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A Facebook Group, A Skype Chat Group, Or A Private Membership Site With Forum

by Willie Crawford
4 replies
I'm often asked by students and clients if they should set up a Group
on Facebook, Google, Skype, or other social networking site, or whether
they should establish an old-fashioned membership site.

At my age, I'm hard to retrain, so I always advise them to start a
private membership site. My reasoning is that when you set up anything
on someone else's site, they can shut you down at a moment's notice...
without even having to explain.

I'd rather feel that I'm in control of a membership that I'm working
hard to build.

At the same time the discussion in Facebook Groups, or Skype chat rooms
is not threaded, so it's often hard to locate a thread even after a day
or so. I much prefer the threaded format that we have at a place like
this forum, where it's VERY easy to find things.

What is your take on the topic?

Do you see any real advantage to setting up on Skype, Google, Facebook,
or other similar sites, over setting up a self-hosted forum?

Willie
#chat #facebook #forum #group #membership #private #site #skype
  • Profile picture of the author Long Beach Nathan
    I agree. I think a private membership forum is really the way to go. The only advantage of a Facebook group is that with it being on Facebook, more people may end up seeing it. But at the end of the day I still think you're best off with a private forum.

    I guess the disadvantage of Skype is that there's no written record of all the information that's been given over time.

    The disadvantages of a Facebook group would be that it could be pulled away by Facebook at any moment. Also, as you mentioned, nothing would be threaded in the same way it would be on your own forum. Finally, I think forums radiate a greater sense of value than anything on Facebook can provide.
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  • Profile picture of the author commerce cat
    The big advantage of Facebook is people are on it all the time and FB is good at highlighting group updates in the feed.

    It's a real uphill battle getting people on a regular basis to a private forum. You need critical mass and to keep nurturing it. FB is much easier.
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Facebook is very convenient for these types of groups but they aren't as good as forums in terms of being able to look up past posts and information. I also agree about the point of building your own online assets rather than helping to build someone elses site.
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    • Profile picture of the author IvoryPulse
      Facebook groups are nice. Skype, Google and other platforms are also nice. But none of them can be compared to having your own community. Hosting and domain prices aren't very high, and the whole community can be set up in just a few clicks. One of the main advantages is that when having your own community you have control over everything. Also, you can add functionalities as you need them and you're not limited to the features offered by social media platform.

      I'd definitely go with private community.
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