Archived on 6/5/2022

Forum Software Improvements - Keeping up with Facebook Groups

anon3821395
28 Feb '19

Facebook Groups have become very popular, and are attracting conversation away from forums on the open web.

I am keen to improve the capability of forums like this one and am currently discussing potential improvements with the developers of the software we use. Please join the conversation on their forum if you’d like to contribute:

My generation grew up during the Internet boom. As a techie, I built many websites on the innovative and collaborative environment of the open web. The progression towards closed social networks is very sad because, compared to websites on the open web, Facebook content is:

  • Sometimes hard to share with people outside Facebook, depending on group settings.
  • Less reachable from outside. Incoming links often land on a page that requests the user joins Facebook. Google rarely shows Facebook content.
  • Only interactive for users of Facebook.
  • Limited in its richness. Compare to SE23.life, where text can be formatted, tables added, interactive Google Maps inserted etc.
  • Moderated in a non-transparent fashion with no audit trail
  • Centralised. If you’re banned from a forum on the open web, you just lose access to a single venue. If you’re banned from Facebook, you’ll lose access to every conversation hosted there on all groups.

It’s important to me that forums keep up, technically. Please join the conversations above and help shape the future of our software.