Further, I was going to remark about how right you were and how forums have revolutionized the ability to learn about complicated hobbies or become better at your avocation...but you kind of beat me to it.
You had all weekend... :laughing:
(I was offline doing car guy stuff)
I remember when "Blogs" were introduced and someone told me it was the next evolution if discussion forums....
I replied and said at that time which was probably around 2007 or 2008 that the
"blog format" would be good for
news reporting and that proved to be true. They have not and will not take the place of the discussion forum
format and to be honest, I can't really see anything moving into the future that will improve upon the discussion forum style format that we're typing in right now.
You can add pictures, video, links and text. What else is there that matters?
And... as long as the person that owns the forum pays their bill the content remains and is searchable and indexed by sites like Google. Pretty powerful. That's why I also stress to people to
take the high road and keep their posts or their
online personality and even
online character professional. One word... transparency. People can know you and your character by your
posting history.
I'd go a step further and say that sometimes newer isn't better. I for one do not like the newest versions of vBulletin. Maybe I have not been on a "new" vBulletin software site that has been
laid out really well and that could be the problem but for all the sites that have upgraded I will rarely go to, post to, read or hang out on these forums due to the horrible interface. Here's an example where the classic interface wasn't broken and there was no need to fix it. AGO uses the classic style.
Back on topic...
I started this thread because I find myself saying the above quote all the time, both online and offline. Discussion forums are where it's at... in fact, when I brought up the MOL forum back in 2004 I wrote the forum's introduction that for years was the first paragraph on the MOL forum homepage.
It's now a
link you click to and shows up under Mike Stoops post but I originally wrote the text and it goes like this,
Welcome to the Meguiar's Online Discussion Forum!
As the Internet has evolved, discussion forums have become the primary way like-minded people come together to share their passion and their interests. Here on Meguiar's Online you'll find lots of friendly and helpful people willing to share their knowledge and experience when it comes to cleaning and polishing every inch of your car, truck or s.u.v.
(
Click here for full size image)
And what I wrote is still just as true today as when I originally wrote it.
:xyxthumbs:
rops:
