First let me say I don’t know whether to be peeved or luvey to Men with Pens for posting an article about writer’s forums on the day I was planning to do the same. I guess I’m grateful to have the link to include in my post. Oh, but isn’t the glass half full this morning!
I dragged myself kicking and screaming into the world of Facebook over the weekend. I hesitated to do this for a very long time. I had a less than optimal experience with Myspace a while back and that whole genre of social media ended up having zero interest for me. But then I started reflecting on my attitude towards Twitter and how long it took me to get on board there. After giving Twitter a good solid month I realized the value and my Twitter referrals are up nearly every day.
After spending a couple of pretty full days exploring and adding to the Tumblemoose Facebook page I decided I like it and believe that it is a valuable social networking tool for writers. There are all manner of writers, editors, publishers and others involved in the craft. They are easily accessible and seem to be a helpful lot overall. Understand that this opinion is based on a weekend getaway to the Land o’ Facebook and so it may be subject to change, but I don’t think so.
I think one of the most helpful things I discovered was the “Groups” feature. It didn’t take very long to find lively and active groups that pertain to writing. Some actually have thousands of members. A few of the groups seemed to be a bit stuffy and formal, but most appeared to be quite relaxed. I was intrigued enough to start another group: Tumblemoose Writers and Bloggers. This leads me to the next section of this post:
Writer’s Forums
So the plan was to post a little something this morning on my Facebook adventure and follow it with information and the straight scoop on forums. Well, I know a good thing when I see it and the Men With Pens article does a nice job and I’ll not duplicate their content here. If you want to take a moment and view their article, I’ll wait. (Goes and gets a fresh cup of English Breakfast…)
Ok, are you back? Good. What do you think? It looks to me like forums are probably pretty good things.
That’s why I set up Tumblemoose Writers and Bloggers over at Facebook. The set up was minimal, the posting was easy and I think that the moderating should be fairly straightforward.
I’ve already asked some questions to get discussion threads going and I guess what I’d like to see is the Tumblemoose readership head on over and join. Let’s give this a fair shot and see if we can’t expand on some of the comment discussions we’ve had over the past few months. I don’t believe all of those discussion have played out and it appears to be a good forum (no pun intended) for generating discussion.
Let me have a little feedback love, ok? Are you interested in a Tumblemoose forum? Would you like to participate but are turned off by having to join Facebook? Do you not really care at all about forums?
Twitter has become my RSS Reader
Since I’ve made Twitter a part of my daily existence, I’ve discovered that I almost never go to my RSS feeds anymore. When I’m working, I view the timeline every so often throughout the day, going backwards to my last Tweet to make sure I’ve not missed anything. What I’ve found is that since most of my community is on Twitter, and most of them Tweet a new post, I get to head right on over, read and comment. What’s more, a lot of times, I get the heralded #1 comment spot – even on the big boy blogs.
What do you think? Will Twitter replace RSS?
Finally
Most of you know that Tumblemoose is only about three months old. That’s a premie in blog -years. I was over at my Google account over the weekend and did a little update to my Adsense. Just for giggles I headed over to my account stats and discoverd I’ve made about 50 bucks over the life of the blog, with a steady upward “trend” – I don’t know, can you call three months a trend? Coolio! What great incentive to get on it and work the traffic numbers and do everything I can to move Tumblemoose forward!
Whew! I’m glad I got all of that out there. Now let’s hear from my large and adoring audience! 
Twitter replace RSS? Sounds good, but I’d better start tweeting my posts. Is that considered acceptable tweethavior? Also, how do you review your tweets to see what you’ve missed? I use TweetDeck but it’s very cumbersome unless there’s some trick to it.
Brad Shorr´s last blog post..Cellphone Users and Abusers Contest Roundup
Hi Brad,
I don’t use a specific Twitter ap. Just cruisin through on my lil ol Firefox.
Some folks gripe about the practice and I think the gripe may be justified if that’s ALL you do on Twitter. I think that as long as you are engaging the community in other ways it’s a logical progression.
When I’m at my Twitter home page, I can scroll down the time line and at the bottom of the page I can click “older” and back I go…
I have been using Twitter for about a month now and like you I find it replaces a lot of the searching I do on a daily basis. I love checking out other peoples links (including this one)and find it’s a great way to network and get traffic to your site or blog. Not too sure if it will replace RSS but hey you never know. I have a facebook profile too, haven’t used this for business purposes yet, but I do plan on doing so. Can’t believe your adsense is that high, way to go, it took me over a year to even get my first payment. Last month was great around $30 but this month is very slow haven’t even reached $1. Guess it’s a bit unpredictable.
Sorry for the long comment, great blog by the way.
Amanda Evans´s last blog post..Have You Reached Your Ghostwriting Goals?
But… but… but we didn’t know!
James Chartrand – Men with Pens´s last blog post..Drive-by-Shooting Sundays: Writer Dad
I still use my RSS reader and I’ve found that Twitter has replaced it to an extent. I think it’s ok to tweet your own articles but I don’t like the automated systems of doing it. I try to ask a question and then make my article the answer to the question or a place for further discussion.
I think forums are a good idea if there are enough participants. An empty forum can be kind of sad.
And great job with the adsense!
Kim Woodbridge´s last blog post..How to Get Freelance Work with Twitter
@Amanda: Hey it’s great to see you here. And don’t you worry about comment length, it’s a great comment and I’ve got lots of room for ya!
@James: Hehe. Yeah, too funny, eh? Great minds and all… Oh and it really is a great post about forums. I’m a bookmarkin’ that sonofagun.
@Kim: Yeah, I agree Automatic stinks and detracts from the whole social aspect.
Interesting points about twitter. You have to filter through loads of junk to find the germs though.
100kjob´s last blog post..How to Become a Super Blogger
Congrats George! I’s still refusing to move into the world of Facebook, but thats just laziness on my part.
As for Twitter, It definatly has decreased my need for chasing up RSS Feeds. Its a great way to get fresh new posts to read
Webesi3´s last blog post..Funday Fridays: Vol 6
@110K True story. it does take a little work but I figure since I’m there anyway…
@webdesi3: I’ll tell you, it was hard to go there. My only concern is that I think for it to be most effective it needs to be managed throughout the day. I still love the ease of Twitter.
I swear I commented on this earlier today.
Right now, I’m not ready to jump into writing on anything more than a casual basis, but the social aspect of Twitter has been great in reviving my interest and giving me a new group of people to learn from and be inspired by.
A forum for writers sounds great. I am on Facebook and I would participate in a forum there, but I will say I’m not crazy about group discussions on Facebook. I could be biased though because I’m an old school forum owner.
$50 in adsense is great! You’re buying the drinks at our first Tumblemoose Writer’s Retreat!
Tracy´s last blog post..Kinder Eggs and Pero Instant Natural Beverage
Tracy, Hehe. I think it was a Twitter DM
Ok! First round is on the moose!
I really need to pick on method of talking to people and stick with it. I get too confused!
I don’t think Twitter will ever replace the feed reader. They are both used for two different things.
There is too much other added conversation going on in Twitter. It would clutter up seeing the newest posts on the blogs you follow.
I know I have a tougher time following everyone I follow on Twitter than I do in my Feed Reader.
I ignored social media completely until I started my writing blog, and even now, I’m slow to try new things. It’ll be interesting to read more of your Facebook adventures. I tend to focus on old-fashioned SEO and the search engines for building traffic, just because I am leery of the time sink that these things can be. Also, I’m not that social.
Now that I have more time, I read the article about forums and completely agree. I think the benefit of a forum vs. blog comments are that the conversations do have more time to develop and evolve and people are more likely to go on very useful tangents.
It is very hard to get a new forum off the ground, I was pretty lucky in starting mine that I had a couple hundred users straight off the bat. Nobody wants to be a part of an empty forum, part of the attraction is traffic and lots of it. Getting that critical mass of people can be tricky.
One thing I think I did right when I started my forum was to have one board for everything. That’s it. Questions about parenting where there with debates about the economy and people seeking opinions on pants and the nightly what’s for dinner thread. It seems counter to what most people do, but for us, it worked. It allowed people to get quick replies to their threads, which in turn kept them interested enough to stick around and participate in other peoples threads. Only after we got over the 100,000 post mark did I start adding new forums.
I don’t really have the fanciest forums but I do have 750 members and over 400K posts in less than a year. So, yes, forums are great things and I encourage you to start one!
Tracy´s last blog post..I am Learning the Social Web Media Networking 2.0
Were there. Were there. Were there. Oi!
Tracy´s last blog post..I am Learning the Social Web Media Networking 2.0
Tracy,
My goodness. You have been a busy little bee today! I see your name popping up everywhere (Hehe, I’ve been comment lurking over at Anti-Social)
I’m sorry, I’ve been meaning to install the ajax comment edit plug in but it really is a tremendous pain in the hiney. I’ll tackle it one day soon.
Thank goodness I never make misteaks.
I’m thinking I’m probably going to take you up on your forum offer. Gimmee a few days to clear my plate a little and we’ll hash it out, ok?
Now go to bed.
I have been busy – my baby slept through the night last night! There is nothing like a full night’s sleep to make you productive. And of course you’ve seen me everywhere, we both have great taste in blogs!
And awesome on the forums, I think we’re both easy going so it should be a piece of cake to work out.
How is it 10.30 already?
Don’t install the plug-in, I am far too dependent on post, see glaring mistake, try to edit with the ninja quickness. You are supposed to tough love me out of it!
Tracy´s last blog post..Kinder Eggs and Pero Instant Natural Beverage
OK then Tracy. You asked for it. I’ll keep a running total of all your comment typos at Tumblemoose. When we hold the first Tumblemoose Writer’s Retreat the number of drinks you have to buy me will be equal to the number of typos!
How’s that for tough love? Hehe.
George,
Uggh! ANOTHER social media! I can’t take it. I actually have an account at facebook and every other social media out there. I suppose for you I can try to find my login information and get active. I guess I’m just going to have to quit my job!
Dee Langdon – BloggerNewbie´s last blog post..6 Tips On How To Write Killer Blog Comments
Dee,
Oh come on in! The water’s fine…
Why work when you can blog your way to the bank? Hehe. Ahem. (Clears throat)
George
Welcome to the great world of Facebook, George! I started out with Myspace a couple of years ago, but once I started using Facebook, my use on Myspace dwindled to a couple of visits a month. I just joined the group!
Mikia´s last blog post..The End of My Foul Mood
Mikia,
That’s so cool. I’ll head over to FB and see how things are shaping up!
Cheers
George
I do like Facebook for a lot of reasons and I was SUPER hesitant to join. I’m new to your group, and groups in general, but I hope to gain from them.
Certainly can’t lose, right?
Hi Sara, Good to see you here.
I’m glad you joined the group, hopefully we can build it into something valuable for all.
Yup, nothing to lose!
Cheers
George
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