Swallow Yachts Forum > General Discussion
Swallow Yachts Association on Facebook
Julian Merson:
I appreciate this is going to be a bit of a 'marmite' post. Coming to a BC20 after several years with Drascombes, there is a thriving independent Facebook group of Drascombe owners and I just wondered whether there was demand for such a group for Swallows. Appreciate a page already exists for the builders.
The Drascombe group is generally populated by owners posting pictures of their various trips, queries about aspects of ownership, etc. and I'm rather missing seeing similar posts from the Swallow community. I'm not suggesting, for a moment, that the Drascombe approach is right - in fact there are all sorts of things that could be improved. And, returning to marmite, the group has its detractors as well as promotors.
There may be good reasons for the SB Association not having a page of its own for these purposes and apologies for upsetting anyone if this is the case. At the same time there's nothing to stop anyone out there starting and attempting to grow such a group independently. So perhaps it might be good for the SB Association to seize the agenda, and create and maintain a page which complemented the excellent stuff going on here, where people could just post lots of anecdotal trivia/pictures to do with their boats.
Matthew P:
Thanks Julian for raising this topic and asking for opinions before a "competing" Facebook page unexpectedly appears.
I understand many people are used to navigating Facebook and might find it easier to contribute personal content etc than this forum. I appreciate the forum takes time and effort from Jonathan to maintain - would it be easier on Facebook?
However, from my point of view I already spend probably too much time on an increasing number of social media sites for business and leisure and would prefer not to be jumping from Facebook to this forum and back to keep up with Swallow Boat community content.
Also I think it would be hard to avoid duplication, and worse, contradicting content especially if one of the sites is not kept in sync.
I'd prefer to keep Swallow Boat community content in the established and familiar location, even if it's not as easy to use for some as FB.
Matthew
BR20 Gladys
Graham W:
For very good personal reasons, I avoid Facebook and closed my account several years ago. I'm probably not the only one.
Julian Merson:
Which is all perfectly understandable. However, there are inherent dangers in remaining distant from social media sites. Again, if I may use experience over the years with the Drascombe Association, for years they resisted calls for a Facebook group, concerned about all sorts of things not least the potential for such a group to compete with the forum in terms of content. Then, someone started a FB group independently, the group grew and now visitors to the forum are few and fresh content a rarity. You could argue that, as it currently exists, it still remains an excellent resource for owners searching back throug posts for answers to current questions. However, the lack of updated material on the forum is stark, whilst the FB group frequently deals with all sorts of interesting technical questions which remain transitory conversations, with little or no means of maintaining these as a library resource.
Learning from this, the SB Association has an opportunity to set up its own page. It could manage the conversation on there according to its own rules - a suggestion might be that the page is only for social content, pictures and sailing anecdotes; any post which deals with technical questions or potentially forum-competing material to be transferred/linked to threads on this forum and further contributions to the FB post curtailed. It requires policing and there would be no need for that to fall on the shoulders of those who already manage the forum.
I would never set up a page such as the above unless it was something that the SB Association agreed it wanted to do. But, with the status quo, nothing is to stop anyone from setting up their own group and growing it according to their own rules - and then we lose control which has potential consequences for this forum.
david:
I also am not a fan of facebook. I also do not use it. So, if there was a page on facebook. I would not be viewing it.
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