Starting to be impressed by 5.0

[In Omnibus]

How can we avoid it? We can't. I am sure you are probably to young to know what a BBS is. Back in the early 90's before AOL came along and everyone was able to get on the internet we had what was called BBS's. Bulletin Board Systems. You would login through the phone line. You had to have a modem. Anyway you would login to the host computer and you could chat, download files, etc... When AOL came along, BBS's started to die out. Why do that when you can surf the internet? That is what is going to happen to forums. People can go onto Facebook and connect with old friends and family, play games, discuss things, etc... So again, why would they want to join another facebook type site when they have facebook? What are we going to offer them that they cant get on the real facebook? NOTHING! So what is the point? What we will have to offer is less features and less people to connect with, so again, why would anyone want to join our facebook clones?

The limitations of Facebook are self-evident. When you join a Facebook group to discuss a topic everyone in that group has access to your personal information, not to mention the data mining Facebook itself does for the privilege of allowing you an account. There are no Facebook police to keep the discussion on-topic or even at a minimal level of adulthood. There are hundreds or thousands of people all talking while nobody is listening and the conversation is all but impossible to follow. Facebook has a purpose but it is no replacement for forums, just as forums are no replacement for Facebook.

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More importantly about forum boards, is being anonymous. Some people do not prefer to mix up their personal life with their internet life. Thus, a forum board is great for that!

Anonymity is for people with something to hide, or some reason to hide. While I'm not suggesting people post personal identifying information or photos of their spouses and children, the only people who truly need to hide behind an IP address and an anonymous username such as L33THAX0R are those whose intentions are to spam, troll, flame, bait, or otherwise disrupt the community.

[Alfa1]

There are no Facebook police to keep the discussion on-topic or even at a minimal level of adulthood. There are hundreds or thousands of people all talking while nobody is listening and the conversation is all but impossible to follow. Facebook has a purpose but it is no replacement for forums, just as forums are no replacement for Facebook.

Facebook is actively tweaking its system in order to get group discussions more on topic. I'm certain that facebook will get it right sooner or later.

Anonymity is for people with something to hide, or some reason to hide. While I'm not suggesting people post personal identifying information or photos of their spouses and children, the only people who truly need to hide behind an IP address and an anonymous username such as L33THAX0R are those whose intentions are to spam, troll, flame, bait, or otherwise disrupt the community.

There are many discussions that people do not want to have archived under their real name. Anonymity is important for everyone. Most people do not want to post discussions about their financials, health issues, love life, addictions, vices, controversial topics, under their real name.

[In Omnibus]

Facebook is actively tweaking its system in order to get group discussions more on topic. I'm certain that facebook will get it right sooner or later.

There are many discussions that people do not want to have archived under their real name. Anonymity is important for everyone. Most people do not want to post discussions about their financials, health issues, love life, addictions, vices, controversial topics, under their real name.

Which would explain the necessity of privacy policies for forums dealing with such discussion topics ...

[Mark.B]

Anonymity is for people with something to hide, or some reason to hide. While I'm not suggesting people post personal identifying information or photos of their spouses and children, the only people who truly need to hide behind an IP address and an anonymous username such as L33THAX0R are those whose intentions are to spam, troll, flame, bait, or otherwise disrupt the community.

As someone who has suffered at the hands of malicious internet stalkers, I couldn't disagree more. I changed my username on many sites to avoid using my real name. Only last month someone tracked down my 'day job' employers and sent a load of lies and false accusations to them via their website's contact form.

There are valid reasons behind anonymity.

[In Omnibus]

There are valid reasons behind anonymity.

Yes, which is why forums have and always will have a place. Facebook guarantees no such anonymity. I think we're all making the same point from different directions.

[soniceffect]

Facebook facebook facebook. Of course it will take over forums on the internet, just like myspace did.

[woffie]

Facebook facebook facebook. Of course it will take over forums on the internet, just like myspace did.

Facebook already has, but lets not let facts get in the way.

[soniceffect]

Facebook already has, but lets not let facts get in the way.

Hey there are no other forums or facebook groups in my particular genre who are bigger than the forum I run. If you got problems with facebook, sorry your struggling with it, however believe me not every site is the same. Dont get me wrong facebook has an affect, sure. However it has no worse effect than any other craze. Yahoo chat was a craze, it died. ICQ was a craze, it died. Myspace was a craze, it died. Facebook is a craze, it will die.

[In Omnibus]

Facebook is a craze, it will die.

Yea, and be replaced by FaceSpace ...

[woffie]

Hey there are no other forums or facebook groups in my particular genre who are bigger than the forum I run. If you got problems with facebook, sorry your struggling with it, however believe me not every site is the same. Dont get me wrong facebook has an affect, sure. However it has no worse effect than any other craze. Yahoo chat was a craze, it died. ICQ was a craze, it died. Myspace was a craze, it died. Facebook is a craze, it will die.

Yeah, your probably the only person on the planet with a forum for husky owners so there is no real competition. BTW, the link in your signature does not work.

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Yea, and be replaced by FaceSpace ...

LOL!!!

[Wayne Luke]

Yeah, your probably the only person on the planet with a forum for husky owners so there is no real competition. BTW, the link in your signature does not work.

A quick Google search shows 5 forums on the first page of results. 6 if you count the one for Husqvarna vehicles.

[soniceffect]

Yeah, your probably the only person on the planet with a forum for husky owners so there is no real competition. BTW, the link in your signature does not work.

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LOL!!!

Second link in my sig didnt work your quite right, however thats because it should have been removed and is not my site. The first works fine, I would suggest checking your connection.

As for the "probably the only person on the planet with a forum for husky owners" it may be an idea to check your facts before posting as you are completely incorrect (as stated by Wayne above). In fact if you type husky forum into google all the first page are different siberian husky forums (apart from the aforementioned bike forum).

Lets say for arguements sake however you were correct, that should mean my forum will not be overrun by facebook? Seems to be a bit of a flaw in logic there.

[Trevor Hannant]

If anyone would like to discuss the merits of more than one Husky forum or the contents of a Google search, then please find another forum for this as this isn't the place.

Back on topic...

[soniceffect]

If anyone would like to discuss the merits of more than one Husky forum or the contents of a Google search, then please find another forum for this as this isn't the place.

Back on topic...

To be fair Trevor it was relating to the "facebook taking over" conversation which has been the last few posts of conversation, I think you just caught the end of the conversation m8. However even that I guess isnt the original topic of conversation so fair enough.

[Deepnoizer]

I have been running community based on SocialEngine for few years now. Due to SE development taking their development focus into totally different direction many of their customers started to looking for alternatives.
I had some of my community members test few engines like PhpFox, BuddyPress, JomSocial and we quickly realized the main problem they have.
None of them are build with a strong forums. FB clones are great to post random nonsense and allow your members to talk about stuff that falls of the main page quick but none of them offer good mechanism to discuss a subject that keeps resurfacing.
There are plenty of products on the market that are trying to be 90% Social Network 10% Forums but what is very much needed from my user base perspective is 90% with an addition of 10% good social features that 100% forums engines don't offer.

Where VB5 is going appears to be close match to what I'm looking for and so far my users are responding very well to beta site.