'Original Detail' discussion on Facebook

[JonE]

Knowing that there are a few who continue to view the forum but can't contribute, I wondered whether there was any option with Facebook for communication and starting up discussion again for some of those who presently don't.
From first communications by email, it looks like FB might be a step too far for many in that situation, but it's not worth NOT trying in case we find some can! Facebook could give a new source of leads, and it's very easy to put up photos.
The idea is a more forum-like small closed group just looking at the difficulties of conserving what is present rather than full replacement, as well as the minutiae of type, position and arrangement of parts, trims and so on. Those involved in maintaining such cars, researchers and perhaps those who are seeing and photographing what look like largely unrestored Sevens.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/a7detail

[andrew34ruby]

Don't like the idea of a closed group. Don't like it at all.

I'm a fan of facebook generally, but the advantage of this group is the easy-to-see list of current threads. You don't get that with facebook.

[Graham Barker]

I would be concerned that having two locations for the forum would result in a dilution of postings because many contributors may not want to take the time to post their offerings in both locations.  I don't have Facebook ànd don't want to miss seeing posts. 
Graham.

[Ian Williams]

I personally don't like the Facebook format either, it make things difficult to search, Austin 7 Friends is a far more user friendly format in my opinion plus we can choose to read only the threads of interest.

[JonE]

you don't have to join... free country!
Having thought it through, having a concentrated indexable (via hashtag) series of posts which are in a VERY narrow range can be a good thing. Facebook groups can be made more searchable. The forum is very, very broad and frequently goes off topic, even if the post title was useful in the first place.

Another impetus is also that free wordpress sites (of the various 'narrow focus' A7 archive sites) are not terribly good for interactions; people can comment as a secondary (less visible) prompt to a main post. But not add photos without the wordpress organiser having to do it all, which isn't really sustainable for the longer term unless other people actually want to come on board.

[Tony Press]

Facebook, Twitter and so on are all run by voracious Americans and regardless of their perceived benefits are all information gathering monsters that need to be restrained (as well as the horrible nasty use by faceless trolls).

I have a simple Facebook Club site for those who do not like accessing the Club website (I have no idea why)

I use FB to refer people to the Website postings (when I remember) so I don't have to write everything twice.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

They are tools, use them as you wish. I gain from them all and enjoy the the idiosyncrasies.

[Andy Bennett]

I'm with Tony.
Facebook is a data gathering tool for resale to people who want to use your info to make money. In exchange they let you use the platform to provide that info and talk to each other.
Appreciating that millions/billions are happy for that there is the fact that you lose ownership of that info, whereas here that ownership remains with the group, so you can manipulate/store etc as you wish. Meanwhile on Facebook, were something to happen, then Facebook could (OK unlikely) just delete the lot.
Andy

[Paul N-M]

'Live and let live' . You dont need approval to set up a facebook page. I am a member of several car and Austin related groups. However I always come here first as the quality of discussion/information and may I say general manners are of a high order. Incredibly well informed helpful comment and past topic search which is easy to use and under 'our' control. Facebook groups have their place of course, the buying/selling ones seem to be popular and more active that the sales/wants here but thats not an issue as far as i'm concerned. All grist to the mill.

[jansens]

I've never used Facebook but have had to create a fake account on occasion when people have said 'you REALLY have to see this thing'. I find it almost unusable. Horrible to look at, impossible to search, and I still don't understand how their comment sorting system works. You say show me ALL comments in order and it shows you some of them in random order? So I gave up and never bother now. And I am a software engineer whose job it is to understand and automate testing stuff like that.

It's not designed to be a store of knowledge but as an endorphin trigger to keep users coming back. It is specifically designed to make you have to keep checking so you don't miss something. They call that 'engagement'. It's why it works well for sales.

instead of a new group I'd look into fixing the problem of people who can't contribute here and work out why then help them get set up so they can.

Being involved with software development/testing it's always interesting when people try to use Facebook as an example of how to do software testing. Their approach to testing was always interesting (been a while since I looked so not sure what it is now). But the truth is the quality of Facebooks software doesn't matter. Not compared to medical software say, or air traffic control or even banking. If Facebook releases crappy software, some users are affected, they complain a bit then go right back to using it the next day. For a while they used to say they didn't have testers or QA and it was always funny having to explain to clueless upper management types that no, we can't just get rid of all our testers here just because Facebook do it!

Simon