Hi Folks,
As much as I love this Forum I have to be honest and say that for me the best ‘structure’ for community support for tech products is on Facebook in a Group. It becomes a big, useful, melting pot.
Join today! 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Banana.Pi.Community/
Adam Banana Pi (UK)
Facebook, no thank you. Geeks, if they are on a social network go to Google+
I agree with tido. I am not one of ‘Zukerbergs Dumb Effers’
Facebook ghetto is a tool to foster arrested development in an economically addled partially cogent mob. Just like AOL was in it’s day. Not a Fan Not a User
The melting pot you refer to is present at Facebook but the standard of participation is so low as to be a constant stream of virtue signaling for persons who do not have actual friends just Facebook friends.
The melting pot idea only works when there is a minimal standard of intelligence. Otherwise the melting pot is actually just a sludge pot.
Welcome to BPI
Each to their own. What you’ve described isn’t my experience, but I know a fair few people who do avoid Facebook so you’re not alone.
For anyone who does want to join and see for yourself then please do…
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Banana.Pi.Community/
Cheers
Adam Banana Pi (UK)
It is better to keep conversation here and if you do a local event, do it on FB. I understand that the idea is charming, when people come to your FB site.
On the other hand, to have information scattered - is a bad idea. I hope you understand.
Wow tido thats twice in one thread that I have to agree.
Single repository for a particular group of information is the way to go.
AOL was appealing to people not ready for the internet and mostly afraid to explore on their own. Facebook is kind of the same group and their children now. The whole thing started as a POC on a white paper written about how to collect small pieces of information and model the user to create a predictive virtual person. That intelligence agencies and advertisers could target. Now Facebook is a huge privacy violator and most people if they understood how bad the privacy is violated they would feel rapped.
It is best to use Facebook to target non-consumers with corporate public service announcements. Also use facebook’s bandwidth to do events but keep the specific info about BPI on a site that BPI has absolute control of.
Hi again Adam
In corporate communications the number one rule is to own and control the message.
Your company brand is what all advertising and sales identity exists with.
Forums are extremely hazardous for maintaining a brand and an identity for a company. All forums and all long term forum posts end in argument and disagreement. Your message on a forum can be distorted and refuted and straight out defamed. This is a direct threat to the value of any brand.
If you have a forum and want community the providing company must absolutely have complete dictatorial control.
Keeping the BPI community that remains after all of the fighting and animosity around it you must reach out to people who would leave Facebook. BPI suffered greatly on the EN forums by allowing defamers and slanderers to have a dominant voice at the companies expense.
The internet ghetto as it is known has all of the rejects from the adult communities of the internet. While the number of people seems large the quality is low. You may get a thousand FB friends but have no real friends. Popularity does not make something valid. In example 93 trillion flies eat dung but what would you like for dinner.
BPI would do better to seek new community members through college and maker groups.
I think that as a company representative marketing a product that even advertising Facebook on this forum is a huge huge mistake for the company. You do not have absolute control over the content on your FaceBook group.
If I was at enemy I could file repeated complaints for anything and have your members restricted and you would be able to do nothing. I could also create tremendous falsehoods and bot these to destroy your company and you could do nothing. BPI won the court case but there are still many who would do the company harm if they are given the chance.
Control your voice in the community, support your message to the community.
Hi David,
Well if nothing else then thanks for taking the time to put together a very thought provoking response!
So firstly I agree massively on your comment “BPI would do better to seek new community members through college and maker groups”. This is EXACTLY one of my long-term objectives and not even because of the sales aspect but in fact because the area where I live is absolutely screaming out for an investment of technology. The kids are starved of it from the academic perspective. So one of my biggest hopes is that I can use this opportunity to try to correct that, and of course in doing so I’ll have some great content to share out that’s Banana Pi and not Raspberry Pi - in the UK this is beyond rare at the moment!
I have this idea that I need a nucleus of 300-400 people who are Banana Pi nuts and very active and passionate about SBC projects, and have them post like crazy with their updates across multiple social media streams.
Ok, so, everything else that you say. I find myself agreeing with or at least agreeing that much of what you say could come to be reality. I’m still swayed however by the success I’ve seen in the past with FB community driven support groups. I get it – there are people who want no part of FB for a variety of what are probably really good reasons, as I wrote before many of the people I deal with eschew FB. But in relatively small groups 2-3k my experience is that you get people who are knowledgeable and helpful and I struggle to recall any that have descended down from support to a slanging match. I’m sure this does happen, but it hasn’t happened yet in any of the groups I’ve set up.
Don’t feel that I haven’t taken your comments on board because I absolutely have, but my feeling is that I need to stick to the formula that I know has worked before. That said if it starts to go down the road you describe then I absolutely will change my approach.
Kind Regards
Adam BPI UK
I know a lot of people are using Facebook. The current globally reported number of users that are actually bots is around 87%.
It is this army of synthetics that makes FB a creature of control. So if you have an idea that opposes a bot farm owner you will be isolated and vilified by synthetic population.