Curious Christian

Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective

Thin Places: Online Forum Moving To Facebook

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Matt Stone

2007-09-07

I have been contemplating shifting our online forum, Thin Places, from yahoo groups to facebook given the changing dynamics online. It has been going since April 2003 which is a whole generation in web time. The facebook test site has 25 members already, and is growing, where as the yahoo group has never gotten beyond 50 members and is much less active these days, given so many of us now blog. My only personal reticence is facing the loss of all those archives of great conversation, that and the unknown factors of doing it in a new, largely untested space. But I am sensing that this is a case of shift happens.

Anyway, I should use this opportunity to plug the new group and say, if you are interested in how to thoughtfully engage with other religions and irreligious spirituality, as a Christian, you might want to look Thin Places up on www.facebook.com some time.

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3 responses to “Thin Places: Online Forum Moving To Facebook”

Steve Hayes

2007-09-09

It depends on what kind of communication you want to have.
Blogs are great for one to few communications, mailing lists (like YahooGroups) are better for many-to-many and real interaction where the interactors are equal. In a blog one comments on one person’s views — there isn’t much scope for commenters it interact with each other.
I see Facebook as a way to keep in touch with people, but not for discussions and conversations. I read things on mailing lists every time I check my e-mail, which is several times a day. I check Facebook maybe once every 3 days, and even then rarely look at “groups” – maybe once a fortnight or so. Facebook is a good place to draw attention to discussions on mailing lists, but it’s no substitute.
Even blogs on my blogroll I only look at every 2-5 days, because some of them are updated less often than that. For immediacy of discussion, a mailing list is much better.

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sally

2007-09-09

Matt I’ve been a lurker in Thin Places due to being geographically and “time” challenged. From my perspective Facebook is more asccessible…I’d value the conversation.

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Matt Stone

2007-09-10

Steve, I have found that facebook will email you an alert when someone responds to your comments in a forum and clicking through doesn’t take much extra effort. And the accessability that Sally refers to is a plus. But I take on board the comments. If you keep your mail lists to a minimum it is easier in some ways and so yes there is the risk that in switching some will drop off. Still processing.

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