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Is Era Social Media?

  • Yes

    Votes: 359 62.7%
  • No

    Votes: 214 37.3%

  • Total voters
    573

Lant_War

Classic Anus Game
The Fallen
Jul 14, 2018
23,578
Basically, what counts as social media? Is Reddit social media? Is Era social media?

I don't think it is, because we don't really socialize. We don't know each others names and stuff.
 
Oct 25, 2017
2,551
Anything that encourages social interaction ought to be included in that definition. I mean, forums and chat services are what inspired things like MySpace and Facebook to up the ante and basically become forums with people you actually know.
 

5taquitos

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,889
OR
Actually all Social Media seems to have Like/upvote buttons.

There is no Like button here.

Vote changed.
 

Deleted member 3058

User requested account closure
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,728
Why in the hell would a forum NOT be considered social media?

It's not the modern design that is tailored to eke out every waking hour of its participants but it still is social media.
 

CassCade

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
2,037
Yes, you are interact and discussing with people, that's socializing. You don't need to know someone to socialize with them.
 

The Albatross

Member
Oct 25, 2017
39,029
By a broad definition, sure, but I think when people talk about social media they generally talk about the major traditional social media networks that fall into predictable user patterns/behaviors. I voted 'no' -- I'd call this site a message board or forum. It's an old fashioned phrase (tho this is an old fashioned site), and there's a lot of crossover of functionality between message boards and what most would think of a social media site, but if I'm thinking of "social media" I'm generally thinking of the legacy social networking/media giants, and not so much small individual privately owned forum/message boards like this one.

There's a lot of cross-over functionality that applies to social media websites like, say, Facebook or LinkedIn, that also apply to things that nobody would consider Social media. Like, we use Jira for tracking projects and work progress at work ...... but Jira also has comments, and threads, and contacts ... and messaging ... and I can upload files and we can comment on them, and there's a network of contacts that are connected through my Jira channels, etc. But... nobody considers Jira to be social networking, it's work productivity. So if we think strictly by feature set and get too broad, we can easily include things as 'social media' or 'social networking' that would be better describe as something else.

Likewise with other sites, even huge ones, like Reddit, or services like WhatsApp. THey can broadly fall into the broad spectrum of "Social media," or "Social networking," but I think they're more specifically a link aggregator or a messaging tool, or like how imgur is an image host but it has social media features. NOw, obviously, there's some crossover with both ... Reddit subchannels can be run very similar to Facebook Groups, you can have members, and contacts, and messages, etc. Similarly, WhatsApp has a lot of crossover and it's even owned by Facebook which is undoubtedly social media. But I think when we paint with overly broad strokes and being expansive with definitions, it ends up missing the point.

Anything that encourages social interaction ought to be included in that definition. I mean, forums and chat services are what inspired things like MySpace and Facebook to up the ante and basically become forums with people you actually know.

I disagree with this because I think it's so broad that it makes it more difficult to talk about something. If it's just something that encourages social interaction, then Slack is social media; Gmail is social media; Outlook is social media; Medium is social media (or w/e)... And you could say "Sure! THose are all social media, they encourage social interaction!" But then we've lost a genealized understanding of what social media or social networking is, and it'd be more specific and helpful to say that Gmail and Outlook at email clients, Slack is a work messaging platform, Medium is a blogging service, etc. MAny of them share features from prominent social media platforms (or inspire features on those platforms), but I think we lose the effectiveness of words when we get so broad to rope everything in as social media despite if they share similar features.
 
Last edited:

CDX

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,476
No. It's an oldschool internet messageboard.

You load up the main resetera page up and it's the same for everyone, even if you're not logged in. You are not in somesort of your own algorithm controlled bubble that you can never escape from.
 

Butch

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,438
Well, a forum is a type of social network, and nowadays they include media too, so imo yes.

When people say social media they still don't mean forums tho.
 

abellwillring

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,935
Austin, TX
I can see the argument in some ways, but I've never thought of forums as being social media so I say no. Forums are more walled off than what generally falls under that guise.

For the record, I think all social media should require people to use their real name and face on their posts.
 
Oct 25, 2017
10,426
I voted Yes at first but some of you are swaying me the other way. I guess I don't have a good definition of Social Network anymore
 

Skade

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,861
To me, "Social Media" is for massive platforms of communication.

Era is a "simple" forum privately owned and not massive in it's user base by any means. So no.


And the term was coined with the rise of Facebook, a concept that predates it doesn't really fall in the same category in my mind.
 

Radd Redd

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,006
Era an a sports forum are the only social media websites I know. Every time someone mentions reddit or something else I try to remind myself to check it out someday.
 

Driggonny

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,170
I tend to think of "social media" as a very specific thing. Like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. where all the content is person based from top to bottom. You go to that one guy and follow him for what he says or what he does or whatever, whereas a forum largely consists of topics of discussion from top to bottom.
 

Deleted member 8861

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,564
^ the only sincerely good thing on reddit is some of the porn
and maybe the fromsoft subreddits

that's about it unless you're into something niche enough to not have an English speaking community anywhere else on the internet
 

Deleted member 8860

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,525
Sure. You get the same kinds of discussions about pop culture, current events, and politics as you would on other social networking platforms.
 

captmcblack

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,065
No. Era isn't first and foremost a platform for content creation to share socially, nor should it be.

It's a message board. And that simplicity is what makes it good.
 

Volimar

volunteer forum janitor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,463
Given our communities and even the regulars in Etc. threads I think it's definitely social media.
 

DJ_Lae

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,869
Edmonton
I mean, kind of.

But most of what gets posted here are brief, witty comments related to a thread title (or, rarely, the actual content) and everyone just sort of ignores everyone else.

Though we don't need algorithms to generate content, people will happily post any and every news article that tickles them.