I’ll start by clearly stating my bias and say I really HATE Facebook.
The ads, the sponsored posts, the reels, the “suggested for you” etc.
I go to FB for 3 reasons.
see what my adult kid may have posted
see what’s happening in our great nation
see what’s happening in a couple other cycling related FB groups I belong to.
But to get to the stuff I am interested in, I have to scroll through ALL the junk. I just checked. Out of the first 35 posts, 33 were ads, sponsored, suggested, random reels, people I “may” know.
Now it seems that significantly more people are posting, reading, responding, reacting to SUF stuff on FB than on the forums and I really wish that were different. I’m just not sure how to get more people from there to here instead where there’s far less detritus.
I’d dump FB altogether if it wasnt for the 3 reasons above.
I get that, and it’s obviously an option for me, but there is some stuff I am KEENLY interested in on occasion that is posted there, that is NOT posted here.
I feel exactly the same. I would deactivate my FB account altogether if it weren’t for immediate family, our great Nation, and a couple other cycling-relayed groups I can’t access any other way.
I dealt with it by by unfriending absolutely everyone outside of immediate family, and then checking posts group by group instead of looking at my feed. That makes it more or less bearable.
However, I really feel the awkwardness of having our community in two places. This is especially apparent during the tour. I wish there were a way of getting the kind of engagement found on FB over here. About the only thing I can say in favor of that site is that it does seem to be more conducive to shenanigans and contagious enthusiasm
@DameCristy, I’m not discounting or arguing your perspective but can you help me understand how or in what way?
Maybe it’s because I jumped in on the forums on day 1, learned how to navigate it, track things of interest (not track thing of less interest) as well as the clearly inordinate amount of time I spend here but I find the forum posts much easier to engage in than FB as the threads are titled and organized and easy to find (or search) where as FB is anything but that.
I have a FB account. I check it once a month…maybe. There are a few groups that I belong to but still not a platform I use. If I didn’t have it, I would be no worse off.
I get it. I do. And I know I wouldn’t be worse off without FB. Far from it.
My question stems from the realization that there are MANY MANY more Sufferlandrians, and or Suffercurious on FB than on here and I’m wondering how we can change that.
You’d likely have to have the most prominent figures move to the forum, and then hope others follow. Moving a community, even a little bit of it, is difficult at best.
I suppose it doesn’t help that The Company changed the name of the forum to Wahoo X (actually sunset the old Sufferfest forum ), changed the name of the ToS to that other name, buried the historical content, continues to make info on Sufferlandria a FAQ on their own support website rather than giving it a proper home etc etc.
So, never mind. I think I’ve answered my own question.
A community can’t be moved to where it doesn’t really exist (yet).
Sir Glen, you’re absolutely right that the forum is easier to engage with. I guess I was thinking mainly of the number of people here vs on FB, both regularly posting and lurking. There still seems to be a higher number of participants on the FB pages, such that, during high-engagement periods like the tour, excitement seems more contagious. But i could be wrong, of course. In fact, now that I am reflecting on it, I may be thinking of the low energy of this year’s tour in general and blaming it on the forum.
With FB, I primarily subscribe to a number of interest-specific FB groups and review those rather than look at my feed or other individuals’ pages. In that sense, it’s more like forums, though things are generally more ephemeral and noisy.
There seems a lot more banter on FB. Plenty of look at what I have done, and how are did you get on stuff, intermingled with questions and answers. The forum feels much more formal, a place to go to get issues ironed out, help in planning something.Everything is more concise It is easy to find and follow threads here. So it is horses for courses with a bit of mix and match thrown in
FB: 1 login gets you to access several communities/feeds. Forum: 1 login per community.
verdict: FB wins for “1click” solution.
FB: better suited to sharing more visual content, leaning towards more laid back/fun banter that generates a greater level of “conversation/exchanges”. Forum: better suited to sharing formal stuff, practical info leading to possibly less fluid/rapid exchanges.
), changed the name of the ToS to that other name, buried the historical content, continues to make info on Sufferlandria a FAQ on their own support website rather than giving it a proper home etc etc.
