Personally I think social media is a scourge... I have no accounts on any of them and never will.
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Personally I think social media is a scourge... I have no accounts on any of them and never will.
I have both FB/IG and use them fairly often. My FB is normally filled with the same questions being asked weekly or some BS pissing contest. It is like a car wreck that's annoying to watch. I prefer forums but there is more activity on FB/IG. I've left more "groups" on FB than I can count because its just a regurgitation of BS or something that doesn't interest me. I wish there was a more PT dedicated page, I do follow PT garage but its more of a show off of what people have built, are building or something to sell, which is cool but I prefer the technical side from the forums.
I am 53 and been doing this way too long. I have been and still am using all of the different channels to source information. Whether it is detailed or imagery. I use some just to follow my kids and see what antics they are up to. I can notice the drop in usage on certain forums when the not so hardcore left forum to some other media channels. Even when there is a seasonality on most forums they have hard-core group of users being active. I have to admit that I do all the current FB, IG and Snap Chat.
Forums: are like the Factory Service Manual or encyclopedia of the social media world with a user addition. Great for in-depth, detailed user informed an experienced point of view. Best viewed on a large screening device. Some are better than others (like this one) some are terrible and really hard to use. Marketing is smallish and most businesses don't market using those channels unless it is very specific to the forum users needs. They can tend to be a little stand-off-ish in terms of selling to forum user when it comes to companies that are marketing to newer audiences.
MML: better known for us oldies as the Multiple mailing List. Yes still use one and its great and people are genuinely good. Akin to a rotatory or elks club meeting.
IG Instagram: should have been called InstaGratification but that sounded to risky. Great for images and little bs (at least know), some of it works perfect for a small review of a new product like a tool or something or watch a short 59 second video of the product being marketed. Not much in the way of down your throat marketing. More set up to focus on the specific target group. A great place to get started for a small business. It allows you to have a narrow targeted following. Again like most social groups (even before all of this) it has its gossip. Also it has a link-able app that can take you to a web page for getting some more information, but that never really worked that well. I think it was poorly executed. IG is really a tool to sell more ads and best works on a smart phone. It has its place for people like me that have A.D.D. I like it for details about concerts and stuff like that which are time sensitive.
FB: I see it as a great place to keep in contact with friends and family that are far way that you would never really call. Lacks any real detail and any good searchable content. The groups are a weak attempt to keep people on the site. The problem is they are poorly designed and repeat the same thing which forum people like us would shy away from. Similar to how forums were at first. It could have crushed the forums but wow has the advertisers turned it into garbage and nobody has the where-with-all to fix that. The FB selling groups do get a lot of traffic and work well but are not very regional. This can be good for some products. I have joined a few of those just for the curiosity. A friend swears by it to sell his stuff, but I still prefer Craigslist.
Snap chat is just that. Boom and go. A little more private and my kids use it to stay under the radar. They tell me FB is for oldies.
Hopefully that cover it...
MPQ
I've really enjoyed following this thread and seeing the viewpoints and opinions of you all. This forum excluded, I think the biggest downfall of a lot of the forums out there is that they've turned the focus so heavily onto the monetizing aspect that it's hard to follow a lot of the threads on there. I'll do a search for a topic through Google and it will typically pull up several different forums, but once you click through you get bombarded with ads that you have to close down in order to actually follow the content. I HATE that. I know it takes money to keep these sites going, but at some point I feel the site owners lost sight of why they started it in the first place, or maybe that was their goal all along. Either way, I enjoy how clean and clutter free protouring.com is compared to a lot of other forums out there. Yes there are ads, but they're not shoved down your throat and I respect that and can appreciate it as a user and supporter.
Like many of you I do enjoy the other "social" outlets and I agree that each carries it's own benefits and downfalls, but I don't think you'll ever be able to replace a good solid forum with any of those unless someone comes up with a new way of presenting the information.
I also feel that forums like this one will continue to be a great resource since it takes a lot more effort to post and reply than say Facebook or Instagram. In my opinion its what helps keep the weeds out. The people who want to trash talk and degrade stuff don't like to work that hard to get their opinion out. Forums like this also have a sense of accountability as well. Usually you have a "family" of users who are here for each other and support the other enthusiasts that are trying to do it the right way. We may not always agree on everything, but we can agree that there ins't any room for haters.
I'm 46. A friend and I ran a very small BBS, on a pieced together 286, in the early/mid 90's. I remember how cool we thought it was to hear that modem chatter when some stranger would connect. Transitioned to Usenet and had my first internet argument around 1997. There were no HTML based forums at that time as most web pages at the time were pretty crude. How many of you know what Dejanews was?
I watched the changeover from Usenet to forums like this. Overall it was a good change, even though it became harder to find what forums were out there and I could no longer just subscribe to a new topic within the same news reader app.
I still prefer this format to Facebook. I joined several LS engine related FB groups recently and ended up unfollowing all of them. I'm still a member of them all but they no longer appear on my main feed. And I don't find myself clicking on them to read what's going on either. I just think the format sucks for most things. Most discussion only lasts a day or two and dies out and it's really hard to search. Half the posts seem to be like "I want to swap a LS engine into my 1973 Pinto but I don't own a single wrench. Can you tell me everything I need to do so I won't have to type 3 words into Google?" Or "I want to build a 1200 HP turbo motor for my 1973 Pinto but I don't own a wrench..."
Forums like this definitely seem to be fading out but I really don't know why. It's not like there's something better now.
-Chris
I think a couple companies started purchasing a bunch of the popular forums from the original site owners in recent years. And they are the ones that started really overloading the advertising while also driving away many of the regular contributors.
It sounds like you aren't using an ad blocker though. You should be as it makes a huge difference when Google leads you to some new forum that you just want to browse a bit.
I am a member here and over at Team Camaro. Usually on one or both of the forums once a day. I also have instagram which I use mainly for promoting pictures of the kitchens and custom cabinetry I build. I used to have Facebook and quickly got tired of all the drama. I have not been on FB for about 7 years now so I can't comment on stuff upto date, but what I do remember was annoying trying to find any useful info on there. Instagram is nice to kick back and flip through pics and once in a while message someone - very laid back. All that said, the forums are a place of information that is un-matchable in my opinion. The help I have received here and over at Team Camaro is astounding. The answers aren't always what you want to hear, but they are cut and dry the truth bad or good. I'll take the forums anyday of the week. Keep up the great work guys! Ohh and the only way I see annoying ads and crap is if I do not log in so I can see how that could shy someone away from joining a forum. Once registered and logged in, I get no spam at all.
I prefer forums and I just dont care for facebook,
I much prefer forums over facebook but anyone that doesn't think the latter is tons more active is only fooling themselves. This place is a shell of itself, compared to what it was, 10-15yrs ago.
I bounce between Instagram and the forums. Spend more time on Instagram than the forums.
OLD People (Most of us) = Facebook and Forums
YOUNG People (A few of Us) = Instagram and Snapchat.
Which one are YOU?
I have no time for FB/IG/SC, it's forums or personal interaction with real people, and I'm only 45.
I like it all. Social media, message boards, websites, magazines, events, TV... You name it. I can't get enough.
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Hey... Why don't we all just start posting selfies on Pro-Touring.com?
https://static1.pt-content.com/image...18/08/19-1.jpg
56 forum only
Looked at fb. Did not like it.
Since most forums are so inactive these days, I spend more time than I should, on facebook.
I need to check out Instagram.