Facebook Group vs Stand Alone Forum

What does "Just A Forum" do that Facebook Group cannot?

Do not understand why anyone would invest in a forum alone in 2018.

Owning a forum and operating a successful growing community are totally different. Hobbies become lifestyles

The last 5 clients thats asked me to build them a forum, i told them to save the headache and money and go build a Facebook group.

fixer said:

What does "Just A Forum" do that Facebook Group cannot?

Do not understand why anyone would invest in a forum alone in 2018.

Owning a forum and operating a successful growing community are totally different. Hobbies become lifestyles

The last 5 clients thats asked me to build them a forum, i told them to save the headache and money and go build a Facebook group.

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How is this helpful or even relevant to this thread?

Note: My comment was in reference to the previous thread, which has now been split by a moderator.

djbaxter said:

How is this helpful or even relevant to this thread?

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How is your post?

fixer said:

How is your post?

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Can you not stay on topic in even one thread? Please?

Please keep on topic.

Much as I hate to defend fixer, for once he's got a point, albeit by accident from his XF bashing rather than because he was trying to make a cogent argument. What is the compelling reason to go to XF2 as opposed to closing down an existing forum and going to an FB group?

And for that I think he's got a point - 'just a forum', no matter how polished, has an uphill struggle to be a sell in this day and age. Though not being Facebook and not being connected to Facebook are pretty good possible selling points depending on your situation.

The only forums i have built since the facebook revolution have been forums that are outside the facebooks standards, i can only hope they tighten their belts and start shutting down even more of my forums niche, Right Wing Constitutionalists

If facebook groups were to go away , all forums would become relevant again...

Or you have to make your forum... more than a forum, provide tools and resources and do what facebook cannot.

A forum alone has a very low success rate in the current internet environment.

IAO - Improvise, Adapt and Overcome - or visit a wasteland every time you visit your "forum" , tides have changed , get on board

How well can a Facebook Group be searched? Seems that from what I have seen that a forum when properly structured into meaningful nodes or boards has a huge advantage over Facebook. Proper structure on a forum lets me see sub-forums or child boards that break the main topic or hobby into smaller units. Letting me accomplish my self search and if needed a formal search that I don't think FB does well. Regardless of how popular FB might be when was the last time you saw Google or Bing show you results of a search that would lead you to a well written FB post? Never.

Problem is that folks seem to love/hate Facebook. Unfortunately there seems to be more misguided love for FB these days IMO.

facebook groups have a search function

insted for subforums they have other groups

google hates facebook because of google+

Did you really need to write your words in obnoxiously large letters? Anyway.

The forum offering is hard - it *is* hard to compete with Facebook because of Facebook providing something of a forum toolchain and a potential audience right on your doorstep.

Of course, it only does this so it can track you and your interests and monetise you better, but it's hard to argue with the tools being available right there and with a potential audience.

And we're back to that argument of whether FB is killing forums - and the answer hasn't changed. The key areas that forums win on, they still win on - when you need to be able to find information, when you don't care (or don't want to care) about the immediate now now now instant gratification crowd, and if your offering is something that Facebook *can't* provide.

Anonymity (or, at least, relative and notional anonymity) is one area that forums can take on FB over, as well as integrated services that FB won't provide. In my case, roleplay features, but there will be others.

posted from my phone and that was already the font it was writing in didnt mean to offend

fixer said:

posted from my phone and that was already the font it was writing in didnt mean to offend

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Thank you for fixing

One thing about forums and FB groups, not everyone is on FB.

KimmiKat said:

One thing about forums and FB groups, not everyone is on FB.

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But the other way is also true not everyone is communicating on a forum.

Yes, but there are people who won’t ever go on FB who might go to your forum.

Pete said:

Yes, but there are people who won’t ever go on FB who might go to your forum.

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Me for one - I detest FB with a vengeance (for many reasons)

Around one or five percent for forum. There are plenty of platforms which is more helpful than forums.

Reasons people may register to a forum:
1. They really really love it (Mostly older forum, a new one may not even survive)
2. They are old.
3. They need a specific resource and never comeback.

People who are complaining about facebook group surely never do a proper one. Facebook group alone is not complete, but FB provide a lot of API for you to build a complete system around it.

FB provide a lot of APIs for you to funnel data to FB, any service provision other than that is accidental.

Though the forum site I’m currently building is simply not possible in its intended form on FB, so that’s something.

Facebook Groups are great for a small community - up to 500 members, at most. Any larger than they become a bit of a disorganized mess due to their linear design.

For instance, I am a member of a Facebook Group that is focused around Pokemon Go for my local city. While, in theory, a Facebook Group makes sense for this particular topic, the group currently has 12,223 members and receives possibly hundreds of posts per day. As such, a lot of discussion and announcements go missed, as the posts are mixed into your own personal friend feed by default, and only posts that matches Facebook's algorithm are shown.

Even now, there was an announcement about the new friends feature, and that there was a specific thread to post your code in, but no one saw it, so people are still starting individual threads with their own codes.

In this particular case (which I am trying to actually change), a standard forum would make sense because you can categorize discussion, and get a better overall view of not only what's happening, but actually see it all without having to scroll through hundreds of posts you really don't need to see.

It also becomes a struggle from a moderation stand-point, when you consider those points. Unless you actively go to the group fairly frequently, then it's very easy to miss things. At that point, it's no different than going to a forum.

baona119 said:

Around one or five percent for forum. There are plenty of platforms which is more helpful than forums.

Reasons people may register to a forum:
1. They really really love it (Mostly older forum, a new one may not even survive)
2. They are old.
3. They need a specific resource and never comeback.

People who are complaining about facebook group surely never do a proper one. Facebook group alone is not complete, but FB provide a lot of API for you to build a complete system around it.

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No, people don't register on forums because they are old. That's an ageism which isn't true. Largest group of forum users is 18-29 years old.