While I don't feel we have to fully explain our decision behind closing the Facebook chat, I feel it's important to cover the reasons why we've come to the decision and why we feel it's the best direction for us to go for the growth of TSG as a whole.
Ultimately the website provides one thing for us that Facebook can't. Control. Using Facebook limits what we can do, and what we can offer. The Screwed Gamers website, however, offers a breadth and depth of control over both our content, and it's presentation. While it is a drawback to have to register to the forums to participate in the conversation we feel it is a minor inconvenience to gain significant advantage over how we interact with the community as a whole and present ourselves to potential new commers.
That leads me to another reason why we choose this direction. It's open. While Facebook has added the ability to share public links to join a chat group so we don't have to be friends on Facebook with someone to add them to a chat, it's still a very closed off element. You can't publicly see discussions taking place or have a traceable record of those discussions to refer back to. I can't count the number of times there's been a suggestion in the chat buried among the GIF's and general banter the chat was being used for. Prioritising that content on the forums, especially in specific threads for certain things, means we have a history we can easily trace back to and search through without needing to wade through other discussions.
Lastly, I think it's important to simply say that we haven't made this decision without a purpose. When the time comes that we are doing more traffic driving content (such as highlight reels, top 10 plays, and maybe even a return of that bloody podcast) we want to have a vibrant and active community that new visitors would be potentially interested in joining. Forums with a post every couple of days while most of our discussions are hidden away in a Facebook chat are not an ideal way to show we have an active community.
As I've said in the chat it is ultimately your call whether you use the forums or not, but our decision on the future of TSG's Facebook chat is not open for discussion.
Ultimately the website provides one thing for us that Facebook can't. Control. Using Facebook limits what we can do, and what we can offer. The Screwed Gamers website, however, offers a breadth and depth of control over both our content, and it's presentation. While it is a drawback to have to register to the forums to participate in the conversation we feel it is a minor inconvenience to gain significant advantage over how we interact with the community as a whole and present ourselves to potential new commers.
That leads me to another reason why we choose this direction. It's open. While Facebook has added the ability to share public links to join a chat group so we don't have to be friends on Facebook with someone to add them to a chat, it's still a very closed off element. You can't publicly see discussions taking place or have a traceable record of those discussions to refer back to. I can't count the number of times there's been a suggestion in the chat buried among the GIF's and general banter the chat was being used for. Prioritising that content on the forums, especially in specific threads for certain things, means we have a history we can easily trace back to and search through without needing to wade through other discussions.
Lastly, I think it's important to simply say that we haven't made this decision without a purpose. When the time comes that we are doing more traffic driving content (such as highlight reels, top 10 plays, and maybe even a return of that bloody podcast) we want to have a vibrant and active community that new visitors would be potentially interested in joining. Forums with a post every couple of days while most of our discussions are hidden away in a Facebook chat are not an ideal way to show we have an active community.
As I've said in the chat it is ultimately your call whether you use the forums or not, but our decision on the future of TSG's Facebook chat is not open for discussion.
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