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Facebook groups are like the new Internet forums. There’s tons of stuff that’s moved to Facebook groups like Fishing and Car forums. For a lot of content Facebo

by wil421 1y ago

Facebook groups are like the new Internet forums. There’s tons of stuff that’s moved to Facebook groups like Fishing and Car forums. For a lot of content Facebook groups are much better than forums. Marketplace seems to be the new Craigslist and much better IMHO. Posting is probably dead or dying. I haven’t done it in a decade or so.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
throw042425 1y ago
That's interesting. In what sense would you say FB groups are much better than forums? But yeah I agree, groups and marketplace are the only things keeping FB alive.
- iamacyborg 1y ago
  They’re better in the sense that people actually use them
  - shanecleveland 1y ago
    Probably true with most successful things. Marketplace is just a low barrier to entry for people already using Facebook. I find it generally terrible, but that's where people are selling.
HeadsUpHigh 1y ago
>For a lot of content Facebook groups are much better than forums Facebook groups are very disjointed and the algo does a bad job and keeping the good bits floating to the top.
ultrarunner 1y ago
They could be huge in this, but sadly they'll continue to ruin it because (IMHO) they are rotten at the core. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a question posted on a relevant topic, switched tabs to consult the manual to verify my memory, and then gone back only to see Facebook do its ADHD reload and bury the question. Once people get sufficiently frustrated and the ad revenue declines below the cost of running the servers, we will immediately lose all of the information shared there. None of it will be archived like the old forums. It's a genuinely sad situation.
- bschwindHN 1y ago
  > and then gone back only to see Facebook do its ADHD reload and bury the question Does anyone know why facebook does this? It's the most infuriating thing, like it's assuming the poor user doesn't know how to "refresh" a page so it does it for them, because clearly they got stuck on an old crusty piece of content.
  - zoky 1y ago
    You know exactly why they do it. To generate “engagement”.
dboreham 1y ago
In my experience the Facebook groups always turn to crap, especially if it's a group that attracts more than about 500 users. Abusive posts, scam posts, fake groups with the same name created by bots. I've reverted to old school forums for all my special interests. Marketplace is still the best classifieds product though.
- freehorse 1y ago
  It depends on the mods and the specific communities the groups are about. I have seen what you describe in some, but not at all in others.
shanecleveland 1y ago
Only reason I caved and joined Facebook a few years ago was to get access to a group dedicated to Boston Whaler boats. There were two previously-thriving forums that were slowly dying. The forums were great. The Facebook group was not better, just alive.
naijaboiler 1y ago
would rather use reddit for foruming than facebook groups
- freehorse 1y ago
  I would rather have ol' good forums. I would rather have years long posts in the frontpage and the ability to bump a long burried post when new info is up, and not missing the opportunity to engage with a topic just because 1-2 days passed without me logging in and thus the post, being more than 1-2 days old, is not in the frontpage anymore.
spacechild1 1y ago
> For a lot of content Facebook groups are much better than forums. How so? I find FB groups strictly worse than old-school forums.
freehorse 1y ago
Also events, it's probably the platform affecting discoverability of events the most. The ways fb is (still) the most useful to users are the ones meta cares the least about.
Lammy 1y ago
I don't even enjoy FB Groups any more because of the way they filter comments to “most relevant” so I have to click twice to change it to “all comments” on every single post, over and over and over. Tiresome. It's embarrassingly dumb sometimes, too, like a post can show “3 comments”, I click it, and the “most relevant” will just be two of them with a bunch of empty space left over in the UI. Just show me all of the fucking comments omfg!!!

by wil421 1y ago

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

throw042425 1y ago

That's interesting. In what sense would you say FB groups are much better than forums? But yeah I agree, groups and marketplace are the only things keeping FB alive.

iamacyborg 1y ago
They’re better in the sense that people actually use them
- shanecleveland 1y ago
  Probably true with most successful things. Marketplace is just a low barrier to entry for people already using Facebook. I find it generally terrible, but that's where people are selling.

HeadsUpHigh 1y ago

>For a lot of content Facebook groups are much better than forums Facebook groups are very disjointed and the algo does a bad job and keeping the good bits floating to the top.

ultrarunner 1y ago

They could be huge in this, but sadly they'll continue to ruin it because (IMHO) they are rotten at the core. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a question posted on a relevant topic, switched tabs to consult the manual to verify my memory, and then gone back only to see Facebook do its ADHD reload and bury the question. Once people get sufficiently frustrated and the ad revenue declines below the cost of running the servers, we will immediately lose all of the information shared there. None of it will be archived like the old forums. It's a genuinely sad situation.

bschwindHN 1y ago
> and then gone back only to see Facebook do its ADHD reload and bury the question Does anyone know why facebook does this? It's the most infuriating thing, like it's assuming the poor user doesn't know how to "refresh" a page so it does it for them, because clearly they got stuck on an old crusty piece of content.
- zoky 1y ago
  You know exactly why they do it. To generate “engagement”.

dboreham 1y ago

In my experience the Facebook groups always turn to crap, especially if it's a group that attracts more than about 500 users. Abusive posts, scam posts, fake groups with the same name created by bots. I've reverted to old school forums for all my special interests. Marketplace is still the best classifieds product though.

freehorse 1y ago
It depends on the mods and the specific communities the groups are about. I have seen what you describe in some, but not at all in others.

shanecleveland 1y ago

Only reason I caved and joined Facebook a few years ago was to get access to a group dedicated to Boston Whaler boats. There were two previously-thriving forums that were slowly dying. The forums were great. The Facebook group was not better, just alive.

naijaboiler 1y ago

would rather use reddit for foruming than facebook groups

freehorse 1y ago
I would rather have ol' good forums. I would rather have years long posts in the frontpage and the ability to bump a long burried post when new info is up, and not missing the opportunity to engage with a topic just because 1-2 days passed without me logging in and thus the post, being more than 1-2 days old, is not in the frontpage anymore.

spacechild1 1y ago

> For a lot of content Facebook groups are much better than forums. How so? I find FB groups strictly worse than old-school forums.

freehorse 1y ago

Also events, it's probably the platform affecting discoverability of events the most. The ways fb is (still) the most useful to users are the ones meta cares the least about.

Lammy 1y ago

I don't even enjoy FB Groups any more because of the way they filter comments to “most relevant” so I have to click twice to change it to “all comments” on every single post, over and over and over. Tiresome. It's embarrassingly dumb sometimes, too, like a post can show “3 comments”, I click it, and the “most relevant” will just be two of them with a bunch of empty space left over in the UI. Just show me all of the fucking comments omfg!!!