There’s some discussion about how forums are or are not social media, (frankly, I don’t think there’s any question at all) - and it occurred to me the answer of why there is this rift in perception of forums/message boards.

Message boards haven’t changed in almost 25 years. There simply hasn’t been any real innovation - and that’s why there’s so much “real” social media out there that’s exploding right now. The stuff is so radically different from traditional mediums such as forums that everyone is missing the core of what social media is: community engagement and interaction

So, here are some of the things I’d like to see in a forum, and some things that I’ve implemented on some of my own forums (heh, or at least planning to implement):

Trackbacks
It’d be awesome to have the same functionality in a blog post that we have on Wordpress or other blog software - did I give credit to someone? Let me hit the trackback API to make sure there’s a connection between the two posts in the semantic web.

A forum thread is no different than a blog post. It has a topic, a goal, and a discussion pertaining to the original post. Let’s see some of the functionality we found in the current decade put to use!

Native RSS Support
There’s nothing worse than having to write an RSS extension for your forum, and still not have the functionality you want. Give every URL on my forum a /feed, please. This includes forums, threads, posts, users: the whole shebang.

While you’re at it, tell Feedburner to support filtered feeds - a lot of my users don’t want every single post. And I sure as hell don’t want to burn a new feed for every forum. C’mon, let’s meet somewhere in the middle.

Semantic URLs
Blogging software does it, why do we still have URLs on forums that use IDs right there in the URL? What benefit does that have to the user?

Social Profiles
Alright, we’ve got friends and foes lists on our forums, now - but where is the option to make this information public? Why aren’t we displaying a users’ friend list on their profile page by default? What about all their most recent posts and actions, and selected excerpts?

A community can only grow in a stifled manner if interaction between members isn’t made as easy as humanly possible. Current forum software is stuck in the 90’s, with an XHTML wrapper around it. Let’s fix this, and soon - before we all melt.

Real Metrics and Algorithms
Stop using post count as a legitimate metric. This only encourages poor post quality. Let’s see the ability to easily show Flesch-Kincaid, average word count, or something similar. The amount of posts a user has is not a good valuation of their contributions.

Instead, replace these with something more community-driven. Look at Digg for example. There is a solid (questionably) algorithm in place that measures users based on what they’ve submitted and the reactions of other users’ reaction to that content, whether it be a comment or a submission.

Maybe I’m just whining. Maybe I’ve got legitimate desires. What do you think?

P.S.: And good god, phpBB! Why didn’t you include this stuff in your phpBB3 release?!

So I’ve finally given in to the likes of John Chow and opened up a blog using my own name.   Sadly, right as I’ve started and configured the blog - I’ve lost all interest in posting anything to it!

Here’s what I’ve done so far:

• Added new theme.
• Installed All-in-one-SEO
• Installed Google Sitemap plugin
• Toyed with NextGen Gallery
• Configured my permalinks
• Conspired against humanity

And that’s about all. Oh, just disabled the visual code editor too - I hate it. Please badger and pester me until I make this place worth your visit. Got it?

Ladies, have a sense of humor and don’t rake me over the coals about this. Story came from a chain letter that was floating around.

One evening last week, my girlfriend and I were getting into bed.

Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually says, “I don’t feel like
it, I just want you to hold me.”

I said, “WHAT??!! What was that?!”

So she says the words that every boyfriend on the planet dreads to hear…

“You’re just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man.”

She responded to my puzzled look by saying, “Can’t you just love me for who I am and not what I do for you in the bedroom?”

Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to sleep.

The very next day I opted to take the day off of work to spend time with her. We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at a big, big unnamed department store. I walked around with her while she tried on several different very expensive outfits. She couldn’t decide which one to take, so I told her we’d just buy them all. She wanted new shoes to compliment her new clothes, so I said, “Lets get a pair for each outfit.”

We went on to the jewelry department where she picked out a pair of diamond earrings. Let me tell you… she was so excited. She must have thought I was one wave short of a shipwreck. I started to think she was testing me because she asked for a tennis bracelet when she doesn’t even know how to play tennis.

I think I threw her for a loop when I said, “That’s fine, honey.” She was almost nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the excitement. Smiling with excited anticipation, she finally said, “I think this is all dear, let’s go to the cashier.”

I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, “No honey, I don’t feel like it.”

Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled, “WHAT?”

I then said, “Honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while. You’re just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman.”

And just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I added, “Why can’t you just love me for who I am and not for the things I buy you?”

Apparently I’m not having sex tonight either….but at least that bitch knows I’m smarter than her.

Nicole Lee writes, “…while I understand that all people have their moments, the above photo is what gets to me. People who don
’t care about anyone at all, or are so absorbed in their own worlds that they forget that other people, and other people’s property exists as well. So, I left a friendly reminder…”

Oh yes, Cole. This is golden.

This has been done before, but it is NONETHELESS a very loser-ish thing to do. It truly is not that difficult to put the car in reverse and give it another shot - you are NOT beautiful and unique snowflake. No matter how awesome your car is.

There is no excuse for this douchbaggery. You should’ve done more.

read more | digg story

Update!

Cole looks like she got a resolution!

Before:

After:

Score, darling. Score.

Replacing English characters with non-English characters does not make you cool.

See the Oasiz Community for examples.

It almost reminds me of the kids on MSN chats back in the day.