Is forum participation changing?

[Malebolgia]

Elbows, it seems we use Facebook in the exact same way

[stone-cold-lead]

Elbows, it seems we use Facebook in the exact same way

Same here too. Had a FB page long before I set up a profile (oddly enough you're not supposed to have a page without a profile but that's how it worked out at the time) and since setting one up I've used it purely to join a few groups and follow pages of interest. Friend requests get deleted and not following family or anyone. It's the best way to use FB in my opinion.

[Elbows]

Agreed.  I admit I used to hate Facebook.  Then I discovered the "unfollow" feature.  Cranked up every security setting, turned off everything extraneous and blocked every Facebook game/app (those things where people used to invite you etc.).  Once all that was done and I discovered the hobby aspect of Facebook , it's become a staple.

Probably not what Facebook wants to see from a "consumer", but it is what it is.

[Lovejoy]

...it was really easy to follow manufacturers.  It's obviously much easier to like a company's page than visit a dozen forums each day.

Although bear in mind that Facebook tends to send a company's post to only around 10% of the users that Like their page... so it's easy to miss 90% of new releases if you just use FB.

[AWu]

On general scale. Yes. Form of participation in internet is shifting.
Forums are format of the past, so most people sticking to it are interacting with web in traditional way.

Younger demographic do it in their own way and are not easily recruitable to such old school (in their eyes) way of social interacting.

So we are is a kind of ghetto.
I am meeting same people in FB groups and here. Most of us has double presence but I doubt in a strong shift in younger demographics toward older forms of communication.
The movement is natural phenomena.

Forums are loosing active members faster than they are able to recruit.

As to LA case
When you start realizing social change, its already here.
Its still best place in the net for 28mm miniatures that are not predominately GW.
But its a place where median of age is well beyond same in FB groups or on reddit.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

@AWu
From my experience LAF is still OK with a good base of people.
TMP has noticably less active people than three or four years ago.
Mick

[Arlequín]

I'm not a manufacturer, but if I was, I would be using Facebook as it's the most time-efficient means of spreading the word and engaging with potential customers; followed perhaps by Twitter. As a customer I use the former, but not the latter, for just those reasons. If I want to be sociable I use real time phone calls and face to face.

The eclectic hobby painter will get an ego-satisfying number of likes etc. on Facebook, but if you're embarking on something long-term and with some permanency, and also want to engage others in discussion of it, the forums are the place to do it; Facebook is all about today's 'news' and folk will never be able to keep track of anything older than a few days.

I've always liked the old definition of forum: "A medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged". I have noticed a noticeable reduction in discussion however and there used to be a time when I lost hours on LAF engaging with others on a topic. I sometimes wish there was a like button here, as if you're late to a 'show' thread all the good platitudes have gone and you struggle to come up with something original to say. At least if there is some text to go with a picture, it gives me an opening for a question or comment with a bit more meaning.

Call me a curmudgeon if you like, but I also think it's extremely rude to come onto any forum just to re-direct others to your blog. Post here and discuss here, or not at all. Provide a link to your blog in your signature by all means, or even directly link to a blog post if it is relevant to a discussion; but like crashing a neighbour's party to invite everyone over to your place, posting just to direct people to your blog is not on. As this forum has to be paid for too, it's also like stealing your neighbours beer too.

I only use two forums, here and the TFL one. I never joined or used TMP and my hay fever doesn't do well with the tumbleweed and dust blowing around a few of the others. I think AWu is right and how people use the internet has changed. Ultimately reducing numbers of old gits traditionalists will slowly see some forums wither and die.

[Ogrob]

Call me a curmudgeon if you like, but I also think it's extremely rude to come onto any forum just to re-direct others to your blog. Post here and discuss here, or not at all. Provide a link to your blog in your signature by all means, or even directly link to a blog post if it is relevant to a discussion; but like crashing a neighbour's party to invite everyone over to your place, posting just to direct people to your blog is not on. As this forum has to be paid for too, it's also like stealing your neighbours beer too.

While I don't find it rude, I very rarely click through to blogs unless people provide a good number of photos and text on the forum.

The fact that this thread has accumulated three pages in a day is also surely a sign that there is still some discussion alive on LAF.

[Lysandros]

I'm an occasional poster . I  agree TMP has half the posts of a few years ago .
It can be static , which is surprising that ł thought it was the biggest forum of the hobby .  
Many reasons , an egotistical  bizarre editor , out of date broken site , closing for an hour a day , little hobby news except ( no interest there )Warlords latest offering .
It looks it's days are numbered .

[Lowtardog]

I think it is a sign of the times, TMP I will have the odd shufty and search their history but too clunky to be honest.

Here I look regularly but less so am I likely to post as Face book in the last 12 months has taken over, whether groups with particular interests, instant access which you can scan over. I can get eye candy and comment instantaneously or swipe over. Where as even complementing on here is old skool or more so. Images now is harder to upload than say facebook which you are not bound by using a 3rd party host. On groups like our club I can link, post pics and hold chats and upload documents until the cows come home. News is instantaneous, promotion etc, competitions and the like make for instant gratification.

I can see in a few years Forums will go the way of Yahoo groups to a greater or lesser extent (Cannot access nor use Yahoo it is a nightmare and old hat).

As already said the like button can measure interest, I have noted people on forums who get a little angsty if people don`t comment or reply...why not you may ask...because you have to think of something to say, have to write it, at emoticons and post...in these days it may be getting to heavy for some people especially when competing with twitter, FB and things like Instagram and such

[Elk101]

I tend to post on someone else's thread if I see something I think is good, if I can see someone could do with a bit of encouragement, if I can answer a query, or if I have a query on how something has been done. I'll post my own thread if I have something to show, need some help or have something I think might be useful or of interest to others. I tend to not post as much on threads that are about opinions, unless it's something like "which one do you think works best?" etc. This seems to be how LAF works in general but it's definitely not how other places work! I browse LAF every day and there's a nice community here and arguments tend to be fairly minor compared to tmp, for example.

[Arlequín]

I have noted people on forums who get a little angsty if people don`t comment or reply...

They are the people that Facebook is perfect for, yet a few of them take great pride in stating that they don't use Facebook. 

My reason for not complementing them is that there is so much being contributed that it would really cut into my time here just posting "Great!" for each one. One click 'likes' would better sooth their ego surely?

I get people worry about giving all their personal details to FB, but you can simply give a false date of birth, fudge other details and even give a fake name if ID concerns are your reason for not joining. I might not reveal that I am the curvaceous Go-Go Bananas on FB to friends and family though.

 

[Eric the Shed]

Call me a curmudgeon if you like, but I also think it's extremely rude to come onto any forum just to re-direct others to your blog. Post here and discuss here, or not at all. Provide a link to your blog in your signature by all means, or even directly link to a blog post if it is relevant to a discussion; but like crashing a neighbour's party to invite everyone over to your place, posting just to direct people to your blog is not on. As this forum has to be paid for too, it's also like stealing your neighbours beer too.

As somebody who regularly posts links to my blog projects I can only apologise if it feels like gatecrashing somebody else's party. Its certainly not the intention for me and I am sure many others who do the same.

I use my blog to track the progress and diarise my projects, games and other aspects of my enjoyment in this hobby. I post up on the LAF to alert others that progress has been made, to stimulate conversation and to share ideas. I don't think repeating the entirety of my posts on the forum would be appropriate.

There have been plenty of occasions where I have come to this forum for inspiration and subsequently directed to another's blog/website. The forum serves as a fabulous resource and directory for all kinds of wonderful things.

The forum is is in my mind a place where like minded folks can share ideas, gather information and draw inspiration. The LAF is the best forum the hobby has to offer by a long shot and I have met some very talented and sociable people through it. My interest in the hobby is richer for it.

Whilst on the subject of blogs I have found that a number I follow are now posting less frequently - perhaps this is also a sign that these media have had their high watermark.
  

[Arlequín]

As somebody who regularly posts links to my blog projects I can only apologise if it feels like gatecrashing somebody else's party. Its certainly not the intention for me and I am sure many others who do the same.

It's just my opinion and personal values, which are not shared by all obviously. I would probably feel that a few photos and a summary of the post, along with the link, would be more like "I'm having a party tomorrow guys" in comparison and far more reasonable to my eyes. It also adds to the forum and drives people to you, so everyone's happy.

That LAF does not have a rule against linking to blogs pretty much sums up the thoughts of the owner, so as Plynkes pointed out earlier, it's quite acceptable here.

Whilst on the subject of blogs I have found that a number I follow are now posting less frequently - perhaps this is also a sign that these media have had their high watermark.

Yes I've noticed this too. That said a lot were effectively 'FB' style picture posts and I assume that they have drifted to that medium. The others have reduced for all that however; I have about two hundred blogs on my reading list and I doubt more than thirty or forty regularly post now. My own posting has been drastically reduced too, but that is largely due to real life demands. A relative loss of wargames mojo has contributed though.

I browse LAF every day and there's a nice community here and arguments tend to be fairly minor compared to tmp, for example.

I think we tend more to 'differences of opinion' and 'debate', rather than 'blood feud'. It's a forum for grown-ups in the main.

[Cubs]

I get people worry about giving all their personal details to FB, but you can simply give a false date of birth, fudge other details and even give a fake name if ID concerns are your reason for not joining.

Dear Lord man, are you condoning the use of a false date of birth online?! I'm outraged!