21st-Nov-23, 01:57 PM
I have worked online since 1991. Back then there were forums but no real websites.
Fast forward to 2008 when I was actually part of my company's plan to set up its social media presence.
Having been in the online world on both sides over 30 years I can tell you it is not an either or type of thing.
Facebook and all the social media ilk are basically a cocktail party. You wander round, picking up snatches of conversation. Sometimes you stop and chat a while, sometimes you move on.
When you find a party you like you hang out more and the conversation can deepen.
In this regard websites, forums, social media are the same.
Where they start to diverge is the deep and breadth of the engagement and what the ultimate goal of that engagement is.
If, as is the case with over 90% of social media it is just short exchange of information aka. a short fling, then of course social media works.
Where it excels is in the area of drumming up interest, communicating times and places (and changes to said times and places), announcements and getting immediate feedback in particular to things that are time-based such as concerts or sporting events. (I read somewhere that most Americans couldn't tell you after 3 weeks who had won the world series... I read it on the Internet so it must be true!!!)
That is why Rick's friend is doing such a great job. Slot racing is a seasonal hobby to a degree and anyone whose interests are primarily commercial wants interactions to be as quick and easy as possible.
If the goal of the engagement though is to solve a problem then social media starts to fall apart.
Do people get help on social media?
Of course!
But what is the quality of the response....?
When the pandemic hit there was a tsunami of people joining social media groups. I started seeing a pattern:
The same 7-10 questions were being asked over and over and over again.
Those same questions were being answered by different people and they were of course different in varying degrees. In the worst case they were simply wrong. In the best case people engaged in dialog and came up with the specific answer.
Usually it was a mix in between.
I decided to repeat an experiment I had done in 2016 with a slight variation.
For three days I answered every question, liked every answer I though deserved it.
Then I did nothing for 3 days.
I tried to find those responses to see if someone thanked me or if there was any other response but the effort was enormous.
Then for 3 days I simply told people to visit forums or look at the manufacturer's website.
If I got a snotty response I get snotty back.
By the 3rd day I was being called a diva (and many other things) and an elitist.
Then I did nothing for 3 days.
When I came back there was only one guy on NZ who remembered me. No one else had a clue or cared.
The point is you cannot build up a reputation online.
Not in any real terms.
The information flies by too fast, it is too hard to find.
You are a slave to who ever happens to be online at a given time.
With a hobby like slot racing there consequences of bad advice usually are only of a financial nature. You buy the wrong part, maybe buy from abroad when it was available locally etc.
I am also an avid classic car enthusiasts and there you see people posting things on social media that are dangerous, illegal or both.
When it comes to topics such as politics you quickly get shoved in one direction or the other (the 2016 experiment was I liked or shared everything about Hilary Clinton for 3 days, rested 3, then did the same for Trump. Each time within 48 hours I was being fed "information" that supported her or him and there was no way to easily tell if it was bunk. Confirmation bias is a huge problem IMHO....)
With a forum the information is much more permanent and you have much more time to digest and above all vet information.
Over 90% of the time the answer you seek has likely already been dealt with.
So I don't see one really replacing the other. They overlap a wee bit but when it comes to really get a deep understanding of anything you have to get away from social media as it very much quickly becomes "yesterday's jam"....
Fast forward to 2008 when I was actually part of my company's plan to set up its social media presence.
Having been in the online world on both sides over 30 years I can tell you it is not an either or type of thing.
Facebook and all the social media ilk are basically a cocktail party. You wander round, picking up snatches of conversation. Sometimes you stop and chat a while, sometimes you move on.
When you find a party you like you hang out more and the conversation can deepen.
In this regard websites, forums, social media are the same.
Where they start to diverge is the deep and breadth of the engagement and what the ultimate goal of that engagement is.
If, as is the case with over 90% of social media it is just short exchange of information aka. a short fling, then of course social media works.
Where it excels is in the area of drumming up interest, communicating times and places (and changes to said times and places), announcements and getting immediate feedback in particular to things that are time-based such as concerts or sporting events. (I read somewhere that most Americans couldn't tell you after 3 weeks who had won the world series... I read it on the Internet so it must be true!!!)
That is why Rick's friend is doing such a great job. Slot racing is a seasonal hobby to a degree and anyone whose interests are primarily commercial wants interactions to be as quick and easy as possible.
If the goal of the engagement though is to solve a problem then social media starts to fall apart.
Do people get help on social media?
Of course!
But what is the quality of the response....?
When the pandemic hit there was a tsunami of people joining social media groups. I started seeing a pattern:
The same 7-10 questions were being asked over and over and over again.
Those same questions were being answered by different people and they were of course different in varying degrees. In the worst case they were simply wrong. In the best case people engaged in dialog and came up with the specific answer.
Usually it was a mix in between.
I decided to repeat an experiment I had done in 2016 with a slight variation.
For three days I answered every question, liked every answer I though deserved it.
Then I did nothing for 3 days.
I tried to find those responses to see if someone thanked me or if there was any other response but the effort was enormous.
Then for 3 days I simply told people to visit forums or look at the manufacturer's website.
If I got a snotty response I get snotty back.
By the 3rd day I was being called a diva (and many other things) and an elitist.
Then I did nothing for 3 days.
When I came back there was only one guy on NZ who remembered me. No one else had a clue or cared.
The point is you cannot build up a reputation online.
Not in any real terms.
The information flies by too fast, it is too hard to find.
You are a slave to who ever happens to be online at a given time.
With a hobby like slot racing there consequences of bad advice usually are only of a financial nature. You buy the wrong part, maybe buy from abroad when it was available locally etc.
I am also an avid classic car enthusiasts and there you see people posting things on social media that are dangerous, illegal or both.
When it comes to topics such as politics you quickly get shoved in one direction or the other (the 2016 experiment was I liked or shared everything about Hilary Clinton for 3 days, rested 3, then did the same for Trump. Each time within 48 hours I was being fed "information" that supported her or him and there was no way to easily tell if it was bunk. Confirmation bias is a huge problem IMHO....)
With a forum the information is much more permanent and you have much more time to digest and above all vet information.
Over 90% of the time the answer you seek has likely already been dealt with.
So I don't see one really replacing the other. They overlap a wee bit but when it comes to really get a deep understanding of anything you have to get away from social media as it very much quickly becomes "yesterday's jam"....
![[+]](https://slotracer.online/community/images/bootbb/collapse_collapsed.png)
).