Expanding ScubaBoard to social media

[Wibble]

And a little point about YouTube; obviously we all use it to watch cat videos/whatever. I personally never take part in the discussions and have never commented. Nor do I subscribe or any of the other tracking crap.

I'll also frequently use a 'private' browser so the cookies and trackers are cleared.

Good on yer for adding the ScubaBoard only option.

 

[The Chairman]

Social media has kilt more message boards than anything else.

A refusal to adapt would be my guess. Does anyone remember Diverlink? SB has been accused of killing more than a few forums just by itself. I think it's because we listen to our users and try to accommodate their interests and concerns over our own. I often get praised for ScubaBoard and it's not false modesty that deflects that praise back to our users. You guys make the forum buzz and listening to you has caused us to change a lot over the years. No, we still haven't settled the MOF/NMOF or Splitfin debates but even those have taught us the value of the "Dive and let dive!" mantra. With an ocean full of egos, it's hard to impart the philosophy of being nice to each other just because we can.

 

[Marie13]

There was the case of one recent guy who grabbed an incident from a FB scuba group and posted it here. Do we want the reverse to happen? I generally don’t post on the FB scuba groups because of the BS that has gone on here. I’ve had people I don’t know approach me at the local quarry (the curse of a distinctive drysuit) and harass me because of stuff that’s gone on here. Do I want the same BS on FB? Nope. Sounds like I’m going to need to stop posting here, or at least anything personal.

 

[solo gato]

There was the case of one recent guy who grabbed an incident from a FB scuba group and posted it here. Do we want the reverse to happen? I generally don’t post on the FB scuba groups because of the BS that has gone on here. I’ve had people I don’t know approach me at the local quarry (the curse of a distinctive drysuit) and harass me because of stuff that’s gone on here. Do I want the same BS on FB? Nope. Sounds like I’m going to need to stop posting here, or at least anything personal.

weirdly enough I've had a similar experience on my choice of gear when I was setting up at the pass one time, it was bizarre.

 

[The Chairman]

There was the case of one recent guy who grabbed an incident from a FB scuba group and posted it here. Do we want the reverse to happen?

Again, it's already happening. It's a two-way street here.

Sounds like I’m going to need to stop posting here, or at least anything personal.

Google favors ScubaBoard over FB like a million to one. To think anything you've said here up to now has been somehow kept 'private' is erroneous, if not irrational. Fortunately, unlike FB, we don't require your real name, so people would have to be able to connect your username here with your real name or FB sign-on for it to be a persistent problem. It's easy to change your username too. Just ask.

I'm not trying to argue with you, rather I'm trying to help you understand the connectivity that is part and parcel of the internet. Even e-mails are rather public. Once published on the web, nothing should ever be considered private or protected. If it weren't for Google, ScubaBoard would have been irrelevant decades ago. In fact, we keep certain forums shut to the real world because of the deleterious impact they might have. Thumbs down and the Pub come to mind off the bat.

Infamy, while not always desired, is usually earned. The world still knows me as "NetDoc" and many want to discuss some medical concerns when they meet me in person. No, I'm not a physician nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn, so these are almost always embarrassing encounters. Moreover, if a person was banned, even briefly, they expect me to know why and give them an explanation for my actions. A few have even wanted to fight me. The joke's on them since I am rarely the one to use the ban hammer and I have my mod's back. While I rarely post on FB since it lacks Google-fu, I rarely have anyone but my friends see my posts there. The magic in really reaching the masses lies with a site's Google-fu. Dive-ops waste their money and time on FB, when in reality, you'll never FaceBook a destination or gear selection. You're going to Google the best dive-ops or in trying to compare regulator X and Y.

 

[Chavodel8en]

Social media has kilt more message boards than anything else. If I owned a message board I'd use it for nothing more than to drive traffic to my board by sharing links to the webpage. But I may not use it at all because I'm sure their algorithms down vote message boards because they are competition. No different than FB killing the ability to embed YouTube videos.

I used to post alot on boxing message boards (as a fan, not a participant). Almost all of them are gone now, apparently Boxing Twitter killed them all (the only one left is juvenile and rage-filled). I guess people like the convenience and immediacy of Twitter to talk boxing, but I miss the conversational style and in depth back and forth of the message boards.

I dont know why scubaboard hasnt succumbed to "Scuba Twitter (or instagram, etc)", but Im glad it hasnt.

That being said, I mostly use facebook to arrange dive buddies, and to look in on local conditions - in this case, immediacy is a benefit. I used to use Meetup for buddies, but it has died down. Maybe facebook killed it?

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I used to post alot on boxing message boards (as a fan, not a participant). Almost all of them are gone now, apparently Boxing Twitter killed them all. I guess people like the convenience and immediacy of Twitter to talk boxing, but I miss the conversational style and in depth back and forth of the message boards.

I dont know why scubaboard hasnt succumbed to "Scuba Twitter (or instagram, etc)", but Im glad it hasnt.

Sadly some forums/subforums here on ScubaBoard have almost completed died out. The Great Lakes Wrecking Crew (GLWC) is a good example. It now has a tiny fraction of the activity it used to have before the MODS of the forum took it to Facebook. I find that very sad. The GLWC forum was hugely influential in my development as a diver and in my ability to find buddies, some of which I still dive with today. I'm sad to see that is has pretty much died out.

Thankfully, that doesn't apply to most parts of ScubaBoard.

I do use Facebook for diving related things BUT NOT discussion. Discussion regarding practices, equipment, operators, locations, etc, I always take to ScubaBoard. I never engage in that on Facebook.

 

[drrich2]

I guess people like the convenience and immediacy of Twitter to talk boxing, but I miss the conversational style and in depth back and forth of the message boards.

Quora is a huge discussion forum covering most any subject, and I've seen a number of threads there on boxing (e.g.: how might a young Sonny Liston stack up against Ali in his prime type questions).

It now has a tiny fraction of the activity it used to have before the MODS of the forum took it to Facebook.

Facebook groups seem to work well for local interest groups with relatively low post rates, who mainly want to interact with each other. I know of 2 scuba-related Facebook groups, one in Kentucky and one in North Carolina. I doubt this scales well to very large groups with hundreds of posts per day.

 

[chillyinCanada]

My family is often solely reachable through social media, so I keep a few connections now that we're all in different states (or countries). I follow a few diving organizations on Instagram, including DAN, and they often share interesting diving science articles, links to upcoming events or seminars, and trip photos.

The r/scuba reddit does get attention by younger crowds but is more prone to, shall we say, less tidy divers sharing their advice. On SB if I see someone dragging fins in a picture, there's sure to be at least 5 people calling them out on it and giving tips on how to correct it.

Social media can do a lot of good to keep people connected, but it's always, always a balance of managing the echo chamber and moderating your userbase appropriately

Have you ever suggested Scubaboard to those on Reddit?

 

[Lorenzoid]

I do use Facebook for diving related things BUT NOT discussion. Discussion regarding practices, equipment, operators, locations, etc, I always take to ScubaBoard. I never engage in that on Facebook.

It's funny--I don't use FB out of privacy concerns, but my wife does and belongs to a couple of scuba-related FB groups. Occasionally, she will mention a question that popped up there, and she and I may discuss at some length how the question has been addressed in SB discussions. Then she will reduce those sometimes complex thoughts to a few pithy lines and post it on FB. All the nuances in those pages and pages of discussion here are lost over there. But I guess the social media demographic prefers it that way.