name and disposable e-mail address. I think I've made one post all total to one group. I friend nobody and keep my profile/preferences as locked down as FB allows. I never access it from my home PC or from my phone.

My other shooting sport has its match and other related info in many non-FB places.
 
I have a bogus account so I can see pix of the grandkids. My kids are the only friends I have.

It'll be illegal one day to have a FB account under a fake name. It's already against their TOS. Not a hundred percent on this but I think some states have laws against it already.
 
I think I remember Lowlight mentioning the social media forums and their influence on the shooting community when he was discussing the move to Scout, but I don't remember his comments accurately enough to attempt to misquote him.
 
I have a Facebook account and haven't made a post in over a year on my own page, nor do I have a desire to change that ever in the future. I have it purely for maintaining military group connections that is more professional networking than anything, as I've gotten jobs in the past and am sure I will again in the future. We've tried a few times to move it to a different platform, fails every time because FB is just too easy to gather everyone in one place and get activity on a regular basis.

Most gun groups on Facebook are a joke. It's like having a conversation with a dozen "Larry/Gawddamnright" characters on there. All of them think they're right, but outright refuse to tell you why by backing it with facts or believable personal experience. Combined with the vast majority of responses and posts are typed out on a phone, where two sentences in text talk with zero punctuation is considered a good response, you will most certainly leave dumber than you were when you logged in. Topped with zero ability to archive and easily search anything, it's a circle jerk of the same question being asked over and over. Think we get too much "Which 6.5 should I shoot?" on the Hide? The same question is asked ten times there to our one here, in each LR shooting group and there are dozens and dozens there.

W84/XM-388 said the rest of how I feel. Gun hating Cuckerburg can suck a fat dick, but the gun companies have no problem pimping the shit out of themselves on there. Barrett Firearms refused to sell to LE in California , but have one hell of a Facebook page with 136k likes. Hmm...
 
I have one but only to attend my Army unit groups, great way to stay in touch with buddies from another life ago. Agree with the rest though, they are leftist nutjobs who control the narrative, not to be trusted by free thinking people like most of us.

I best watch my punctuation, I might get judged :D
 
Army, et al, I truly don't think he or anyone is looking at your punctuation. In my opinion, it is those who seem to be typing a massively needed response while they're riding a roller-coaster and hanging on for dear life with one hand, whilst 'thumbing' the reply with the other and are afeared that they're going to drop said phone. If we're lucky, they use spaces every once in a while.

crapblooksliek thisandonewoodthnkthat it ws anotherCartooNlangwadge.

That was just an example of shit seen out there on the innerwebz, and I'm sure ya'll know of what I'm saying. Hence the "et al", and if people can't learn to 'write' properly to share some information then they should stick to porn or something.

So many members that used to be here (and some current) have lamented about being banned for one duration or another from fb. That is why I've tried started the page/group on MeWe, simply because there doesn't seem to be near the 'oversight/monitoring' as there is on fb.
 
Facebook groups, even for relatively benign topics, have a way of going zero-Full Retard in no time flat.

Never underestimate society's ability to make themselves look like total fucking idiots with their words and behavior, even with their face and name associated.

This pretty much sums up what I have experienced with Facebook. I no longer have an account, but at first with the gun groups I thought "wow" a lot of responses in such a short amount of time. Then I realized that for every one constructive/sincere response there were 20 that were just down right stupid and immature.

The worst part is the "and go" statements at the end of their questions. What are they 13?





 
I don't do Facebook but i noticed a lot of local shooting clubs are using that as the main means of communication

I joined so I could see my shooting scores . Also local gunstore advertizes through FB .
I keep in touch now with family across the Country and am amazed at how many politically like minded people there are on FB .
 
Fuck social media, especially Facebook. Never had an account and never will, under any circumstance. Hell, the only reason I signed up on Twitter was because of President Trump. All of these Silicon Valley social media companies are owned and managed by degenerate leftists. Every single one is anti-gun, anti-Trump, and anti-conservative. Imho, they have gotten big enough that they should be regulated just like AT&T, Comcast, etc. They blatantly and consistently censor conservative viewpoints.
 
I have a Facebook account to keep up with friends. It’s also a convenient way to find out who I don’t want to hand out with anymore. You can Learn a lot about someone by what they post on FB. As as said above, the interface is too kludgy to work for a coherent discussion. I think companies move to Facebook mostly because it is free and “easy.” No domain to pay for; no site to build, host, or maintain. I put gun stores that only have an internet presence on Facebook right along with those drop shippers whose “inventory” is represented by Davidson’s gallery of guns... I have no desire to deal with either.
 
Facebook groups have impacted traffic but they will not replace forums. We are more structured, better managed, easily searched, and can adapt to changes in the industry.

Many of these posts have hit the nail on the head, the fact FB can shut a group down in a second is one problem, the other is the anti-gun attitude. It has been noted why give your business to a company that hates what you do, in other words, why support the anti-gun nature of FB. They will instantly turn on your if the mood strikes them. No sales, if you even mention it, they will close the group. Like Youtube is doing censorship is super heavy, and anyone can turn you in. It would be like a poster from another forum contacting me to have you banned and me banning you for that reason. A single issue anywhere on FB can get your suspended or removed.

The problem is, it's free and easy, guys are all too happy creating a silly small pond to fit their mood. It costs nothing to start up a group and populate it with people you feel are like minded. I get added to groups daily, all without me knowing about it. A forum you have to sign up for, an FB groups you do not. You can be added and counted and never know it.

They are 10x worse in terms of actual knowledge, every dickhead adds their two cents, wrong or not. And some are dead wrong or giving out terrible advice and there is no way to fix that amount of stupid. I may have to bring back the, "Dumbest thing I FB I read this week" ...

They have affected to the bottom line, but there are ways around that. They do work for advertising the forum and the content, but still, it's bad. Guys from these groups are reaching out to sponsors claiming, "5000" are members of the group" most of that they added themselves. Plus FB only puts your information out to 10%, they want you to pay or promote it so they limit the reach on purpose so you will pay to get more reach.

Those supporting FB groups are cutting their own throats. On the other hand, I am working on the site, creating more content, and generally pushing forward this year. The idea is to fix the issues here from the changes and get everything moving in a friendly direction. With phones being the highlight. That takes time but we are already working on it. I contracted a web company in November and they are working behind the scenes now to fix the site up. Huge Trump level changes coming to fix the issues.
 
when facebook first started becoming big among the masses, i believe it did indeed cut into forums. i think it's a cycle, though. look at all the political issues they push, eventually people become aware. you'll get some that are o.k. with it, but many more that'll wear thin quick.

pros for facebook are you can keep in touch with folks locally, or wherever they are. it is easy to organize and put it together.

cons? fuck...so many. i think the biggest you will see is identity theft and censorship/control of content.

there is a place for both. personally, i limit what i put on facebook because of the underhanded shit they do. are forums immune from that? not at all. all it takes is a change in the mindset of whoever is running it. i've seen it happen before.

facebook's time will wane...something will come up that will destroy it eventually. i'm kinda surprised it hasnt shit the bed already....perhaps it's begun already.

 
Facebook is Digital Herpes. If you put ANY of your private information out there you deserve what you get.

Since retiring from the Army I have been an IT professional, but have been doing IT since 1985 (although I am now getting paid in something other than alcohol...). It will be a cold day in hell before you see me on Facebook.
 
I have a fake account just to stay in touch with my Marine brothers. I don't post much. There are secret group pages that you must be vetted to join, that are far worse, content wise, than any public forums. I can't imagine FB is totally oblivious, but the shit guys post in them would normally be banned instantly in normal FB groups....

But yeah, the normal FB groups are full of tards.
 
I used to have a small presence on FB. Last year I deleted all the content and banned all friends and family. I refuse to be a part of that leftist garbage. Mark Zuckerberg can go to hell.
 
I JUST got on FB recently so I could reconnect with people from my past. Some to stay in touch with, some to exchange info with and talk to, and a couple even want to come visit when things settle down here. It seems so fickle and fake to try and have any kind of relationship or even any kind of solid communication there. I really don't get it I guess, but it is good for finding people you fell out of touch with. That's about it.

There is no alternative to this place, none I'm aware of. This is a community in and of itself and unique in my experience. The only way this place will truly die is if the people on it die too. Look at how long some of these people have been around. Ten, some seventeen years. Some of the data got messed up a while back and some have more posts and were here longer than it even shows. The core of this site is more like a brotherhood, so in that way it transcends barfcom and the rest.

There are a lot of really good people on here, some of the smartest and most skilled, most dedicated and serious shooters call this place home. It's size allows for that, not too big, not too small. Just right. The lack of arbitrary rules attracts a different set of people too. This in turn fosters real open discussion and that's how friendships form. Not on heavily regulated mega sites. And on local forums there isn't enough traffic and there's a lack of knowledgeable people. I've also never been shifted on a deal here either. Just damn good people.

So I go to FB just to connect with people I know, people I fell out of touch with. This is where I come to hang out, shoot the shit and talk about the stuff that interests ME, where I hang out with people that are into similar stuff, have had similar experiences and have a wealth of knowledge to share. If we all lived in the same town, we probably wouldn't need the site at all. That's the kind of community that's on here and that's why this one will still be around for a long time to come I suspect.

People will come and people will go on here, but it's the ones that stick around that make me stick around. Hell, I'm proud to be a member on here, even if it turns out Veer and Maser are working with the Chinese to undermine us.
 
I had to open a FB account to keep up with the local precision shooting community. They are very active on FB, and almost non existent on the forums other than match announcements. I have used FB for about 2 months now, and I don't really care for it. I much prefer being here or on Michigan gun owners.