POLL: Open Up The Facebook Page(s)?

[Gary Lewis]

I think you run the risk of creating an alternative group by setting up on Facebook. You will have the people that only use the Facebook resources and then people who only use this forum.

It will be the Peoples Front of Judiah and the Judian Peoples Front all over again!

Disclaimer: I have not been on Facebook for some years and I love Monty Python.

That's funny! But your parrot's dead. (Reminds me of a meeting back when I was working. Twenty or thirty people in the room and one guy said something about a parrot. I responded "Your parrot's dead" and another guy said "He's only sleeping." The rest of the room looked at us like we were crazy!)

On the risk of creating an alternative group, I think that's pretty much a given. There are Facebook-only people, and there are forum-only people. And then there are those, maybe 5 to 10%, who dabble in both.

Thinking through the advantages and differences, I see that the way I have my Facebook account set up I get a notification of someone posting on certain pages on Facebook, and always get a notification when someone responds to a post of mine. But I don't get that on the forum as the notification comes in via email, so I have to go look. And, I'm one of the few of the members silly enough to have subscribed to the whole forum, so I get email notification for anything posted. So for me Facebook posts would be much more likely to elicit a quick response due to the notification.

But I can't do a Google search and find things on Facebook like I can the forum. And documenting something on Facebook, like a build, would seem to be fruitless.

And, Facebookers seem to sign up for multiple Bullnose pages, where that doesn't seem to be as prevalent on forums. So Bullnose pages tend to have very large memberships. For instance, Bullnose Fords 80-86 has 40.8K members & Bullnose Ford Truck Group (80-86) has 14k. And we have 696 as of this morning.

So if you need a quick answer or want to sell something then one of those pages would probably be better. However, with that large of membership there's no way you can have a good handle on who to trust, so how do you know which answer is correct?

Bottom Line: The only reason I can see starting another Bullnose page is if we think we can do it better, like keep the language in check and be uplifting rather than down-putting. I'm going to have to watch a bit more closely and see which of the ones I'm part of that do a good job already. I know one that does, and that's Keith's FORDification, but that's not Bullnose. However, maybe some of the Bullnose ones already do. If so, then it begs the question of why we'd want to get into Facebook.

What am I missing?

[Vic Roma]

I think you run the risk of creating an alternative group by setting up on Facebook. You will have the people that only use the Facebook resources and then people who only use this forum.

It will be the Peoples Front of Judiah and the Judian Peoples Front all over again!

Disclaimer: I have not been on Facebook for some years and I love Monty Python.

That's funny! But your parrot's dead. (Reminds me of a meeting back when I was working. Twenty or thirty people in the room and one guy said something about a parrot. I responded "Your parrot's dead" and another guy said "He's only sleeping." The rest of the room looked at us like we were crazy!)

On the risk of creating an alternative group, I think that's pretty much a given. There are Facebook-only people, and there are forum-only people. And then there are those, maybe 5 to 10%, who dabble in both.

Thinking through the advantages and differences, I see that the way I have my Facebook account set up I get a notification of someone posting on certain pages on Facebook, and always get a notification when someone responds to a post of mine. But I don't get that on the forum as the notification comes in via email, so I have to go look. And, I'm one of the few of the members silly enough to have subscribed to the whole forum, so I get email notification for anything posted. So for me Facebook posts would be much more likely to elicit a quick response due to the notification.

But I can't do a Google search and find things on Facebook like I can the forum. And documenting something on Facebook, like a build, would seem to be fruitless.

And, Facebookers seem to sign up for multiple Bullnose pages, where that doesn't seem to be as prevalent on forums. So Bullnose pages tend to have very large memberships. For instance, Bullnose Fords 80-86 has 40.8K members & Bullnose Ford Truck Group (80-86) has 14k. And we have 696 as of this morning.

So if you need a quick answer or want to sell something then one of those pages would probably be better. However, with that large of membership there's no way you can have a good handle on who to trust, so how do you know which answer is correct?

Bottom Line: The only reason I can see starting another Bullnose page is if we think we can do it better, like keep the language in check and be uplifting rather than down-putting. I'm going to have to watch a bit more closely and see which of the ones I'm part of that do a good job already. I know one that does, and that's Keith's FORDification, but that's not Bullnose. However, maybe some of the Bullnose ones already do. If so, then it begs the question of why we'd want to get into Facebook.

What am I missing?

Maybe it’s FOMO. Everyone and their dog is apparently on FB, because the perception is everyone else is on there too.

There is an obvious argument for using multiple platforms, but I believe you are neither desperately trying to flood the world with your product nor garner as many “Likes”, “Subscriptions”, or “love hearts” as possible in order to appear popular for popularity’s sake.

Facebook was a novelty, and from what I see, people who have a Facebook page as their only online presence do so because it’s free (and FOMO), but they’re limited to the FB script. Clearly this is not you/your site, and I appreciate the importance of promotion. However, your visitors easily find your site (Google takes care of that, as do the countless mentions of your name on numerous other forums and websites), and those visitors that adhere to your “maturity” guidelines and stay, are not the flippant variety that spend every available minute scanning FB posts, like some “phoner” from a Stephen King novel. There seems to be few goldfish here, if any.

Your product is about the trucks, your members and their trucks, and the availability of all the information in existence about the trucks. Your site can benefit from the features of social media platforms without the need to be confined by them. I would work on perfecting BullnoseBible.com, and not worry about FB.

Ultimately, identify what is your goal, then adapt to the platform that helps you to achieve it.

[Gary Lewis]

Maybe it’s FOMO. Everyone and their dog is apparently on FB, because the perception is everyone else is on there too.

There is an obvious argument for using multiple platforms, but I believe you are neither desperately trying to flood the world with your product nor garner as many “Likes”, “Subscriptions”, or “love hearts” as possible in order to appear popular for popularity’s sake.

Facebook was a novelty, and from what I see, people who have a Facebook page as their only online presence do so because it’s free (and FOMO), but they’re limited to the FB script. Clearly this is not you/your site, and I appreciate the importance of promotion. However, your visitors easily find your site (Google takes care of that, as do the countless mentions of your name on numerous other forums and websites), and those visitors that adhere to your “maturity” guidelines and stay, are not the flippant variety that spend every available minute scanning FB posts, like some “phoner” from a Stephen King novel. There seems to be few goldfish here, if any.

Your product is about the trucks, your members and their trucks, and the availability of all the information in existence about the trucks. Your site can benefit from the features of social media platforms without the need to be confined by them. I would work on perfecting BullnoseBible.com, and not worry about FB.

Ultimately, identify what is your goal, then adapt to the platform that helps you to achieve it.

Vic - That is very well said and well thought out. Thanks.

But I had to look up Fear Of Missing Out. That term, but not the feeling, was new to me.

Anyway, you are right, we are "neither desperately trying to flood the world with our product nor garner as many “Likes”, “Subscriptions”, or “love hearts” as possible in order to appear popular for popularity’s sake." (I've changed "I" to "we" and "your" to "our" as I prefer to think we are in this together.) Further, your statement that "our product is about the trucks, our members and their trucks, and the availability of all the information in existence about the trucks" is very accurate. (Again, I made "your" into "our".)

Back to FOMO, I have had that feeling from time to time regarding these trucks. But I've come to realize that there is far more of "it" going on than I could ever participate in. So I've come to the conclusion that I'll scan the various FB pages to which I'm subscribed and chime in where I can easily help, which usually takes the form of giving them a link to the page or thread with the documentation/answer to their question. But I usually do not get involved in on-going problem solving as there are far too many people on those pages that have poor suggestions or incorrect answers.

Bottom Line: I think this discussion has helped me realize that my computing time is best spent participating on this forum and in adding documentation to the site. Then, as and when I have time, troll the Facebook pages looking for people who need the documentation we have and pointing them to it.

Thanks to all of you for your participation in this discussion.

 

[Rembrant]

Vic - That is very well said and well thought out. Thanks.

But I had to look up Fear Of Missing Out. That term, but not the feeling, was new to me.

Anyway, you are right, we are "neither desperately trying to flood the world with our product nor garner as many “Likes”, “Subscriptions”, or “love hearts” as possible in order to appear popular for popularity’s sake." (I've changed "I" to "we" and "your" to "our" as I prefer to think we are in this together.) Further, your statement that "our product is about the trucks, our members and their trucks, and the availability of all the information in existence about the trucks" is very accurate. (Again, I made "your" into "our".)

Back to FOMO, I have had that feeling from time to time regarding these trucks. But I've come to realize that there is far more of "it" going on than I could ever participate in. So I've come to the conclusion that I'll scan the various FB pages to which I'm subscribed and chime in where I can easily help, which usually takes the form of giving them a link to the page or thread with the documentation/answer to their question. But I usually do not get involved in on-going problem solving as there are far too many people on those pages that have poor suggestions or incorrect answers.

Bottom Line: I think this discussion has helped me realize that my computing time is best spent participating on this forum and in adding documentation to the site. Then, as and when I have time, troll the Facebook pages looking for people who need the documentation we have and pointing them to it.

Thanks to all of you for your participation in this discussion.

Gary,

Slightly off topic, but I think this has been discussed before...

Do you ever wonder if forum traffic is decreased because there are no automatic notifications of replies?

[Gary Lewis]

Gary,

Slightly off topic, but I think this has been discussed before...

Do you ever wonder if forum traffic is decreased because there are no automatic notifications of replies?

Using German, and maybe Max will translate: Jein.

Yes, I worry. But, there are automatic notifications of replies. Go to Bullnose Forum/Forum FAQ's and then the Email Notification tab where it is explained.

So mainly my worry is how to explain that to people. And I'd love any help I can get in doing so. I don't think many people understand this and are missing posts.

[Rembrant]

So mainly my worry is how to explain that to people. And I'd love any help I can get in doing so. I don't think many people understand this and are missing posts.

Ya, I hear ya. I was just curious if there was a real world effect or not. I think most forums subscribe you to a thread by default, and if you want out, you have to unsubscribe. This forum is the opposite of that. I'm used to it, and frankly...I check my forums often enough I don't really need subscriptions anyway...but I still like having them for certain topics.

I know on some of the FB threads, I will turn off notifications very quickly...lol. I don't mind being notified of a couple replies, but often times they go way off the rails and I can't turn the notifications off fast enough. It sucks that one might miss a couple good replies that way, but a lot of times they get drowned out in useless chatter.

 

[Ray Cecil]

I dumped it for almost 5 years for the same reason, and only in the last year or two re-activated my account so that I had access to FB Marketplace and Vendor pages (where they post their sales and discount codes).

Otherwise, I would probably have stayed off it forever.

In any case, I too voted no. I think it would be too difficult to police and keep it as nice/calm/cool/collected as Gary's forum.

Same. I have a fake account "William Cecil" just to have access to marketplace. My only friends are the friendly old man accross the street, his son, and another old guy down the street who taught my youth baseball team one year 25 years ago.

AINT NOBODY GOT TIME TO BABYSIT FACESPACE OR MYBOOK!!!

 

[ArdWrknTrk]

Using German, and maybe Max will translate: Jein.

Yes, I worry. But, there are automatic notifications of replies. Go to Bullnose Forum/Forum FAQ's and then the Email Notification tab where it is explained.

So mainly my worry is how to explain that to people. And I'd love any help I can get in doing so. I don't think many people understand this and are missing posts.

Some brief explanation of blue v/ purple might help members understand what threads have been added to since they last visited, even if they haven't subscribed

[Gary Lewis]

Some brief explanation of blue v/ purple might help members understand what threads have been added to since they last visited, even if they haven't subscribed

Jim - That's a good point, the blue indicates threads which have posts you've not read, and the purple indicates threads on which you are current. But it brings up the question of where to put that verbiage. Do I add a tab on the FAQ's page?

And it brings up the bit about what "view" is best to use. Here's a bit about what could be said:

There are two views to the forum:

• Main View: This is the view you get when you go to the Main page or click on Bullnose Forum. Here you see all of the folders and the pinned items, then below them you see the threads in the main section in chrono order. However, you do not see things that have been posted in the folders.

• Topics View: If you click the Topics View link you'll be shown things that have changed in chrono order, even if they are buried in one of the folders. This is a handy way to keep up with what is being said w/o having to drill down into each folder.

.

Here's a shot of the Main View, and you can tell you are in Main View because it gives you the Topics View option:

Here's a shot of the Topics View, and you can tell you are in Topics View because it gives you the Main View option:

[Gary Lewis]

Jim - That's a good point, the blue indicates threads which have posts you've not read, and the purple indicates threads on which you are current. But it brings up the question of where to put that verbiage. Do I add a tab on the FAQ's page?

And it brings up the bit about what "view" is best to use. Here's a bit about what could be said:

There are two views to the forum:

• Main View: This is the view you get when you go to the Main page or click on Bullnose Forum. Here you see all of the folders and the pinned items, then below them you see the threads in the main section in chrono order. However, you do not see things that have been posted in the folders.

• Topics View: If you click the Topics View link you'll be shown things that have changed in chrono order, even if they are buried in one of the folders. This is a handy way to keep up with what is being said w/o having to drill down into each folder.

.

Here's a shot of the Main View, and you can tell you are in Main View because it gives you the Topics View option:

Here's a shot of the Topics View, and you can tell you are in Topics View because it gives you the Main View option:

Since the poll is still open, let's get back to the idea of us having a Facebook page for a mo. The votes are currently 10 against having one and 3 for, so it seems pretty well decided unless there's a landslide of votes in the next 5 days before the poll closes.

One idea of having a Facebook page was to help get the word out about our documentation. And just to give you an idea how significant getting the word out can be, Bill/85lebaront2 brought the statement on the left to my attention yesterday. It was an announcement made on the Bullnose Ford Truck Group (80-86) and included a blurb about this website. And take a look at a snippet from our metrics (Documentation/Metrics) for yesterday, shown on the right.

I'm not saying we need to have a Facebook page. Instead I've come to the conclusion that the best way to help the other Bullnose enthusiasts is to get the word out about the information we have via the existing Facebook pages. That page has 14.2K users. Another has 40.9K. And so on.

In other words, let's enjoy what we have here on the forum but take every opportunity to let others know about the info available.