So there is a LOT of talk about how forums are dying and no one uses them and they are passe etc etc. However those replies are caveated by the following:
- Your age bracket. Older divers tend to still use this technology platform
- Use specific ... SD.com uses them to manage our trips. We've looked at FB but too many members are NOT part of facebook. Other platforms don't really have a way to manage info like we do. We even tried to do away with the interactive aspect of our trips and just post the details on slick webpages but we had lots of questions and no way to easily share the follow up and replies to those questions nor did we have a way for members to communicate with each other.
- Best/Practical way to manage information on subjects. If you look at every discipline, hobby, etc you will find forums filled and still active with info on cars, diving, raising chickens, gardening, flying, to name a few. They do serve a purpose but granted it is growing slimmer with each passing year.
- If you only reply to 'push communications' meaning you get an email and then you go and check something out. When the internet started we were used to 'pull communications' where you the user sought it out and did not receive any alerts or notices of new content. You only checked when you needed something or wanted something.
I'm sure there are other caveats that I missed but these are the main ones. So having said that... with what you know about SD.com or don't know if you are a new member.... how can we do the following:
- How do we better use the forums so they are most helpful?
- Should we eliminate them entirely? And if we do what do we replace them with to replace the functionality we will lose?
- Should we look at a better communications strategy that utilizes our forums, our FAQ's via our home page and FAQ's in the forums, facebook, other social media platforms? And if so what would this look like?
- Should we plan to phase out the forums and why? If so how do you suggest we do that?
Not an easy subject but we truly hope that we get some viable feedback that we can use to better serve our members.
And if we totally missed the boat on something please feel free to share that as well