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Post by Milowent on Nov 11, 2013 12:04:35 GMT -5
I recently ran across this July 2011 post by Virginia Heffernan (before she left the NYTimes for Yahoo) about the declining health of online message boards. Do you agree? I don't know if this has been more broadly discussed, but it seems to me message boards provide a means of healthy conversation and communication that sites like twitter and facebook don't really encourage, so there should still be a place for them even in 2013. Most message boards I used to participate in have gone defunct in the past few years, including yahoogroups boards, ning sites, etc. Reddit is sort of like a forum, but sort of its own animal. Forum-central large sites like fark are continuing to survive, but tons of smaller forums have not. opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/remembrance-of-message-boards-past/
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Post by Mathieas on Nov 11, 2013 17:49:03 GMT -5
Remember when people used to learn html and make home pages? Then MySpace and Facebook came along and now people just have generic profile pages. I think it is the same with message boards. Back in the day, I used to be a big Usenet person because I liked being able to discuss different topics from politics to TV shows. Now Usenet is mostly doa with most ISPs no longer carrying it.
Mass sites like Twitter are convenient for blurting out short 'observations' but do nothing for creating communities and in depth discussion.
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Post by Milowent on Nov 11, 2013 19:00:01 GMT -5
Remember when people used to learn html and make home pages? HOMEPAGES! when i first got on the internet in '96, i used to love to check out this "worst website of the day" site, which was sometimes someone's terrible home page. Then MySpace and Facebook came along and now people just have generic profile pages. I think it is the same with message boards. Back in the day, I used to be a big Usenet person because I liked being able to discuss different topics from politics to TV shows. Now Usenet is mostly doa with most ISPs no longer carrying it. Mass sites like Twitter are convenient for blurting out short 'observations' but do nothing for creating communities and in depth discussion. exactly, it seems the format of a message board should still have some traction whenever web 3.0 comes along. its not an exciting technology to wall street, but having a dedicated place to have threaded discussions allows more interaction than twitter ever could.
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Post by Terryfic on Nov 11, 2013 20:15:23 GMT -5
It was a sad day when Geocities shut down. There was probably no better repository of useless animated GIFs any where on the web. I don't have a lot of hope for message boards it seems like everything naturally de-evolves to a short form (i.e Film>TV>YouTube>Vines).
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Post by betz28 on Nov 11, 2013 22:01:18 GMT -5
What about websites? How easy is it to get a website for your business nowadays? Back in 2004 or maybe 2003 - I had a internet business with a website. It was www.subtlebubble.com (Math, if you can find this old site - I salute you)! I sold bath products online and shipped out products. Obviously - the business was not successful or else I'd be the next Bath and Body Works but I paid a good deal for this website. I paid to have someone create the website (a cute little cartoon character in the bath tub) as cheesy as it was! Now a days its so easy to get a website and for the most part it's (almost) free! I know cause I use weebly for my business website and like it (although its not quite as professional as I would like). Drag and Drop - EASY! Again - It's not as professional as I would like but it'll do for now and I manage it.... that being said... anyone want to give me a quote to "upgrade" my website?
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Post by Mathieas on Nov 11, 2013 22:08:13 GMT -5
What about websites? How easy is it to get a website for your business nowadays? Back in 2004 or maybe 2003 - I had a internet business with a website. It was www.subtlebubble.com (Math, if you can find this old site - I salute you)! You mean this site?
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Post by betz28 on Nov 11, 2013 22:11:42 GMT -5
What about websites? How easy is it to get a website for your business nowadays? Back in 2004 or maybe 2003 - I had a internet business with a website. It was www.subtlebubble.com (Math, if you can find this old site - I salute you)! You mean this site? YES Awesome! But i don't see the girl in the tub on my laptop - just question marks in a box. I do salute you!!!!
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Post by Mathieas on Nov 11, 2013 22:17:12 GMT -5
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Post by betz28 on Nov 11, 2013 22:25:21 GMT -5
oh yes! I thought I'd never see that sweetheart again! okay - i admit - its pretty bad!! You're good! WOW! I really want to test you. Can you find my old blog? i am going to have to dig deep into my memory to remember it. I think it was betsyrice.blogspot.com - but it is not what is there now - that is not me. I had it first. Help me find it.
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Post by Mathieas on Nov 11, 2013 23:20:54 GMT -5
oh yes! I thought I'd never see that sweetheart again! okay - i admit - its pretty bad!! You're good! WOW! I really want to test you. Can you find my old blog? i am going to have to dig deep into my memory to remember it. I think it was betsyrice.blogspot.com - but it is not what is there now - that is not me. I had it first. Help me find it. web.archive.org/web/20051226073845/http://betsyrice.blogspot.com/Is that you?
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Post by Lisa on Nov 12, 2013 2:29:25 GMT -5
I think I've gotten 'lazier' with the internet these days. I used to visit lots of pages and now I filter almost everything through Facebook. I find a business I like? Better 'like' their Facebook so I don't forget. I find a website I like? Yep, 'liking' their Facebook page. Then I tend to visit the pages while I'm on there, or browse my feed until something takes my fancy. I'm part of private Facebook groups which are very similar to forums but a mess to navigate with only threads branching off an OP's post... but I've gotten accustomed to it over the last 12 months. It frankly scares me a bit! It's one step closer to being a meeper that I never wanted to take... help me 2007 version of myself! :/
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Post by Mathieas on Nov 12, 2013 3:05:29 GMT -5
One of the things I liked about the Cove Facebook group was that it was so convenient. If I wanted to share a link, that I didn't just want to put on my page, I could put it in there. Plus I at least and maybe others were more willing to comment because it wasn't so public and only member ever saw it.
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Post by Lisa on Nov 12, 2013 10:14:46 GMT -5
One thing I've found with communities I'm part of on Facebook is that there is still a need to categorise discussion and the format fails at that, so what has ended up happening is multiple groups have evolved all related to the one community. It's a round-about way to do it I guess, but it is limiting as members have to ensure they join the additional groups to be involved with those discussions. I think if FB groups adopted some of the discussion forum format, we would have a much more ideal place to talk that fits our 2013 reliance on social networking. Although I must admit that I have enjoyed being away from Facebook. Sometimes life and Facebook become too entwined.
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Post by Milowent on Nov 12, 2013 10:23:31 GMT -5
yeah, i've never liked Facebook's forum capabilities, i've found it odd they've never branched that out, but neither did myspace or bebo, so they must feel the functionality is not needed.
there is a news trend now of reporting that younger people are not using facebook as much, and are migrating to places like instagram and snapchat, which are really much more simple social networks with one or two leading features. facebook has been dominant, for what, five years now? that's a long time in internet years. although the rate of change on the internet seems to be slower, i have to imagine that facebook will lose its dominance at some point.
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Post by Immortal1 on Nov 12, 2013 12:28:12 GMT -5
I think forums could make a huge comeback with some twitter integration. Ex: whenever you make a post a URL automatically embeds in a tweet.
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