Myspace The Walmart Competition Of Bboards?

[PennylessZ28]

I just finished reading this article over at the Admin Zone a day or two ago and I just wanted to take the time to repost it and start a discussion here for those of you not on that site or aware.

The orginal article: The Downfall of Mom and Pop Operated Communities?
By: [Zoints]DChapman

Has the number of members who login to your forum on a daily basis hit a plateau? I stay in contact with a lot of forum owners, and the answer for many of them is "yes". Sure, new members are joining your forum all the time, but old members are leaving at the same rate. Where are they going?

Poll the members of your community and ask how many have MySpace profiles. The numbers might surprise you. MySpace has over 40 million members who take part in its vast social network. And more importantly and pertinent to us forum owners, MySpace has over 1 million "groups". What is a group? A group is a forum like the one you run; only not quite as advanced or userfriendly. Yet. Do any of these topics look familiar?




Does this general look ring a bell?




....... READ THE orginal article: The Downfall of Mom and Pop Operated Communities?

Fact is, this article got me thinking of some serious challenges facing many of us.

So I wanted to start some discussion to see what most of you think? Do you think communities like Myspace are a treat?

What about trying to get new members who might already be using myspace? Specially if myspace is your competition. Remeber how many of us are trying to create a "Myspace Profile".....

Discuss.

[Erwin]

Interesting article. Food for thought.

[Erwin]

MySpace do have actual forums, not just groups:
http://forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?f...2A5AB414531124

[The Chief]

Originally Posted by Erwin

MySpace do have actual forums, not just groups:
http://forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?f...2A5AB414531124

Yup, just wondering if there is that many people posting in theme though...

[Dean C]

You have to bear in mind that MySpace appeals to a certain demographic which tends to be young teens. There is also a large audience outside of MySpace which is maturer. Alas, I don't think it'll be too much of a threat in the long-run. Like everything else, the novelty will wear off.

[xStylezx]

i believe Dean C is more than likely right

[Roms]

I've really considered getting a myspace page and adding links/content from my site to try to draw some members from there....

[Suiko Jin]

Originally Posted by Infantrymen

I've really considered getting a myspace page and adding links/content from my site to try to draw some members from there....

That is a good idea. Concidering more people who aren't internet savy know about Myspace more than just some forum community. MySpace, I think is just more popular, and well known so people go to what they know/heard of rather than what they don't. I think making a MySpace page and directing "friends" or whatever you make on that page to your site/forum. Could end up helping you. Since forums like vB offer so much more.

[mikeclarke]

Profile's are important. The more other people see it the more they work on there profile. The people who see it want one themselves. The profiles are going to be the most important part of my sites. It's the main reason I went with VB, all the great profile mods.

[yinyang]

i believe myspace is a stage in the net evolution, but how permanent or longlasting of a stage, we shall see. another step in the evolution process is ning. www.ning.com which is an interesting concept. i'm sure someone else here can explain it better.

but didn't someone do a ning type community where members could start their own forum, but basically be a subdomain of that main forum? i can't remember anything these days.