Forum Facebook page
Posted: 05 Apr 2013, 17:55
Well, it seems like I set the cat amongst the pigeons or is that the chicken wing amongst the schnauzers, when I inadvertently 'exposed' the Schnauzer Forum FB group to all and sundry on Facebook. I have put the group back to closed, but it has left me wondering of the usefulness and appropriateness of the Facebook group. I'll try and outline why.
I originally set up the Facebook group when we lost the domain name in June 2012. I am sure many of you can recall the withdrawal symptoms. I set it up so that I had an alternative way of letting members know what was happening with the forum, where the temporary site was and how we were progressing. Once I had restored the forum to its rightful place, I took the decision to leave the group in place in case we had a mishap in the future. After that, it became a place where people were having a bit of banter and sharing photo's. I don't think anyone minded.
From there, it has now become a discussion area and IMO is distracting from the forum. Members are discussing food, grooming, health, getting a puppy, etc on the Facebook group and I feel that those topics should be discussed on the forum. People are also complaining that the forum is getting quiet. The stats don't bear that out but a lot of people are discussing topics on Facebook, which means the forum will be quieter.
I see the Schnauzer Forum as a valuable tool for past, future and current schnauzer owners. There is a wealth of information here that you won't find on Facebook, but by continuing the group on Facebook, are we destroying the forum? I realise things move on and I'm the last person to stand in the way of progress, but is Facebook progress? It is not, IMO.
I've implemented a lot of changes (with more to come) to make things better. I've made changes to make it easier to find similar topics. I've improved the speed of search and there will be even further improvements over the summer as I upgrade the servers to give us more speed, so things happen faster.
Overall, I would like to believe that both could co-exist. One for general banter and photo sharing, the other for the hard core issues surrounding raising a puppy and looking after a dog. But I don't think it will work.
I'll paint a scenario or two to illustrate what I mean and what the Facebook group will and is taking away from the forum.
Firstly, let's look at Gryff. Sherri and Grahame have walked each and every member of the forum through every step of Gryffs injury, operation and recovery. They have been updating the forum and Facebook about progress. Many of us have learnt a lot about Cruciate Ligament Injuries. We learnt about the treatment, the surgery, the hydrotherapy, the insurance and the palatial crate. In a few weeks time all of that will be behind Grahame, Sherri, Gryff and Nessa and Gryff will be running around as if nothing happened. On Facebook, it will be the same. It will be forgotten! On the forum, anyone in 2 years time who has a schnauzer or even a dog with a cruciate ligament injury will find all of Shergra's posts on the forum and be able to learn from it as we all have. That's invaluable and something that Facebook cannot give us. We risk losing that and I, for one, don't want to.
Then there is the wonderful Liz and Buster. We've all cried, we've all laughed, we've all chuckled and we've all said: "typical schnauzer". I think we have all taken something from Liz' fortitude in caring for Buster and her devotion to him. For many of us, we walked that journey with Liz. I know I still have that journey to walk with Rupert or Watson, but reading Liz' story with Buster, will help me in that journey and I've taken something away from it. I may have to walk that journey in a year or 2 or 10 and I'd like to think I could come back here and read their story and take solace from it. I won't be able to if Liz had shared her story on Facebook. It will be gone and forgotten. I don't want it gone and forgotten because of Facebook.
There are hundreds of similar examples throughout the 13,500 odd topics on the forum. We're losing something valuable by maintaining the group on Facebook and I for one think it should be stopped. I realise it does bring in members, but we are probably losing as many.
I value your input and would appreciate any constructive comments. I know a few in the Facebook group have been quite negative about the forum, but I'd like to keep this topic positive please. I'm also open to suggestions on how we can improve things, just let me know. Someone said they liked the real names on Facebook and we should do the same here. Should we? But in the process, I don't want to turn this into Facebook either.
Over to you.
I originally set up the Facebook group when we lost the domain name in June 2012. I am sure many of you can recall the withdrawal symptoms. I set it up so that I had an alternative way of letting members know what was happening with the forum, where the temporary site was and how we were progressing. Once I had restored the forum to its rightful place, I took the decision to leave the group in place in case we had a mishap in the future. After that, it became a place where people were having a bit of banter and sharing photo's. I don't think anyone minded.
From there, it has now become a discussion area and IMO is distracting from the forum. Members are discussing food, grooming, health, getting a puppy, etc on the Facebook group and I feel that those topics should be discussed on the forum. People are also complaining that the forum is getting quiet. The stats don't bear that out but a lot of people are discussing topics on Facebook, which means the forum will be quieter.
I see the Schnauzer Forum as a valuable tool for past, future and current schnauzer owners. There is a wealth of information here that you won't find on Facebook, but by continuing the group on Facebook, are we destroying the forum? I realise things move on and I'm the last person to stand in the way of progress, but is Facebook progress? It is not, IMO.
I've implemented a lot of changes (with more to come) to make things better. I've made changes to make it easier to find similar topics. I've improved the speed of search and there will be even further improvements over the summer as I upgrade the servers to give us more speed, so things happen faster.
Overall, I would like to believe that both could co-exist. One for general banter and photo sharing, the other for the hard core issues surrounding raising a puppy and looking after a dog. But I don't think it will work.
I'll paint a scenario or two to illustrate what I mean and what the Facebook group will and is taking away from the forum.
Firstly, let's look at Gryff. Sherri and Grahame have walked each and every member of the forum through every step of Gryffs injury, operation and recovery. They have been updating the forum and Facebook about progress. Many of us have learnt a lot about Cruciate Ligament Injuries. We learnt about the treatment, the surgery, the hydrotherapy, the insurance and the palatial crate. In a few weeks time all of that will be behind Grahame, Sherri, Gryff and Nessa and Gryff will be running around as if nothing happened. On Facebook, it will be the same. It will be forgotten! On the forum, anyone in 2 years time who has a schnauzer or even a dog with a cruciate ligament injury will find all of Shergra's posts on the forum and be able to learn from it as we all have. That's invaluable and something that Facebook cannot give us. We risk losing that and I, for one, don't want to.
Then there is the wonderful Liz and Buster. We've all cried, we've all laughed, we've all chuckled and we've all said: "typical schnauzer". I think we have all taken something from Liz' fortitude in caring for Buster and her devotion to him. For many of us, we walked that journey with Liz. I know I still have that journey to walk with Rupert or Watson, but reading Liz' story with Buster, will help me in that journey and I've taken something away from it. I may have to walk that journey in a year or 2 or 10 and I'd like to think I could come back here and read their story and take solace from it. I won't be able to if Liz had shared her story on Facebook. It will be gone and forgotten. I don't want it gone and forgotten because of Facebook.
There are hundreds of similar examples throughout the 13,500 odd topics on the forum. We're losing something valuable by maintaining the group on Facebook and I for one think it should be stopped. I realise it does bring in members, but we are probably losing as many.
I value your input and would appreciate any constructive comments. I know a few in the Facebook group have been quite negative about the forum, but I'd like to keep this topic positive please. I'm also open to suggestions on how we can improve things, just let me know. Someone said they liked the real names on Facebook and we should do the same here. Should we? But in the process, I don't want to turn this into Facebook either.
Over to you.