When I (and many others) first got into yoyo, the forums were the place to go for all things yoyo related. I think that as times changed, and social media gained more and more traction, the natural shift was over to Facebook groups.
Personally, I’m stoked for the new era of forums. The reboot here at YYE has me excited to log in and see what other yoyoers are talking about in a really clean, organized way. Forum organization is better than any other channel out there, so hopefully people will find these new forums more useful when compared to convoluted Facebook threads.
Hopefully people will be a little more respectful towards others in the forums too? I think in an age where it’s easy to just have “stream of consciousness” type discussions on Facebook, having to think about typing a post that may take hours to be seen by another person involved in the discussion will force people to express their opinions more eloquently and clearly than they may be able to in a fast-paced message stream.
I left Facebook years ago, haven’t been on Instagram in years and never tweeted. This forum is the only place I participate in actual conversations because it’s not filled with socio/political/whatever mean-spirited jabs and is focused on the one thing we here have in common. I know there are never going to be bombs waiting for me when I check in and that makes it fun to check in.
I deleted my Facebook years ago, I just could not handle the direction that platform was heading.
I was actually off of social media for a while until I started throwing seriously about 2 years ago. I picked up a Duncan butterfly at a store and wanted to learn some new tricks so I went looking for tutorials. Somehow I stumbled onto Reddit and wanted to ask some beginner questions so I created my own account.
I was blown away by how friendly and welcoming that community was, and eventually I decided to create an Instagram account so that I could have a way to store and share my progress.
And eventually, I found this forum. All three platforms are very different and prove to be useful for different things. It’s crazy when I think about it, my whole social media presence is do to yo-yo.
I have seen more bullying on Reddit, I’m not sure if it’s the way that the platform is designed or what. There just seems to be more drama on that platform from what I’ve seen.
There is a lot of content on Instagram, whether it be yotography or trick circles.
And here, there’s a lot of good discussion.
All in all, I’d say the Common Thread running between all of these platforms is the individuals that make the yoyo community so welcoming and inspiring. It’s cool to see how new people join the community and take up the responsibility of learning the ins and outs and then share them with others.
Community is family, and family is messy sometimes. All in all? This community is still one of the most friendly, welcoming, and inspiring communities I’ve ever been a part of, no matter what platform I’m using.
I like this forum a lot more than Reddit these days because it doesn’t feel like I have to consider: “Is this cool enough, or acceptable enough, or 100% relevant to yoyos?” before I post something.
It is considerably more organised here. If I want to post about something non-yoyo related, there is a category for that (and I won’t feel like I’m gambling with weather or not the community will respond with something like: “You know this is a yoyo sub, right?”)
The elitism surfaces here from time to time, but it is generally way more laid back here.
And I love how topics can be bumped here, instead of relying solely on upvotes to keep them close to the top. It fosters good discussion and gives a topic a fair chance of running its course.
I find myself using Reddit and Instagram much less these days. I still use them, just not daily. Insta is still a really great place to upload content. And Reddit is, well, Reddit lol.
I really only use my Facebook account to keep track of birthdays. The Facebook BST is a valuable source for second-hand throws, but apart from that I really have no use for Facebook. Or social media of any kind, to be honest. I don’t have a Twitter or Instagram account. I don’t care what anyone on those platforms is thinking, and frankly, 99.9% of it is noise and not signal anyway.
I have found that for any hobby or special interest that I jump into there is at least one good forum dedicated to it where the members are well-informed, passionate, and welcoming. The signal-to-noise ratio is very high, relative to social media platforms, and the useful content is easily searched and found no matter how old it is (usually). Lastly, I think that the very nature of forums tends to encourage more thoughtful discourse, where people spend more time articulating their thoughts as they type. For the most part, you get real conversations in forums, not just bite-sized chunks of inconsequentia.
It seems to me that if someone is interested in a subject to any meaningful depth, they would benefit more from a forum than one of the social media platforms. If they just want to causally dabble in something and are really only in it for the attention it might offer, then social media is the place for them. But that certainly is not me.
Jokes partially aside, i truly enjoy all platforms. I think the one i use less is FB because i don’t actually use FB at all unless for work/school stuff. I should try and be more present on there, just because a lot of stuff happens there.
IG is great. My social media presence is almost exclusively about yoyoing, because i don’t care about sharing any other things about me besides my yoyoing. IG has a ton of uses and the best content is always there, that’s the truth. Great tricks daily, good pics, news and other stuff.
Call me what you want but i think YYE and Reddit are almost the exact same thing lol. Reddit’s content is very ephimeral. Stuff on YYE stays relevant for way longer and it is better organized. There’s stuff on reddit we can’t control. There’s a lot of things here that are very well controlled lol. I enjoy both for their differences.
I guess i’m not that good using YYE yet, for example, sometimes i don’t know if i should create a new topic about something or i should find if there’s already an existing post about what i want and comment there(?). I find sharing media here to be a little cumbersome, but i got IG/Reddit for that. The knowledge and discussions here are amazing, they go on a level that sometimes surpass what you see on Reddit.
I honestly feel for a strongly visual hobby like yo-yos Instagram is nearly perfect.
Facebook would be in serious trouble had they not bought Instagram (and WhatsApp).
w/r/t sharing media, it’s pretty easy for pictures, but videos will inevitably involve uploading elsewhere and pasting the link (which does auto-onebox if you paste it on a line by itself of course). Instagram unfortunately are jerks about not allowing videos to embed anywhere though, comes from being part of the Facebook family tree…
I uploaded my first yoyo vid yesterday, and actually planned on using Instagram at first. But when I found out that they only accept videos filmed in vertical, and it was an instant deal-breaker. Especially since I already recorded the video and nailed everything but the trapeze after my green triangle in one take. But I also think videos should be recorded horizontally and not vertically, so the platform just doesnt work for me. Also YouTube videos can be played directly through a forum post, so it is more forum friendly.
Actually, by clicking on this icon when selecting a video from your phone, the clip should “zoom out” to 16:9. I believe it will still look like a square on your profile, but when actually viewed in a timeline it should look correct!
Hmm that’s a fair point. I guess it would just be easier to load the video onto your phone, and upload it to the Gram from there? Personally I always email the clips to myself via WeTransfer because I’m super lazy!
Instagram in the years past was particularly helpful with showing off tricks, and I feel like a combination of Instagram and a message board of choice work hand in hand. Sad truth is, fully relying on Instagram especially if you aren’t well known is going to be a challenge thanks to their algorithm. You are either going to get seen a lot or not be seen at all. Sharing that said trick on a forum helps boost the visibility on Instagram, plus is another platform to show off your trick/get help/feedback.
Facebook…if you’re in a yoyo group, that’s another avenue but if you’re just sharing on your feed, forget it. At least in my experience as of late, Facebook has become a joke of a platform where only memes are the posts that get visibility.
For me personally I have always preferred forums as I have been using them since the late 90s. Both forums and Social Media have their fair share of drama though!
