Is Facebook killing this Forum?

[Carl Wrbka]

 Are we trying to re-invent the wheel here??
http://www.facebook.com/groups/325283857513296/

I cant see the point in replicating this forum on Facebook. Come on people, this Forum rocks! Don't let it be killed off by Facebook.

[Michael Alexander]

Thanks for that Carl, Sadly people are more inclined to use Facebook as it has more than just Oranjemund to talk about.

That particular group has just taken 5 years of this forum and placed it onto a Facebook page that will get lost in with all the other facebook chatter...

I must admit, it makes me sad when people on that particular board are raving about how great the group is,to be able to recall and preserve Oranjemund's past, yet we have been doing it for the last 5 years and  yet they do not seem willing to post on the Oranjemundonline boards....

This forum, will always be here, up front and Oranjemund foremost.....

It's a freeworld at the end of the day.....

[Michael Alexander]

Ooops! and for what it's worth, type the word oranjemund into Google and see where the 1st three places point to..... Yep! , www.oranjemundonline.com

Thanks to you guys....

The other thing that I enjoy about this forum as opposed to Facebook, we have separate topics, for example tree planting or a particular building in Kolmanskuppe, which we debate and post photo's on.... on Facebook, such a discussion becomes lost between all the other comments on a very long posting.... a single posting....... going on and on.....

[henniek]

What I really enjoy about this forum , is that it about the town and its people . real history etc - Worthwile info

[Leon Sumter]

I agree. Oranjemundonline is my favorite. I am also on FB. FB has different features not quite suitable in our Oranjemund context.

[Carl Wrbka]

Great to see I'm not the only one concerned about this forum and the great effort that's been put in by Michael. Like Michael says it is a free world after all, but I for one prefer my memories of Oranjemund to continue on here, unhindered by any pop-up adverts of p*nis enlarging lotions or knock off Viagra tablets concocted by a Chinese chemistry student in some rat infested sweat shop.

Keep up the great work Mike. You've got my support for life.

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

I'm a Fb addict BUT visit here everyday to get my Oranjemund fix. Having said that.... I might add....Ronelle never opened that FB page to be a forum but to make contact with Oranjemunders that are on FB so that she can orginise a reunion that she is investing a lot of time and effort in arranging for later this year. I have noticed that she has advertised the fact here as well in the past with little response from our members through no fault of yours or hers. So no I would not call it re-inventing the wheel neither do I think FB is killing this Forum. THIS FORUM CAN NEVER BE KILLED as it is the heart of us ex-Oranjemunders and a FB page will never replace the history we have collected and are still collecting here. FB will die down soon enough. There are but a handfull of people that are posting memories that have turned it into a forum type page most of the members joined to have contact with the re-union arrangements for which the page was intended. Perhaps a link to Oranjemund online can be put on the page for those that may not be aware of our site. I would do it but I don't know how.
This must be the longest post I have ever submitted but I did feel I should come to Ronelle's defence here.
Thanx for the great work Mr Mike you have my support as well.....

[Robert Bruce]

I am lucky. I loathe, detest, hate, despise and do not like Facebook. I do not have a FB page.

My conversation is here. Here is where it happens better for all stuff about Oranjemund than anywhere else in online social media.

I was the first member to sign up here and I want to be the last to log out. I wll leave the lights on to guide all the FB OMers home.

My advice  -  Contribute here to make it better. Content rules.

If you do post in FB then be kind to us old and decrepit OMers - post your pics and stories her too. Why not?

You'll get the best of both forums but more importantly, you'll get our thanks and appreciation for sharing.

Share the love.

[Barbara Eia (Brownless)]

Just had this conversation wit Diana..Why reinvent the wheel it has already been built....I do not post enough in here, but then again do not post on facebook either, but i do come in hand read about new eevents...My Dad (81yrs) comes on here everyday and reads about all that is going on he loves it....

Thanks for the momories Mike, this site will never be forgotten xxx

[Michael Alexander]

Good morning to you all.... thanks for your encouraging words....

I agree that Facebook is way to easier to use than this site.... I am not upset about the Facebook page, in fact any site that helps preserve Oranjemund's history and unites ex Oranjemunders is a good thing.

When I first started to put this site together it was solely to "preserve" as many Oranjemund memories and articles as possible, as the site grew, it became more.... than just a repository for our memories, friendships were rekindled .... reunions (Thanks to Ronelle) were held..... so in essence I cannot complain, we have a wealth of our town's history stored out in cyberspace that nobody can "forget" or change , but above all, we have record that we , Oranjemunders were here...

Keep on posting......

[Ricky Barron (RIP)]

Facebook?....Umm............I'm with Robert!  Might be an age thing?

[Alfred Boehme]

Switched my facebook off in support of Oranjemundonline

Switched my facebook off getting invited to a Oranjemund reunion thing every day by aprox 10 people started to jam my e-mails so bye bye facebook you will not be missed

[Robert Bruce]

Facebook?....Umm............I'm with Robert!  Might be an age thing?

Oi! Who you calling aged............!!? Oupa moet sommer opas ne'!

On a serious note - I took up FB back in 2006/7 and learned soon afterward that it was not for me. Primarily my dislike of FB then centred n the inability to raise the Support Desk or find adequate HELP to enable me to take advantage of a brand new shiny object that was FB back then.

It really got me thinking that Zuckerberg was seriously paranoid. I suspect he is anyway. Anyway the wave of interest just kept growing and soon every teenager from 13 thru 17yrs old wanted to be my "FRIEND"!

One morning I had over 1400 requests to be my FRIEND...!

You can guess the tome of the language I used. So right there and then I ditched FB. But got nack onto iit again a few months later then closed it and so I kept flip-flopping between on again then off aagin. Finally last year I did swithch off and am the better for it.

Mark Zuckerberg can get as paranoid and as rich as he wants - I do not care. I ain't supporting him.

Back in 2007 some good social forum formats sprung up. Pownce was good as was Jaiku but they got snapped up by the large software giants who wanted to enter the social media market to make a quick billion or two before the bubble burst. The social media bubble did not burst and they did not make a dime! Haahaahaa! Idiots. And here I am speaking of Microsoft. Tossers one and all.

Ricky - age is not the thing. Neither is it technology. It was simply that moron called Mark Zuckerberg and his inability to permit me from getting help/support when it was very much needed. HAd he done so I guess I'd still have a presemce on FB now.

However, I am glad I do not.

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

Well thats me...just unmembered myself...I realy don't need to have my FB newsfeed clogged up with a bunch of memories I've already read and shared here.If I want to revisit them I'll go dig in the archives here.....  So I'll leave them to ramble on.   

[toonfandangl]

TIME magazine February. 13. 2012. by Allie Townsend.

At Facebook's F8 developers Conference in San Francisco last September, CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced the site's new page motif, Timeline. F8 has played host to most of Facebook's biggest announcements--new profiles, the Like button for websites, Graph API--but this one had the usually unflappable Zuckerberg looking a little giddy. "We're more than just what we've done recently," he told his listeners, and he laughed as he scrolled through his own Timeline to show the audience a few of his baby photos.

Timeline, which is being introduced to all Facebook users over the next few weeks, is a complete rewiring of the way Facebook works.

The article ends with this paragraph.

The way Mark Zuckerberg runs Facebook is reminiscent of the way Steve Jobs ran Apple, "Its 'We're not going to wait for customers to tell us what they want. We're going to introduce what we think is in their best interest, and they will learn to love it'." Of coarse this rests on Facebook's ability to persuade people to dump the bulk of their digital footprints into the network. As an incentive, Facebook has massaged deals with other online services. Like Spotfy, to use Facebook accounts as a prerequisite to sign up. By doing this Facebook can make you feel like you are locked out not just of experiences on the Internet but of your friends' lives as well. But maybe the smartest........and most frustrating........thing of all is Facebook's emerging role as an Internet passport. It's now that much harder to get a complete online experience without it.

To read the article in full you will have to subscribe to it or buy the Magazine but its worth the read. Keep this site open Michael you never know Zuckerberg might want to buy you out its reported Facebook's worth $100 Billion. Oi! whats happened to me little smiley

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2105972,00.html#ixzz1nfRWBuD0