# Forum effectiveness vs FaceBook



## IanJoseph (Jun 29, 2018)

I wonder how many people actually use this forum.
I posted similar questions on this forum and another, similar Cyprus expat forum on Facebook.

On FB I received in excess oh 100 comments and about 10 PMs in 24 hours.
On this forum I received two replies, one of which said he would PM me when I “graduated” after 5 posts.

Is there anyone out there?


----------



## IanJoseph (Jun 29, 2018)

Oh... and by the way, if anyone reads this, the software used here is old, kludgy and way behind what is acceptable today.


----------



## David_&_Letitia (Jul 8, 2012)

IanJoseph said:


> I wonder how many people actually use this forum.
> I posted similar questions on this forum and another, similar Cyprus expat forum on Facebook.
> 
> On FB I received in excess oh 100 comments and about 10 PMs in 24 hours.
> ...


What a strange post from someone who joined the Forum just 2 days ago. Your first introductory post had the question “Any USA or Canadian Expats?” From the response, you can deduct that there clearly are not many. 

Your next post,* just yesterday*, attracted 2 replies so far, both of which were a from UK Expats and both seeking to help.

There are plenty of people ‘out there’ (here) including a few US Expats and probably fewer Canadian Expats. However, we are not all sitting in front of a screen 24/7, fingers poised, to reply immediately to questions. We are here to enjoy the lifestyle in Cyprus and are keen to help those, like you, who are planning to come out. 

If, however, you find that the software being used is not to your liking, or that you get swifter responses elsewhere, then you always have a choice...


----------



## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

There's a difference between quality and quantity which you are, not surprisingly, unaware of. Many of your FB replies are people who, for some strange reason, always boast their own areas to recommend. It's as if they need to justify and reinforce their personal decisions. You can spot this on many forums. As a result you now know that the East side of the island is best while the west side is also the best. On the west side you have learned that the north part is best and also been pointed at some of the south parts which are also best.

You've received lots of recommendations for different estate agents from people who may have been satisfied by them but also others who will jump to promote them as friends on the basis of supporting them. This is, of course, discounting any posts placed by the agents themselves. False reviews are another of today's online problems.

The biggest and most important thing you learned on there is to rent rather than jump in and buy and a cursory reading of thousands of posts on this forum would have yielded the same advice.

Hundreds of people have enjoyed this forum and have gained useful help and advice. This forum still stands out as the forum best moderated where you won't get the almost compulsory argument to anything said that you'll see on the 2 other main forums as well as the FB group you've fallen in love with.

I won't disagree with you about some aspects of the software design and yes it's age is showing, however it works and the functions you need are there so why is that a significant problem to you? Obviously it is and with that comes a choice.

Finally I won't bother to PM you should you gain enough posts just in case my message does not come up to your demanding standards. I'd hate you to be upset further.

Pete


----------



## IanJoseph (Jun 29, 2018)

You seem to have your knickers in a knot over a fairly innocuous observation regarding activity here versus FB.
As a newbie to both this and the FB groups I’m trying to determine where best to spend my time. You seem offended by someone looking for input from others. Oh well.


----------



## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

IanJoseph said:


> You seem to have your knickers in a knot over a fairly innocuous observation regarding activity here versus FB.
> As a newbie to both this and the FB groups I’m trying to determine where best to spend my time. You seem offended by someone looking for input from others. Oh well.


I think your rudeness is far beyond a "fairly innocuous observation" and your conclusion stated above insults your own intelligence. Could this be the Trump influence?

Pete


----------



## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

IanJoseph said:


> You seem to have your knickers in a knot over a fairly innocuous observation regarding activity here versus FB.
> As a newbie to both this and the FB groups I’m trying to determine where best to spend my time. You seem offended by someone looking for input from others. Oh well.


Where are you actually located?
Israel?


----------



## David_&_Letitia (Jul 8, 2012)

IanJoseph said:


> You seem to have your knickers in a knot over a fairly innocuous observation regarding activity here versus FB.
> As a newbie to both this and the FB groups I’m trying to determine where best to spend my time. You seem offended by someone looking for input from others. Oh well.


Ian,

I’m not offended by your posts, but I am a little surprised that as a ‘newbie’ you were rather insulting about a well established Forum which has been of great help to many ‘wannabe’ Expats in the past including my wife and me. As I said in my initial reply, we all have a choice where to seek advice and if you find Social Media better for your particular needs, then clearly you are wasting your time here.

I fully agree, however, with Pete’s post regarding the shortcomings of the responses you had from FB. You clearly also agreed with the sentiments Pete expressed as you ‘liked’ his post.

I ‘stalked’ this Forum to glean information for 2 years before joining it in 2012 and found the information I received invaluable in preparing for a new life here. Since moving over to Cyprus in 2014, I’ve joined 4 other Cyprus based Forums (one now defunct and one dying on its knees) and I can say without doubt that this is the friendliest and most informative Forum for Expats in Cyprus. So what if the software isn’t as up to date as others? If it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it is a useful motto to bear I mind.

You are of course welcome to stay and ask questions, but please don’t expect immediate or indeed multiple responses. The information you get, however, will be considered, informative and comprehensive from people who live here. There are many on FB who have returned to the UK for whatever reason and often give a skewed view of life here - hence their repatriation. Sometimes, the answers are not what people expect, but they are offered in a spirit of truth and honesty - “warts and all” if you will.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.


----------



## IanJoseph (Jun 29, 2018)

My abject apologies if I have offended anyone here in any way. That is not my intention.
I am an avid social media user and have been using bulletin boards (pre internet days) and the internet since the mid 80s.

Social media,, expat forum is in that group, has come a long, long way since Compuserve in the early 80s and bulletin boards. Younger users (I'm not one, I'm 65) expect to be able to post and receive responses in very short time frames. I am an ex IT specialist, and as such am used to both volumes and immediate responses. I'm not sure how one measures quantity versus quality in social media terms, unless civil debate and response is the only measure.

I'm used to getting lots of responses and then determining for my self what is valid or not. I think as an adult one should expect people to understand, read and collate data to make their own decisions. More data is better than less data as long as you can determine what makes sense to you.

As for the user interface, if it ain't broken then don't fix it, does not take into account how user interfaces have improved over time to make the user experience easier, more intuitive and more inviting.

Just some examples from this page: Getting information that tells me posting rules or similar threads in other forums/countries and most of the other superfluous links on this pages just get in the way of me trying to simply post a "quick reply" in a message thread. A rough count shows me +100 links on a page when all I want to do is post a "quick reply" in a thread. 

AS for my location, I travel a lot. So far this year I have been in South Africa, Israel and Hong Kong. I'm currently at home in Northern California. I'm not sure of the usefulness of showing the location where a particular post was made.

Anyway, as I said at the beginning, apologies if I have offended anyone, these are my first impressions. I'm sure I will learn more over time.


----------



## IanJoseph (Jun 29, 2018)

"I’m not offended by your posts, but I am a little surprised that as a ‘newbie’ you were rather insulting about a well established Forum which has been of great help to many ‘wannabe’ Expats in the past including my wife and me. As I said in my initial reply, we all have a choice where to seek advice and if you find Social Media better for your particular needs, then clearly you are wasting your time here."

I'm surprised that you don't appreciate that a fresh set of eyes may have valuable insights when looking at something that has been around a while. On the other hand, I may be a spouting off know nothing newbie after all.


----------



## IanJoseph (Jun 29, 2018)

Stevesolar said:


> Where are you actually located?
> Israel?


Currently sitting in Northern California. I was visiting Israel when I joined and asked my original questions.
Ian


----------



## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

IanJoseph said:


> Currently sitting in Northern California. I was visiting Israel when I joined and asked my original questions.
> Ian


Hi,
I have been a member of this forum since 2012 and it really helped me when relocating from the UK to Dubai, back then.
The Dubai section is much quieter than it was back in 2012 and that is probably caused by a mix of factors - far less people moving to Dubai these days, many of the common questions are already well answered in the “stickies” section and of course - other competitive forums and types of social media sites.
I still read and contribute regularly to this and some other specialist car forums and for my needs prefer a structured specialist forum to a Facebook group (I am not a big fan of Facebook actually as I find them a too intrusive company and I don’t like their morals or business ethics!)
Cheers
Steve


----------



## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

_My abject apologies if I have offended anyone here in any way. That is not my intention._ Accepted
_I am an avid social media user and have been using bulletin boards (pre internet days) and the internet since the mid 80s._ You're not alone.

_Social media,, expat forum is in that group, has come a long, long way since Compuserve in the early 80s and bulletin boards. Younger users (I'm not one, I'm 65) expect to be able to post and receive responses in very short time frames. I am an ex IT specialist, and as such am used to both volumes and immediate responses. I'm not sure how one measures quantity versus quality in social media terms, unless civil debate and response is the only measure._ I was an IT specialist many, many years ago and one important thing I learned is when evaluating an existing system don't insult the users by rushing in like a bull in a china shop and criticising what is unfamiliar to you until you have a little understanding. If you're not sure how to measure quantity versus quality in social media terms try reading my response again and how I explained it. Then try thinking with your brain and not your keyboard. Following that trying Googling some statistics surrounding Facebook and the various problems with social media such as low quality quizzes posted in high quantity that idiots subscribe to not realising they are clickbait.

_I'm used to getting lots of responses and then determining for my self what is valid or not. I think as an adult one should expect people to understand, read and collate data to make their own decisions. More data is better than less data as long as you can determine what makes sense to you._ Not if the data is crap. 

_As for the user interface, if it ain't broken then don't fix it, does not take into account how user interfaces have improved over time to make the user experience easier, more intuitive and more inviting._ It doesn't have to take that into account. I don't expect the company owning this board to spend a fortune rewriting their software to make it pretty while retaining the same functionality. 
Of course if you could tell us what is not working, that would be a different matter.

_Just some examples from this page: Getting information that tells me posting rules or similar threads in other forums/countries and most of the other superfluous links on this pages just get in the way of me trying to simply post a "quick reply" in a message thread. A rough count shows me +100 links on a page when all I want to do is post a "quick reply" in a thread._ If you can't see the huge, green buttons below each post "Reply With Quote" and "Post a Quick Reply" without reading through everything else on the page then I suggest new glasses or a lobotomy are indicated.

_AS for my location, I travel a lot. So far this year I have been in South Africa, Israel and Hong Kong. I'm currently at home in Northern California. I'm not sure of the usefulness of showing the location where a particular post was made._ I'm not sure why the question was asked either but the location gives information about the poster not the post location and that is of interest.

_Anyway, as I said at the beginning, apologies if I have offended anyone, these are my first impressions. I'm sure I will learn more over time._ You know about the guy whose first impression was that he was about to fart.........

Pete


----------



## IanJoseph (Jun 29, 2018)

I’m not sure if you can see the arrogance and hubris implied in every comment you make. Exactly how long have you been in this board?


----------



## IanJoseph (Jun 29, 2018)

“I don't expect the company owning this board to spend a fortune rewriting their software to make it pretty while retaining the same functionality.”

And it is exactly that attitude that is embodied in companies going extinct when innovation comes along and challenges their existing business model. If ou have not read it yet then I would suggest reading the book “The Innovators Dilemma”
https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Solution-Creating-Sustaining-Successful/dp/1422196577


----------



## JonandGaynor (Jun 8, 2009)

IanJoseph said:


> I’m not sure if you can see the arrogance and hubris implied in every comment you make. Exactly how long have you been in this board?


Wow! talk about pot-kettle-black! Most of your posts to date appear to try and cause friction and arguments. 
Regarding the forums 'software antiquity' if it works why change it?


----------



## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

IanJoseph said:


> Exactly how long have you been in this board?


If you would stop your self-righteous whinging for a moment you would have discovered this in 2 clicks.

Pete


----------



## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

PeteandSylv said:


> If you would stop your self-righteous whinging for a moment you would have discovered this in 2 clicks.
> 
> Pete


Less - it shows Sept 2008 at top right of all your posts!


----------



## cermignano (Feb 9, 2017)

I don't do social media so forums like this are invaluable to me.


----------

