Facebook page?

[Dfdeng44]

Hey Rich and the Admin, have you ever thought about starting a Facebook page for this forum. There are so many different ones out there for Kitbashing. There are so many members on other pages that used to belong to this forum. It would be great to see you start your own Facebook page with the members here and you will see how many people join your page. I would help. Jeff

[Rich]

Jeff, one of the problems in doing so, would be that a Facebook page would certainly finish off this forum. Facebook, and its groups and pages, are really becoming a joke, and an embarrassment to any hobby, not just fire model related. On any given day, I can find the same person posting on up to 15 pages. It is the same thing, page after page, after page. Why? Before Facebook, you could post one time here, and reach 10 times the folks you reach at Facebook. I am not sure that seeing the same thing posted on 20 pages does anyone any good. In a way, its humorous, and sad at the same time. If you take the top 5 fire model pages, the membership combined is less than 5,000 members. Then you figure about 80% of those members are on each page, you reduce drastically the audience you were originally trying to reach. One of the more comical things I see, is that someone will post a photo of a model. Then someone will reply saying "fantastic job". Then the original post will say "thank you". Then you get a "your welcome". Then you go to another page, see the same model, same guy posting "fantastic job" same thank you, same your welcome and on and on. It is all based, in my opinion only, as a stroking of one's ego. Many members abandoned FireEngines.net in favor of Facebook. They joined a group, didn't like what someone said, and started their own group. Then they got others to join. Someone didn't like what someone said, and they started their own group, and took a bunch of members with them to the new group. And it keeps perpetuating. I would ask any of you, how many groups and pages do you need? I would also ask, why would you post the same thing on half a dozen pages that contain basically the same membership? By posting the same thing 6-8 times, were you thinking that you might miss someone? I don't get it. There are actually many folks that do not use Facebook, and more every day are starting to realize the invasion of privacy associated with Facebook. I have scaled back my Facebook business page, and in the near future will look seriously at getting rid of it. I think for now, we will maintain this internet forum, and cater to the small but loyal following that choose not to live on Facebook.

[tocopper]

Rich Thank you !!

[JoeO]

I agree with Rich, this forum has several members that don't use facebook, so we can keep them informed on new stuff. As far as model builders, kit bashers etc. there our only a few people left doing this. The sad part is you can count on your hands the amount willing to take the time to post how to's and share the information that others could find helpful, most people just post the finished product time and time again. I do believe Rich is on the low side with the number of pages the same people post on. The other interesting thing is how many are abandoned over time some run hot and than you never see anything again.

Most people just want to see something or need to sell stuff, the best pages are the No Sell, Buy, or Trade. So when you start your next FB page put that No Buy Sell or Trade in, it does keep the "riff raff" out, they will go and start another page, and have 5 or so admins, they may get more followers.

Rich to your point on how many groups and pages do you need? 2880 is the answer, 1 page for every half minute in a 24 hour day to just look at pictures, not everyone reads the posts.

[Rich]

Joe, one of the things I have noticed on Facebook. A guy will start a page or group. Eventually posts wind down, and there isn't much action. So the guy starts another page or group, with a different name but same function. Everyone rushes over to the new page or group. Eventually posting slows down on that one, so time to start another one. Today, while waiting for parts to dry, I count 14 pages where the same 6-8 people posted the same thing. It was all cut and paste, as it was all word for word. I also see the same poster's taking over every page they join, so I suspect that is the reason that the guys leave for other pages. I mean, how many times do you want to see the same thing? I can not believe someone will post a diecast that they found at a store, on a dozen Facebook pages. I think many have traded the model hobby for a Facebook posting hobby.