social media taking the place of our forums?

One of my old favorite forums has kind of gone down the tubes, hardly anyone posts anymore, and now the spammers have evidently just "had their way" with it. Now one of the more active ones has kind of had the same thing happen. I talked to one of the more active members on it, and he said that social media had kind of taken its place. While I am not a fan, I kind of see where something like facebook has its place, but don't understand how the bulletin boards just fall prey to those so and sos. Is that one of the things our moderators do for us? Keep the spammers away?

The moderators try their best but the spammers and the other types that have nothing better to do than ruin someone fun are always busy. FAOL has a Facebook page although it does not get much attention since we do not have the resources or the staff to promote it. Times change and sometimes we have little choice but to change with it.

herefishy,
When you say "social media" has taken over...............Other than Facebook, what are you referring to?

On a slightly different note; one of my favorite (or what used to be favorite) fly fishing forums seems to have been taken over by a small group of (apparently) younger posters who have nothing much to offer in the way of information or intelligent comment, but seem bent on turning every thread into some sort of puerile and asinine exchange of insults and off-color and aimless remarks.

Herefishy,
When you say "social media" has taken over..............what are you referring to as "social media" other than Facebook?

I have noticed that forum bulletin boards seem to be less active than in the past, but don't really see "social media" as the reason as I don't see much on Facebook, for example. Can you give examples?

I didn't mean that social media has taken over the forums, but one of the moderators on "utah on the fly" cited social media becoming so popular as a reason that the forum wasn't used as much, so wasn't moderated as much, and if you will take a look at it, you'll see what has happened.

No, I didn't mean to suggest you said that social media had taken over the forums. I meant, what examples are there that "social media" "has kind of taken its place"........

I'm wondering what you mean by "social media" other than, perhaps, Facebook, and how has such a medium "has kind of taken its place"?
Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by herefishy

I didn't mean that social media has taken over the forums, but one of the moderators on "utah on the fly" cited social media becoming so popular as a reason that the forum wasn't used as much, so wasn't moderated as much, and if you will take a look at it, you'll see what has happened.

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Yikes!!!... I just viewed that site and it is inundated with SPAM...that is certainly something that a moderator might address. Most of the forums I am on have periods of ups and down but all of them get right on a SPAM problem.


PT/TB

I think he was saying that UTOF may have gotten kind of abandoned in favor of things like twitter, pinterest, and other forms of social media, not just facebook

Twitter taking the place of fly tying forums?
I don't get it. Don't see Pinterest as an alternative to forums either??

And what about the elephant in the room ?

Mark

Yes, that's what I wonder. We better start making better use of our forum before the spammers find out how much fun we're having.

Still trying to figure out how tweeting 144 characters only to those "following" you would constitute something which might threaten the use of forums..........??
Help me out here, please.

As to my comment/post, never mind.

Mark

I think that there are so many other ways for people to get there fly fishing fixes that forums are becoming less used. Maybe it's not just social media but that certainly plays a part. You tube, blogs, online magazines, etc are just a few other ways.
Some forums seem to have someone or a group of people that seem to want to argue about every little thing. I notice that on a lot of fly fishing forums... Makes those other forms of fly fishing fixes more desirable.

I've no idea, Byron, just repeating what I was told. Have you noticed there is not quite as much activity here on our favorite forum? Not saying people are spending their time elsewhere, but let's not forget what a great place this is to be.

Yes, I've noticed. Jim

Quote:

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Originally Posted by herefishy

I've no idea, Byron, just repeating what I was told. Have you noticed there is not quite as much activity here on our favorite forum? Not saying people are spending their time elsewhere, but let's not forget what a great place this is to be.

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Yes, I have. My guess is that folks are out fishing and doing other things. I suspect it will pick up once winter sets in for most people.
I doubt it is due to Twitter and Facebook.

It's sort of funny, though........forums, like this wonderful one, are part of the reason, I suspect, that fishing/tying magazines are struggling.

It's hard to predict what will happen in the future as new technologies are developed and become commonplace.....

Most forums have seen a decrease in traffic and this will most likely continue. It is an industry wide trend.

I believe the cause is that through the internet there is now, different media platforms, more entertainment options and the use of mobile devices to access the internet. Within the last year or so internet access by mobile devices has surpassed access by personal computers.

Forums being more texted based then mobile applications are not as popular as they once were. Forums are more accessible by personal computers, but the usage of personal computers is decreasing as a percentage of internet usage.

Compared to a decade ago, the consumer now has many more internet entertainment options; streaming media for example. Which draws traffic away from the more traditional forums

Cheers!

Bryon, I gave up of magazines because they rarely put in anything in for warmwater fly fishing. When there was something it was for bass or pike most of the time.
That is why web sites are getting more attention from me. Folk, like you, put on patterns that can be adapted to my fishing.
There are several fly fishing groups on Facebook. I think many younger folks are more comfortable on Facebook that on forums.

Rick

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bill*

Most forums have seen a decrease in traffic and this will most likely continue. It is an industry wide trend.

I believe the cause is that through the internet there is now, different media platforms, more entertainment options and the use of mobile devices to access the internet. Within the last year or so internet access by mobile devices has surpassed access by personal computers.

Forums being more texted based then mobile applications are not as popular as they once were. Forums are more accessible by personal computers, but the usage of personal computers is decreasing as a percentage of internet usage.

Compared to a decade ago, the consumer now has many more internet entertainment options; streaming media for example. Which draws traffic away from the more traditional forums

Cheers!

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Pretty much it. People are spending time elsewhere, and there is little to no recruitment among new users, especially the younger demographic. It is not a matter of forums being replaced, they just are losing their relevance with the rise of alternative platforms/applications.

People have a limited amount of time to spend using the internet. With social media being the "in" thing, people have shifted their attention away from forums deciding instead on FB, Instagram, Twitter and other social media sites. I frequent three forums (FAOL, Modern Vespa and The Ocarina Network), they have all dramatically declined in traffic in the past several years. I am not a big fan of social media. Most have become soapboxes or bully pulpit. Recently social media has seen a decline in use. Twitter is the first of the mega social media sites to be significantly effected. They recently announced an 8% reduction in their workforce. We could be seeing the first in a series of declines in social media use.I hope this means we will see a return of participation in forums.

So what are you willing to offer that will attract, engage and promote new interests to come and interact here.

I read through all the responses to this thread and see a great deal of "he said she said", but not many facts, maybe perceptions espoused by some. Social media has its place and its areas of interest, but I don't see a comparison to what we have here. Can we attract young people? Probably not in droves, but yes to those really interested in fly fishing knowledge and experiences. Oh, by the way, those youngster grow older and get more serious about what's really important. Obviously, I am not a great fan of the latest social media outlets, but I do have all the new mobile toys. I will say that we have something special here in this forum. Word of mouth can help bring serious angles, of all ages, to this site. Keep the faith!!