Twenty years ago, there was at least one forum for every interest. I personally am a Mopar Fan, and two huge boards were Moparts and MoparStyle. For politics, Conservative Lady and Old Hippie had thousands of members posting daily. I owned a Buick Grand National and there were two boards where I could discuss that topic. I owned a Pontiac Grand Prix, and there were two boards that I could feed the need. I belonged to boards for computer nerds, Harleys, photography and a multitude of other interests.
Through these boards I met great new friends, many if whom I personally met, and many of those have become very close friends who I visit with frequently. If I had a problem, I could easily find the right forum on the board to look for a topic titled for my issue, or search the posts with keywords. If not found, I’d create a new post and explain my situation. It would usually have a quick solution posted.
Then came Facebook, which was a great place for family and friends to get together. Soon afterward Facebook added social groups, where anyone could create their own group on any topic. While initially good, they really left no way to categorized topics. So thousands of groups with as many 200,000 members or as few as 2 members popped up. For instance, with the topic Mopar there are 100s of groups. Groups for Mopar Racing, Mopar Racing Parts for sale, Mopar Racing Parts for Sale in Rhode Island, Mopar Racing drivetrain parts for sale in Wyoming. B- bodies. B-Bodies 63-65. 78-79 Dodge Magnums. Magnums and Cordobas. 60 Plymouths. 61 Plymouths. You get my point. You have to follow 60 groups in Mopar to only get part of the picture – and there really is no searching ability for solutions to problems.
Soon most forums members left boards to Facebook because it initially filled the need of going to one place for both social interaction with family and friends – and individual interests. However, as the number of social groups grew for very narrow interests and a person had to join many groups to get more of a big picture, Facebook had to create an algorithm on guessing what to display to who. That algorithm began to fail when Facebook got political became its own sort of Deep State by only employing angry Liberals and Socialists to monitor posts.
With regards to political and Social groups, Facebook’s Uber Liberal stance caused them to hire tens of thousands of moderators (collectively known as The Gestapo) – all of which are very Liberal and use a heavily hand to remove Conservative posts and blocking/removing Conservative posters – without any right of appeal. They are now in total control of what you see and have morphed into a vehicle of social interaction – becoming the Thought Police. Facebook Users are arbitrarily graded by The Gestapo, based on how a single moderator feels about your post. A Liberal tactic to strengthen the Deep State within Facebook is to report any post which slants Conservative. They join and scan Groups to rat out to the Gestapo. The Trump Hating member of the Gestapo who receives the snitch will then at the worse will block the member for violating their Community Double-Standards, or at the minimum lower the member’s score. As the score goes lower, they show fewer of that user’s posts to other members in their feeds.
The Facebook Thought Police also has Uber-Liberal Fact Checkers calling a high percentage of Conservative posts False, while passing through real fake news from Liberal leaning groups. Groups posting right leaning posts disappear – while Antifa and Black Lives Matter groups flourish. Paid Ads for Liberal topics abound, while Conservative Paid Ads are denied. Members of the Gestapo openly and proudly brag of how they stifle Conservative speech.
Many younger Facebook Users gave left Fakebook for Snap Chat, many Conservatives have left for Parler, while others just left or visit infrequently. The problem for the old boards is that the frequent posters from ten years ago, who have left for Fakebook, forgot that there was once a greater alternative to Social Groups. Many are still there waiting for these people to come back. They forget that Boards were really better at organizing information to where what interested you was easy to find – and what didn’t interest you was easy to avoid.
Then there is the fact were those people in their 20s,30s and 40s twenty years ago are now in their 40s, 50s and 60s now. Everyone’s lives have changed some, some got busier, some lost interest, and damn – some have died. The younger generation really never saw boards in their Heyday, and most don’t have the same interests we grew up to love.
There are a few people who do remember and miss the old boards, but they’re participating in a Mexican Standoff instead of the board. They want to participate – but they’re waiting for others to do it first. If everyone waits for everyone else to participate first – no one participates. What boards need are leaders who actually participate in building back good boards – so that the more selfish followers will ultimately come back. That might not sound politically correct, but most truths seldom are and get candy coated or not even mentioned.
Be a Leader
If you miss the bygone days of when forums were a great place for a small group of 100 active members participating many times a week – be proactive and help build a good board with an interest of yours. Participate, even if you feel like you’re the only one. It may take awhile for the board to grow back organically – but your participation will encourage another’s participation, and his yet anothers. A library of posts in the board will grow and be available to search engines – and that will in turn introduce others to the board. People will tell others of the board, and some of them will come and participate.
Boards were a better way than Facebook and still can be a better way if they become active. Many of you are now retired or working from home – and have the few minutes a day to spend making a good board great. Please do it.
Two Good Boards Needing Help To Be Great Are:
MoparWeb.com
This is a reincarnation of the old MoparStyle board. It’s Mopar Topic Section has different areas for Race, Street, Classifieds and show/race Calendar. Those sections have a few subsections to more closely define interests. Additionally, each member is given a free Blog with a direct URL to it – in a completely different section of the site. One thing you will find at MoparWeb, that you won’t find elsewhere – is the ability to upload photos to your post. CLICK HERE TO GO THERE
Old Hippie’s Board
This site is a reincarnation of the oldhippie.com site. It is for those wanting to go to one place to discuss multiple interests. While there are a large number of forums covering a multitude of interest – they’re closely categorized to get right to what interest you – and avoid everything else. Interested in Cushman Scooters, RVing and Pontiacs – you can get to just those subjects and not have to see a single post on another topic. Like to discuss Studebaker’s, politics, and recipes? Same thing. CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT. Always remember, that site is a feature of thus DaveSchultz.com site – so you can always get there from here.
