Forums vs. Social Media/Reddit

General Yo-Yo
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This is a redirected conversation from a different thread – I moved it so as to not derail that thread any further.

The topic, in a nutshell, is the shift in the yoyo community from being centered around forums/message board to being more organized around Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, etc. Of course, the YYE forum is still going strong, but much of the action is happening on social media these days.

For those of you who are newer to the yoyo community, you might not know that until a few years ago most of the conversation, organizing, sharing tricks, contest discussion, etc. happened on an array of forums/message boards – Extreme Spin, TheYoForum, Yoyoing.com, YoYoNation, and Dave’s Skilltoy Forum, just to name a few that were popular. Most of these were associated with a store, like the YoYoExpert forum, though YYE has way more in the way of resources (tutorials and all the other stuff under that “Learn” tab at the top of the screen) and is more intentionally organized, imho.

In any event, I thought it might be interesting to discuss the pros and cons of this change, and how this change has impacted the yoyo community. I’ve got a lot of thoughts about this, but in the interest of not totally hijacking the conversation, I’ll leave it to others to weigh in first … if folks agree that this is worth discussing.

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You forgot yomania and the days when we communicated with carrier pigeons, but then yer just a young pup… :wink:

(It wasn’t connected with a store, totally self funded by the site owners.)

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Wow. I had no idea about the carrier pigeons. That must have been way, way back in the day. :slight_smile:

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If we’re reading this and responding to this on the forum we’re probably going to be biased in favor of the forums, but I know where I stand. I don’t even have a Facebook or an Instagram account, so I hardly see any of that content. From what I gather from my stated distance, Instagram is mostly short trick videos, not many tutorials, little discussion. The subreddit is worth browsing every so often, but the discussions seem mostly limited to, “Here’s this yoyo I just got, here’s my new video, when’s the next G2 release?” It appears to be a very young crowd on the social media platforms with a lot of players who haven’t been throwing for long, even so, the tricks that get shared are great, but without YYE-style narrated tutorials, I have no hope of ever learning them. A lot of it is just plain eye candy, which has its place, but only interests me so far.

This might be a slightly different point but I think part of it is the nature of yoyos today. They almost all come out of the box absolutely ready to shred at peak performance. In the past, a lot interesting discussions revolved around modding, experimenting, adding personality, tinkering, etc. This fostered a sense of community. In my opinion it’s a gift and a curse that those sort of conversations are all but obsolete. I miss it, but it’s kind of hard to complain that yoyos come stock already perfect.

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I like instagram for showing off tricks, and the forum for everything else. I like instagram for tricks because I feel like they get a lot more exposure than on the forums, but I love the forum format for discussion

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Whatever floats your boat!
I have been working/supporting in the Information Technology industry for over 28 years now and
I can assure you there are very REAL reasons why a lot of people including myself, don’t partake in any of the social media sites. Oh sure - I, like others, can be found scanning them from time to time looking for specific info - but never under a legitimate account! If your one who has no concerns or issues with the consequences that can arise and often do…by all means that’s were you should be!
Once again, whatever floats your boat

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Forums are always where the real info resides. Its easier to browse, its better archived, its search feature somewhat works haha. Any time i am “in” a hobby, i spend most free time reading, learning, and sometimes teaching a thing or two in the forums. I share ideas, thoughts, and reviews. I want to help people along.

Social media like Facebook, is such a terrible and misleading distraction. I get the real purpose behind SocialMedia (SM) but it is 99% abuse and 1% use. Meaning that most of the info there is going to dissuade you, to deceive you, the memes are lies passed as truth and no one these days fact checks anything. Its become a toxic deluge of BS and distraction. I know OF a BST there on FB but ive never seen it. I exited FB years ago and will never be back. Far too negative and misleading. Im out and dont miss it.
Instagram is all about showing off your gear or tricks, but nothing about teaching. Some companys have jumped on the INstagram bandwagon to use it as a sale bench, to promote new giveaways or product drops. Take too much time to stay on top of IG. Things move fast and if you dont have notifications enabled (i like not being bothered), good luck staying up to date in your free time. Overall, eyecandy and minimal interaction on the IG front.

Reddit, however, if you can get past its dated looking interface has the most relevant and up to date information on the internet. Highly recommended to spend some time there, but be warned, it is its own beast, own rules, own etiquette that will take some time to figure out. Down votes are powerful and will make you think twice about posting. Im still learning how to operate properly but I prefer Reddit of most all info sources for everything really.
The /r/Throwers sub is usually pretty nice place. Not a lot of useful information on the daily, and what is useful gets buried in the next day or two. The good part is that the Throwers sub isnt very active really, so it take a while for posts to go below a page or two making it alot easier to catch up. I use reddit to hear about latest drops, links to new tut vids, and I do enjoy their BST, but lack of visible Trader Count can make it a bit skechier.

I post all my relevant information, tut vids (tech not tricks) here and link to here when I post over on Reddit. Facebook is a blackhole in my eyes. I stay away and just live with the loss of access.

TL/DR- Facebook can jump off a bridge. I really feel it should become the next Myspace. A joke of days long past. IG is fun to waste time and share pretties but not learn. Forums are the meat and potatoes when its all boiled down. I think of forums like YYE’s here, like a house. This is where I live. I think of IG as a coffee shop, I visit from time to time when looking for refreshment. I think of Facebook like a jail, a place I never want to go to or think about again.

While I would like to see a standalone yoyo forum set up at the center of the community that is not tied to a retail store, just an information super pot, I doubt it would really be any better or much different than what we have here other than here we need to be aware and respectful of YYE’s presents here on the boards and not direct link to other stores (not a problem!).

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I participate in both, but I guess I feel more comfy in forums. I go way back to the days of modems and bulletin board systems (bbs). I remember when I had time to go get a cup of coffee while I waited for a 500kb picture to download. However, there are some good folks and good content on the Reddit sub. I never had instagram and stopped doing any posting on Facebook long ago, so i can’t really speak to those. Like Kilbuck, I’m a looong-time IT-type so a lot of social media scares me from a security perspective. Social hackers live for Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. What they can find about you and exploit using social media is mind boggling.

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i agree. i joined instagram to share my beginner videos. but all my info and sharing info i find right here on the YYE forum.

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Forum con: the relative difficulty in sharing media. With Facebook, you don’t have to upload the picture to an image hosting site, copy the direct link, and throw it into an img container like you do here; it’s a lot more fluid and efficient. You definitely find more in-depth content on the forums though.

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That is not a con for all forums. That is dependent on the platform the forum is run on - but if you were specifically referring to this one, media sharing can be cumbersome!

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Forums are slower, but better moderated and have easier access to content (i.e. things don’t get “lost” as easily or as quickly)

Facebook is more immediate and there’s a lot more interaction, but its easy to miss things.

Reddit is kind of a weird mix of both.

I like that I have all 3 to browse.

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I much prefer forums than anything else, and pretty much just browse here and the Yoyo Indonesia group which is only in Facebook.
But if there is one thing I like about Facebook groups or Reddit more than this forum, is you can get away with profanity.

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Moderated forums are cleaner in every way, which I appreciate.

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Owning an Instagram and Facebook account, along with the forum account here. I think Instagram and Facebook are easier at sharing everyday videos of tricks there. Where as if your looking for good information or looking for something specific, the forum is the place to be.

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I greatly prefer forums. Reddit is OK, I only use Facebook for birthday reminders and the BST :slight_smile:

I really can’t stand Instagram though. I get why folks like it, but the whole tilt towards mobile bias of the platform makes me cringe for some reason. In order to post a pic from my desktop, I have to TRICK the browser using developer tools into thinking I’m on mobile. That’s dumb, IMHO. Playing back vids, there’s no obvious volume control, so you get blasted by whatever track someone’s backing their vid with.

It just seems that IG and FB cater towards short attention spans and quick, superficial interaction, whereas forums and reddit give the opportunity for more in-depth conversation and greater transfer of knowledge. Whenever I get into something new, I ALWAYS look for a forum on the matter, and use Reddit as a second option.

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I think when people converse on forums they are more likely to have more thought out and in depth conversations, as opposed to the social media environment where you can post rapidly and often without ramifications. The forum atmosphere is moderated, whereas Facebook and Instagram are not and you can really have some serious misunderstandings on there.

When people get into arguments on the forums, I feel they really have the time to write out their thoughts in a manner that removes all ambiguity in what they’re saying. I think a lot of yoyo drama stems from people not understanding one another, and just being meanies in general, which is pretty frowned upon in the forums.

Forums are all around good vibes, 10/10 would post on.

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Social media sites are more random and don’t develop themes and topics to the degree a forum can.
They are more searchable, and generally more “mature.”

My “elephant in the room,” is I miss Extremespin where members could say almost whatever they pleased in terms of products and other topics. In a store based forum, it’s like entering a restaurant that requires a sports jacket. If you don’t like the policy, don’t sit at the table.

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Extreme spin was originally sponsored by a store.

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One of the reasons I took the initiative to ping André about updating the forum is because the old forum software was… er… how do I put this… :face_vomiting:. Like, even by forum software standards, which are low, it was not good.

And I believe that is reflected in the old forum stats:

old yye forum stats
old yye forum stats1058×1190 107 KB

As you can plainly see, these are dire numbers! I told André that if they didn’t want to reboot the forum, frankly they might as well end the suffering and shut it down. Luckily of course they did not choose that path because YYE is awesome. :pray: It is my hope that the forum reboot can turn this around and make those numbers go ↑ UP again!

(I think even with awesome forum software :blush: you have a hard fight against losing people to Facebook + Reddit and other large centralized social media sites.)

But never fear, there is still more to come… we’re not done … reinforcements are on the way! :muscle:

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