Clifton CC

As above, does it?

I notice other cycling clubs do, maybe it's time for Clifton CC to create a Facebook group?

Oh god no.

Arthur wrote:Oh god no.

Was that a shudder of horrendous apprehension or a firm statement of refusal?

It's a valid point to raise.

A load of organisations and clubs are jumping on board Facebook, and although I personally hate it, it is popular with young people. But, I don't think we should go down that avenue for the following reasons:

Who would 'look after' it?

It's meant to provide a web based means of communication. We already have an effective website and discussion board. To have both would just create confusion.

Facebooks terms and conditions state there should be no commercial use. This website, although informative to none members, is a marketing tool for membership and there is a fee to join. You are not allowed to do that on Facebook. You also aren't allowed to set up groups on there, it's only suppoed to be for individuals.

It's just the 'in thing' now. I bet it won't be around in a few years.

Just my opinion anyway!

Michael

Hmmm, I guess you have a point, I know Manchester Wheelers have a forum and Facebook and the facebook group is hardly used, I use facebook now and again, 2 of my flatmate's are addicted to it although its great for the flat I am in as its getting everyone together as without facebook we would never talk to people in other flat.

I don't think that having a facebook group for a cycling club and having it end up getting extra people in the club would be classed as commercial use, I think when they say that they mean big companies that sell food and cars or things like that trying to get people to buy the products.

I knew allot of people hated it, but I never knew people hated it that much .. Arthur..

Anyhow, doesn't this forum [1] - which is popular, well-subscribed and clearly used an awful lot - tick most of the online 'social networking' boxes already?

Dave

[1] Not to mention the club website itself.

Well I would not say the forum is that active, maybe it is considering the small amount of people on here that post regular. I just thought about facebook as other clubs seem to be using it.

willhub wrote: its great for the flat I am in as its getting everyone together as without facebook we would never talk to people in other flat.

its been quiet for the last few weeks without you Will!

Will - Michael put my objections to it very eloquently. The big problem is that it creates another place for people to look, rather than funneling everyone into one place.

You are of course right about the forum having a small number of very active posters, but all web forums (and many other things) are like that. The distribution of number of posts by member is a power law distribution nearly everywhere.

It's a fair question to raise though.

As a younger person i think it wouldn't be such a bad idea. Lots of clubs do use sites like Facebook and Bebo and it does interest people and gets the club more attention.
People I know would be interested in having a look and cycling is getting a bit more attention after Chris Hoys success in the olympics so people at school are defintely interested and I get asked about it a lot.

Arthur wrote:Will - Michael put my objections to it very eloquently. The big problem is that it creates another place for people to look, rather than funneling everyone into one place.

You are of course right about the forum having a small number of very active posters, but all web forums (and many other things) are like that. The distribution of number of posts by member is a power law distribution nearly everywhere.

It's a fair question to raise though.

What the facebook group would have acted like was a giant sign.

What do you mean it's a power law? I know its nice to have large post counts (weirdly enough), but I'm on another forum and I have quite a few more posts than alot of the members who have powers, some of the mods have 10,000+ less posts than I do and I'm just a normal average member like any other forum, same for the other posts who have 20,000+ posts more than other members.

Rob wrote:

willhub wrote: its great for the flat I am in as its getting everyone together as without facebook we would never talk to people in other flat.

its been quiet for the last few weeks without you Will!

Really? I'm always on the forums still, I'm looking forward to doing a saturday run as I have not been out with the club for like 2 months now, think I'll do Kevins run as I'm too slow up hills at the moment.

Maybe I'm just being an old fart and should stop it. Will, if you and Alice want to set one up and use it point people over here, go for it.

There's two dangers that have to be watched for

1) If it's sits around not being used, it makes the club look inactive. That's bad.
2) If the opposite happens and we get half the club over there, and half here, that's also bad.

There's no harm in trying I guess. Let us know what's it's called.

There is no point if there is not much interest in here.

I'd also expect a group to at least be started up by someone who runs the club or runs this forum as you can post evens up and invite people on it too, although obviously you can do that with the website.

From what it sounds like so far, it will not be used much.

Maybe Facebook will phase out eventually, I mean look at Myspace, that used to be the most popular now its known to be called EmoSpace and ChavSpace.

Don't make life any more complicated than it already is for me please. I've just about mastered this thing and can't face the prospect of another e-dimension to get the hang of. But then again I am Mr Grumpy par excellence, despite Pauls nomination to my crown in the Cliftonite, and a long time devotee to the art of the Luddite.

Whilst seeing the point of appealing to the 'facebook generation' I can't help thinking that the problems of duplication with the 'official' website outweigh the benefits - just my ha'pennyworth...