Why here AND Facebook? Divided we fall

[dspan]

Hi Everyone,

Perhaps a controversial post but hear me out.

I own a number of weird cars, including a couple EVs, including a Leaf and a Volt. Other cars include a Japan-Spec RHD FJ40LX, a Delorean, an Amphicar, a Starion, a Lotus and a newish Maserati Ghibli. My point is that I own a range of junk, most of which I bought in rough shape. I work on these and I heavily depend on forums to get things done.

Now, having just bought a new 2017 Rex, I was so excited about how great the forum work would be. I love not only learning from forums but also pariticipating and making new friends. On this topic, I am so disappointed in the online presence of the i3 community. First I thought maybe the vehicle price was prohibitive for internet saavy whipper snappers to participate... that is partially true but I think I found the real reason... Facebook.

Come on folks, no one under 40 uses facebook anymore. Using it for an automotive group just sucks. It is impossible to find any content and that is AFTER you get accepted to the closed Facebook group. Why on earth would you have a CLOSED Facebook group for sharing and “open sourcing” ideas.

So... here is the controversial part... Can we all agree to stop using that Facebook group and pariticpate here? Divided we fall folks... we should be building DIY guides and helping BMW help us.

If your answer is, “No, I love Facebook”... well that is great... and while you should continue to enjoy photos of your grandchildren on the “social network”. I am suggesting that you add or move your content to this platform so society can actually benefit, contribute and enhance the i3 experience.

OR, at a bare minimum let’s open the exisiting FB i3 group so at least it can be indexed by search engines and people could find answers and participate.

Nobody asked, just my opinion.

 

[PBNB]

I subscribe to TDICLUB and it is probably the best forum I have ever used. There is so much good info that everyone can reach and enjoy

I don't use facebook and haven't even been tempted to set up an account. My kids use it sparingly as they are off on some other social media platform.

The recent negative actions surrounding facebook and leaked information only makes me happy that I never did start using it.

I do agree with the limited audience for the i3. These cars are not for everyone and they are costly to get into in the first place, the market and the users are limited to start with.

There are other forums but they are limited as well, such as: bimmerport and a bunch of other EV specific forums.

The lack of problems with these cars also limits the amount of info/questions posted. Higher fuel prices and more charging stations will only help.

 

[JohnKelly]

The lack of an easy way to upload pictures on this forum is probably a major reason the facebook group is a strong option.

 

[alohart]

After having joined Facebook in its early years, I deleted my Facebook account when my wife received an email message from Facebook encouraging her to join, supposedly at my request. I had completed a very minimal Facebook profile, had not listed my marital status, and had not given Facebook permission to access my contacts list on my computer or phone. Yet somehow, Facebook discovered my wife's name and contact information. It has since become known that Facebook is not honest about its personal data mining.

When I was considering buying an i3, I rejoined Facebook to be able to access the i3 Facebook group. I created my account using a fake name and birthdate with no other profile information provided and with all Facebook security settings set to the strictest levels. Even so, Facebook soon discovered my real name and offers people whom I actually know as potential "friends" (I have no and will never have any Facebook friends). Facebook is just too creepy. However, I have maintained my account just to be able to access the i3 group, particularly the files section that contains good information that is not generally available in this forum. There is a very low signal to noise ratio in the i3 Facebook group, but there's just enough good information to keep me interested.

As JohnKelly stated, photos cannot be uploaded to this forum. Neither can videos or other files. The best that we can do is to post photos and files on another Website and create links to them in our posts in this forum (the "Img" tag with a photo URL will display a photo in a post). The problem with this method is that these files are deleted from the Websites where they were hosted or the Website quits operating leaving broken links in posts in this forum. Hosting photos, videos, and other files takes disk space and consumes bandwidth to display, so it's understandable why this forum owner would not want to bear this expense. Maybe paid members of this forum should be allowed to upload, display, and download files while non-members would not have these privileges.

If this forum were more complete, I would delete my Facebook account immediately.

 

[I33t]

Photos work here, but using a different url to send the photos. It costs the owners more if they have a lot of images stored at their site, and we don't have to pay to use this site.

Happy Christmas!

 

[theothertom]

Thanks I33t.

Not to defend FB, but...
You can search content using the search bar at the top.
Also, there is a "files" section (on the left) where members have uploaded various DIY and how-to files
Iv'e found that plenty of people under 40 use FB
The BMW worldwide i3 FB group has 16,581 members. I don't know how many this forum has. And my old standby, bimmerfest, has even fewer i3 active members than this one.

 

[i3Houston]

Everything Art said and FB becomes too distracting and therefore, time consuming.

Photos can be added using photo bucket website and link can be shared here.

 

[Exi3]

Great topic, thanks! Of course it's in my best interest to get more people involved here and less on Facebook....

Currently, we have a single moderator, Tom Moloughney, who has been doing an amazing job of keeping the forum clean!

File and Image Uploading
Correct - no images and files can be posted. This has been this way since the start of the forum in 2013. It was to limit the amount of moderating needed - spam comments with crude words are a lot less shocking and invasive than an image!

Images can be included from third party sites, but there is the risk of those sites deleting the file or not allowing it to be hotlinked.

Yes, there is a payment option that allows you to upload photos and files directly to the forum. On the main forum page (http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum) when logged in you'll see a message below the banner.

Privacy
We don't do anything here other than ask for an email address to verify account registration. Yes, we do have google ads on the site and I guess those track you somewhat, but we personally don't do anything.

Oh, we also have a single-sign-on which tracks your email address from one EV forum to another to allow you to login with a single click if you are registered on another one of our forums.

Income from the site
Currently, income is from the banner ad at the top of the page and at the bottom of the page - it isn't enough to open up file uploading to every account and still provide a fast/reliable server. We also make a small amount from the forum memberships.

Future Plans
It would be great to be able to make enough off of the simple banner ads that we could cancel out the paid-membership upgrades, but I don't want to have more 'visual' spam show up because of that.

I also don't want to pollute the forum with banner ads everywhere to increase income to cover costs for image and file hosting, so I'm not sure what to do about that.

I have thought about making a more general EV classifieds site (instead of classifieds on each specific forum) that would be a way to generate some revenue while providing a worthwhile service?

Feedback is great - keep it coming!

 

[bwilson4web]

I use Facebook as an easier way to send notes to and from family members than postcards and letters. But otherwise, I abhor Facebook attempts to solicit personal information.

Facebook insisted that my "retired" status meant I was employed so the second time, I updated it to:

• Quality Assurance Manager at Facebook Business.

Every Facebook request for "information" like a phone number is replied with an obvious 'tall tale' like our disconnected landline number. Facebook insists I changing my profile image so I use a second, identical image file.

Most troubling was a foolish cousin who decided to republish nutty, right-wing, articles and call anyone who disagreed a communist. No postings about his life and family, I had to drop him and block his messages.

As for technical content, Facebook is nearly useless. Posting are not indexed so there is no history or previous articles. Technical content belongs here.

Bob Wilson

 

[Anonymous]

As for technical content, Facebook is nearly useless

Exactly.

And not mentioned, what little of your personal information on Facebook hasn't been hacked and spread around the Dark-Web, has been sold repeatedly to anyone who will pay FB for it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/technology/facebook-hack-data-breach.html