LiveSpill and Twitter formats are quite possibly two of the worst formats for meaningful discussion and archivability/retrieval of information. Facebook/G+ coming in a close second.
I’d think that (a moderated) discussion of T-Nation’s (TN) articles in a “discussion forum” format with massive character allotment (eg. the TN forums) would add value to the content as it gives the authors and other informed participants an opportunity to clear up questions/thoughts from the articles and expand where they were limited from the article.
I would also think that TN would want to completely own all interaction associated with the articles by keeping the archive within the site in TN databases. What happens when Facebook and goes stale or folds? (see: MySpace) All that content goes away. Several disparate archives for discussion about the same thing.
There is also value in that article discussion in the forums becomes (mostly) useful searchable information. Google searches have often led me to article discussions. That drives me to T-Nation.com, not Facebook. The rule should be that you want primary traffic coming in to TN. Facebook should most certainly reference articles, but the action should be driven, executed, and archived at Biotest. You (you being TN) still get FB views/likes, but you also completely own all content related to articles. The commonality is that TN is the hub and will be around likely longer than Facebook, Twitter, etc, in their current format.
The discussion is easier to read in these forums as well. My Twitter, Instagram, G+, etc feeds move so quickly that I’m sure I miss a lot. Discussion beyond a few words and replies is utterly useless in those media, and archivability/searchability is almost non-existent.
I still can’t figure out the whole # tag and @ crap on Twitter. I guess I’m an idiot. You have to read it backwards or something. It makes no sense. I like Instagram for the pictures / gifs, but it’s useless for discussion. I fucking hate Facebook.
Seriously wrong move. Gezz guys…discuss on Facebook? The user experience is gone. If someone read the article, keep them here on the site to comment and discuss and maybe even buy some stuff. Don’t send them to Facebook in hope that their friends see they are talking about a random article.
If a member wants to discuss an article on this site rather than facebook, what is to stop him from starting a thread? It is not like the Mods are going to outlaw article discussions in the forums.
I have been on the FB comments for the articles on this site before and I have found that FB pulls in a lot of ass-hats who don’t come to this site. Most of them probably don’t lift and just want a good excuse to use the word “steroid”. If they ask questions, ect, they usually don’t even read the article before they start asking. It really takes away from intelligent discussion about the articles.
Add my vote to bring back the forum format… Half of the interesting info was always in the discussions after the article, especially with guys like Thibs or Waterbury.
I never liked the Livespill because you couldn’t quote and have a smaller convo with just person easily, but the forum format was great.
The article feels empty without it. You don’t always need to follow suit with what other places are doing, especially news outlets where the discussion after an article is quite different than here.
[quote]Jewbacca wrote:
News outlets restricted comments because too many people were calling them on lies/posting omitted facts. They used the occasional troll as justification. Reality is they could not allow facts to get in the way of their agenda/message.
I don’t see either problem as concerning here.[/quote]
Occasional troll? Trolls account for probably 73% of all posts on news site discussion boards, and idiots account for another 21%. Or maybe the other way around. It’s hard to tell a troll from an idiot. I stopped reading public discussion boards years ago.
I will agree the discussions here do seem to be of a higher quality.
Please don’t strive for the mediocrity of what everybody else is doing. This site has always been a little different then “the other guy”. That is what has made this place so great. Keep the discussions here and on site. Don’t water them down by redirecting us to Facebook or wherever.
I imagine part of the issue is moderation. They, as it is, have to moderate in both places, and cutting down the moderation to as few places as possible is a important.
Facebook is a literal minefield of just… rather absurd commentary, that needs to be deleted immediately and on the regular. Its also a very good marketing tool, so one is really stuck having it.
Yeah it’s a big step back for me. The comments under the articles really added to my enjoyment of T-Nation as I’m sure it did for many others. We got to be like CNN though even though our discussions under the articles were a far cry from the gong show taking place under news articles. Those in power don’t like to be questioned I don’t see why T-Nation would feel the need to shy away from questions from it’s own members. Seems like a reactionary action taken out of fear that it could get bad.
Good thing is they can change it back whenever they want and maybe they will if enough of us voice our opinions. It’s still a great website with great info but censoring the readership was a bad move IMHO. Seemed like it happened after I saw some people question things in the last couple articles. Too bad a couple rude people gonna ruin it for the rest of us. You just don’t get that level of interaction with authors anywhere else and it’s something that brought the site from a very good rating to one of Excellence.
I’ll add my vote to the old forum format, in fact I was pissed off when it was removed and replaced with the Livespill.
I’m not on FB and thank fcuk to be honest, that place is a disaster zone and redirecting people away from main site is a little off… I assume the traffic over there far outstrips what goes on in here so I understand, it’s a business plus your moving with the times and all…but I feel the T Nation of now is like a watered down old whiskey and is slowly lossing it’s balls or maybe I’m turining into an old codger who hates change?
Btw and I’ve recently just said this, having Bill Roberts back writing articles and in the forums brings me back to the gold ould days.