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The TMO Group on FB - and the toxic FB ecosystem

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Ludachris

Chris
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While we’re on the topic... I see a lot of people posting on the FB TMO page that I never see here - I take it that keeping things separate will continue? BTW, I *hate* that a lot of discussion has migrated away from forums in general; facespace is a horrid platform to have real (and indexed/searchable), technical content. This is how I know I’m getting old [emoji12]
@boardkat - I share your feelings on this. The TMO group on FB was created in order to act as a net to catch all those people on FB who were already using that platform to discuss tracking their Mustangs. I plan on using it more as a tool to bring awareness to the TMO forum to people on FB who might not know about the forum otherwise.

It's true, more people are using FB to discuss technical content for automotive subjects, and that sucks for many reasons. But the masses have adopted FB and we have to make sure our community is represented there in order to bring more exposure to it. I hope that more people in the TMO FB Group will make their way here for a better community experience, so that those discussions will get indexed here and found via Google by others for years down the road. Because we all know the discussions that take place on FB are nearly impossible to find most of the time, let alone reference later.

Valuable tech content is getting diverted there and lost forever. For those here who are in the TMO FB group (or are on FB in general), you can always point people to join here, but not everyone cares to leave the FB bubble to participate on a forum these days, so prepare to be ignored when you suggest it.

I actually wrote a LONG post on this very subject a year ago, on a different forum. Feel free to read it here:
https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/f...-culture-and-tech-info.520851/#post-153709487
 

ChrisM

Mostly harmless.
1,180
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South Carolina
I deleted my Facebook a while back and it was very liberating. The only thing I regret is the lack of car pictures in my life now. I highly encourage you all to highly encourage other people to come here so I can enjoy the pictures again.

Edit: your article is spot on.
 

Ludachris

Chris
Staff member
Moderator
1,658
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Newcastle, CA
@boardkat - I share your feelings on this. The TMO group on FB was created in order to act as a net to catch all those people on FB who were already using that platform to discuss tracking their Mustangs. I plan on using it more as a tool to bring awareness to the TMO forum to people on FB who might not know about the forum otherwise.

It's true, more people are using FB to discuss technical content for automotive subjects, and that sucks for many reasons. But the masses have adopted FB and we have to make sure our community is represented there in order to bring more exposure to it. I hope that more people in the TMO FB Group will make their way here for a better community experience, so that those discussions will get indexed here and found via Google by others for years down the road. Because we all know the discussions that take place on FB are nearly impossible to find most of the time, let alone reference later.

Valuable tech content is getting diverted there and lost forever. For those here who are in the TMO FB group (or are on FB in general), you can always point people to join here, but not everyone cares to leave the FB bubble to participate on a forum these days, so prepare to be ignored when you suggest it.

I actually wrote a LONG post on this very subject a year ago, on a different forum. Feel free to read it here:
https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/f...-culture-and-tech-info.520851/#post-153709487
I wanted to bring this thread back and make a strong request to all forum members here who also participate on Facebook regularly. PLEASE, help us combat the harmful, toxic effects of FB in the automotive world. Many are growing increasingly frustrated with FB and the toxic behavior it fosters, and many don't care to see people move away from forums to discuss Mustang tech over on that platform (where tech information gets lost in the abyss forever).

Be aware that there are several things you can do to help our forum and combat FB's negative impact on car culture, and I actually encourage everyone to do this to help preserve Mustang tech information in the long term and help keep this forum going strong... conversely, understand that the more active you are on FB posting Mustang-related content, the more damage you end up doing to the forum in the long run. Make no mistake about it, the mass adoption of FB hurts all forums, and when you use it to talk Mustangs instead of using this forum, it hurts our forum. If that matters to you, read on...

Things you can do to help our forum:

1.
Avoid using FB for Mustang Q&A as much as you can, use the forum instead. I know it might be faster to get answers on FB, but the more Q&A that gets posted over there, the less that gets archived in the forum. At the very least, post the question in both the forum and on FB, and when you get your issue resolved, update the forum thread with the resolution so others can come across it later.

Avoid answering Mustang-related questions posted by others on FB. Instead, see if you can link the person to a thread/post here in the forum where their answer can be found, and encourage them to participate in that thread and share their resolution. Most will just read the thread, but sometimes you'll get someone to take the next step and register to participate. It doesn't really help to respond to FB questions saying "search the forum". That can do more harm than good. It really only helps if you share links to specific threads and/or posts - yes, you would be spoon feeding them, but when you tell them the keywords you used to search and find that thread, you just might get them to try it on their own next time.

2. Instead of posting updates about your Mustang on FB, post them in your build thread and then share that post on FB. Each post in our forum has a "sharing" icon up in the top right of the post, next to the post number in the dark gray bar. If you hover over it you will have the option to share that specific post on FB. This is a very effective way to quickly share updates on FB and help bring visibility to your participation in the forum, which will hopefully lead others to come in and do the same.

3. One very simple thing everyone can do to bring more people into the forum is to keep your vehicle profile updated, so that when people ask you for info on your build over on FB, you can post the link to it so they can quickly view it. Encourage them to post all questions about your build in your build thread here on the site, and even suggest to them that they create a vehicle profile and build thread here too.

4. If you're selling Mustang parts, post them in the Classifieds here and share those posts on FB so that people can visit the site to see pricing and details. Some FB groups won't allow that, so be mindful of where you do it.

5. For those who post tutorials/articles in our How-To forum (here) be sure to share those threads on FB to bring more attention to them. The more helpful/useful the article is for Mustang owners, the more it will get shared on that platform, and hopefully will bring in more quality members who will also contribute their own knowledge.

-----------------------

Based on the tips above I'm sure some will come up with even more ways to be an effective forum advocate/ambassador. The more respected members in the Mustang world we have doing as I suggested above, the more we can show others on FB there is a better option for the community here, the more likely we'll see others logging in here and following your lead. Decals and TMO apparel help spread the word too, but in this particular case, linking people into threads and other forum content from FB will have the most direct impact.

I truly believe that it's in the best interest of all automotive enthusiasts to see forums thrive (not just survive) in the long run. The more help we have from those who use the FB platform to be our advocates, to help bring in more valuable content contributors, the better our chances are of at least limiting FB's negative effects on the automotive enthusiast ecosystem and improving our community in the long run. FB likely won't go away anytime soon, but that doesn't mean we have to help it destroy some pretty important aspects of car culture by using it instead of using the forum to chat about Mustangs.

Thanks all!
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
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I have completely given up on FB car pages. Occasionally someone will tag me on a subject and then I'll get roasted for answering the question I was asked....it's insanity. I prefer the Forums for all the reasons posted above.
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
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The key is the Forum site is encyclopedic and once one spends time here it is obvious the tech data , whether current of from the past gives you a lot more access in a hurry. Frankly the new " Build Thread " is a perfect place for the folks that want to post about their cars and drop a bunch of photos. More fun, in my estimation, as we find out about the specific mods , track experience and so much more than just popping in and out of Facebook. Just my perspective , but I like being able to search way back and the data stream on particular subjects is ten fold what you will find on Facebook.
 
1,289
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I recommend (if possible) you shutdown the ability to post on the TMO's page. In order to attract new members, post some links to Build Threads or perhaps some of the "sticky" threads.

Do you have any idea how many non-members that have posted to FB have subsequently become members? And of those, how many are active members?
 

Ludachris

Chris
Staff member
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Newcastle, CA
I recommend (if possible) you shutdown the ability to post on the TMO's page. In order to attract new members, post some links to Build Threads or perhaps some of the "sticky" threads.

Do you have any idea how many non-members that have posted to FB have subsequently become members? And of those, how many are active members?
Wish I had a way to view that type of data... I'm guessing it's fairly low but there's no real way to measure it.

I post links to vehicle profiles/build threads on FB weekly, both on the TMO FB page and in the TMO FB group (I noticed some refer to the FB TMO "group" as the "page", which are technically two separate things, but calling a "group" a "page" on FB seems to be pretty common) and I always encourage people to add their cars to our site and create build threads here. It seems to be bringing in some new people but again, measuring the effects of my efforts is extremely difficult.

I have made it very clear with the "sticky" announcement in the TMO FB group (and also the group description) that the group is not meant to be a replacement for the forum, that people should use the forum for tech Q&A, build threads, vehicle profiles, etc. Many in the group ignore that request obviously, because it's a FB group, and FB groups are for posting things and discussing them - the reality is, groups are designed to be a replacement for forums. FB wants them to replace forums, and many who use them do so instead of using forums. So my posted request seems silly to some people and it falls on deaf ears. You can't really disable posting in a FB group, FB doesn't allow you to do that. I can delete the group but that would just remove our ability to get some type of visibility for the forum in FB groups.

We won't have a high rate of people migrating away from FB to be active members here, but even if we get a few every week or every month, it's worth it. Especially if those members end up being great members who contribute to what we're trying so hard to build with this community. What we need is some of the veteran forum members and influential Mustang community leaders here who also post on FB to take action and do some of the things I outlined in the post above. If more people do that regularly, it will make a difference.
 

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