Whenever anyone I know has carseat questions I always refer them here for the depth and breadth of knowledge, however, a ton of people always refer to carseats for the littles or the carseat lady on Facebook. In my experience, FB groups are really hit or miss when it comes to advice and without good searchable archives a lot of great info gets lost. Just wondering what you guys think of these two FB sites as good places to go for CR info or is there another FB resource that people can go to as well?
Of course, I would prefer that people come here;-) In fact, it generally falls under the Car-Seat.Org advertising guidelines if someone links or sends people to a facebook page or group from a post here, unless it's a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (subject to our restrictions on Amazon and other retailer affiliates). There are exceptions for personal websites, blogs, fb pages/groups and such that are clearly non-commercial and have no advertising or revenue-producing marketing of any kind. We will also usually allow exceptions for links that provide a specific answer or reference to a question or topic, especially those outside of the scope of Car-Seat.Org.
Back to facebook, there are definitely advantages. Starting with a gazillion members on fb and high traffic 24/7, such that only a small number of independent websites manage even a tiny fraction of the visitors. With all those members, there are certainly many very knowledgeable advocates as well.
On the downside, facebook has basically been the end of a lot of niche forums and websites like this one. People leave and simply never come back when they find what they want on facebook and don't have to stray out into the internet anymore, much like AOL used to be with all its internal content. Fortunately, traffic has held steady here so far over the last couple years, but it is definitely not increasing at the rate like previous years. Really, the sad reality is that all it would take is an update to how facebook organizes their groups and pages or a change in how Google indexes websites to make this place a graveyard. Those two companies control so much power in terms of internet traffic that it is would probably be criminal in any other industry! So, to avoid being completely in the dark ages, we also have a few low traffic facebook groups and pages:
https://www.facebook.com/carseatblog
https://www.facebook.com/carseatorg
https://www.facebook.com/groups/carseatorg (unofficial)
Questions do get answered there, but they don't have the traffic of other groups and pages that are more actively operated, obviously. We definitely appreciate and encourage members to Like/join us on facebook too, but prefer that parents with questions are referred here or to CarseatBlog of course
On the plus side, I think independent forums like Car-Seat.Org do offer a few advantages. And, unlike many other small forums, Car-Seat.Org is privately owned and operated by advocates who have a passion for the topic. Many other forums are owned by large corporations or forum integrators who operate them only to maximize profit and have zero interest in the discussions. Anyway, here's a few possible advantages, I'm sure there are others people have found.
1) Visitors can post anonymously, without registration, and we try to provide a prompt answer to help protect their children!
2) Members register with more anonymity and fewer privacy concerns
3) Responses can be much more thorough and detailed!
4) Easy to see when a certified technician or long-time advocate with a large base of posts and reputation has replied
5) Signatures and profiles help indicate parents with children of similar ages and interests
6) Forum is organized into discreet sections and has a large archive that is easily searchable, as you mentioned!
7) Community and off-topic posts, including Swap, are encouraged for members who have access. (Could be an advantage or disadvantage depending how you feel about off-topic discussions of coourse!)
8) Provides a place for people who intentionally are trying to avoid being sucked into facebook all day long;-)