Official Region West Facebook Group

[FrankRoams]

Hello all,

Frank here, one of the admins of the Official Overland Bound West Region Group on Facebook along with @chrispartida. I wanted to make sure all badged members in the West on the forums were aware of the group and if you live on facebook like the other 93% of the world, you can now get your Overland Bound fix there too!

Some things to note:
URL: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OverlandBoundWest/


Requesting Access:
- Our group is open to members with OB badge numbers. The main reason for this is facebook is far more personal than the forums and many folks have a strong social presence. The forums offer some anonymity that is more controllable, share what you like. Hope you understand.

- To request access you will be asked to provide your member number via a facebook alert. This function only works on Desktop, as it is in beta. For those who don't provide a number, I or other admin will send you a message in facebook messenger, you need to check that. Facebook will not alert you to this message since we are likely not already connected.


Rules:
Same as they ever were. Stick to the founding principles as on the forum, you should be fine. Be kind to each other and adventure! Be sure to read the group description.


Creating Events:
You are welcome to create events on FB, just please duplicate the events on the forum pages so that those that are not on FB can join in on the fun. If using the Overland Bound name, please make it completely transparent that any events are UNOFFICIAL.


Let us know if you have any questions in this thread. @chrispartida or I will do our best to answer them for you!

 

[Bill S]

Outstanding. Thanks for the effort to keep everyone involved and informed.

 

[chrispartida]

Thanks @FrankRoams for making this OB Official. The group has grown steadily from the day we made it a reality, after the Orange County meet up a few months back. Lots of photos are being shared, multiple events have been hatched, and local advice & potentially a helpful hand is just a click away.

We are currently at 209 members, and that number grows every day.

The FB page is in no means a replacement for these forums, so I encourage REDUNDANCY in your trip wrap-up posts to these forums. Share it for all the world here as well.

I look forward to meeting more and more of y'all. Let us know if you need a hand with anything.

 

[Terry Pickens]

Nice, cannot wait for the meet-up in June to see you again.

 

[NV.Recon]

Bummer, I deleted Facebook and refuse to use it again. Guess I'll be missing out on lots of good stuff.

OB 3319

 

[Kelly]

The Dreaded "Unsolicited Opinion"...

Facebook is awesome for communicating with members in your immediate area (city, county, or Rhode Island ;-). It's a great way to put together last minute trips and meet-ups. You can also post things like "Can anyone recommend a good tire shop?", without bothering people 100 miles away.

So here's my opinion...

Our Facebook groups should be broken down into smaller geographic areas (i.e., "Overland Bound - Sacramento")

I think the larger "Regional" groups may have the potential to reduce participation in the Forums. I'm seeing a lot of great posts in the FB group that aren't showing up in the Forums, and that makes me sad :-(.

The good news is,... I'm old, and resistant to change, which means I'm probably wrong ;-)

 

[WhatTheZo]

I'm seeing a lot of great posts in the FB group that aren't showing up in the Forums, and that makes me sad :-(.

It is a little unfortunate that there is stuff is going up there and not in the forums. We lose out on the archiving and search function that the forums have.

 

[MA_Trooper]

The Dreaded "Unsolicited Opinion"...

Facebook is awesome for communicating with members in your immediate area (city, county, or Rhode Island ;-). It's a great way to put together last minute trips and meet-ups. You can also post things like "Can anyone recommend a good tire shop?", without bothering people 100 miles away.

So here's my opinion...

Our Facebook groups should be broken down into smaller geographic areas.

I'm also afraid the larger "Regional" groups have the potential to reduce participation in the Forums. I'm seeing a lot of great posts in the FB group that aren't showing up in the Forums, and that makes me sad :-(.

Note: I am old, and resistant to change, so I'm probably wrong ;-)

Solicited or not, meaningful discussion is always welcome here. Overland Bound values what all of the members have to say on this and any other issue and very much appreciates the cordial way you have chosen to voice your concerns. I will let your ambassador and/or @Steve field this one but I wanted to thank you for bringing this up in the way you did.

 

[FrankRoams]

We can absolutely see your point and as @Chris Jones mentioned, it is always appreciated. I want to put your fears at ease, at least in the short term. Part of what we're doing right now is informing folks that both have a purpose and function by having this dialogue. In the beginning, there will be some chaos and missed posts here and there but eventually, we will find a groove. Let's face it, facebook content has a much shorter lifespan than content on a forum. People will realize that conversations are deeper, their adventures and advice are greater appreciated and used here. Facebook will be great for passing high-fives, to broadcast your forum trip report or your meetup or post some quick pictures.

We actively encourage our members on facebook to post here and you to join there. At the end of the day, it's where you feel most comfortable and engage with your Overland Bound friends. A community is what this is and we can't ignore facebook is a powerhouse for that and many people live their online lives there. We will find that balance, whatever it ends up being. I don't think any of us are claiming to have the answer. But fear shouldn't be a reason to not explore a possibility, right?

I will add as a personal observation. Since I have been admin, I have seen folks find us, ask questions and join the forums and even become badge holding members. I say this because I send a message to every non-member in facebook. We have great conversations about what Overland Bound is. Let's not overlook the good this can do for the community as we reach those folks that do truly live on Facebook and truly love Overlanding and are looking for a place to contribute and grow in their adventures.

So let's see where this goes, at the end of the day you know and I know that Michael and the Overland Bound team are going to do what's best for this community :)

 

[Kelly]

I will add as a personal observation. Since I have been admin, I have seen folks find us, ask questions and join the forums and even become badge holding members. I say this because I send a message to every non-member in facebook. We have great conversations about what Overland Bound is. Let's not overlook the good this can do for the community as we reach those folks that do truly live on Facebook and truly love Overlanding and are looking for a place to contribute and grow in their adventures.

Marketing is an excellent reason to have a presence on Facebook, but I thought the Regional Groups were for members only.

 

[FrankRoams]

Marketing is an excellent reason to have a presence on Facebook, but I thought the Regional Groups were for members only.

You're right, they are for members but that doesn't mean they don't come up in search results. It's an SEO gain. It's not the primary purpose of the group by any stretch, it's just a nice little bonus I have noticed :)

 

[Michael]

Hey all, I really agree with Franks points and also share @Reconnoiter s concerns. Our approach to groups has been slow and methodical as we learn and incorporate groups into our community. That's one small reason they are private to members. I do feel it's good for us to be going through this, and I think our approach is good. In my day job, I've been involved with fairly extensive research studies on the affect of cannibalization across products (FIFA Ultimate Teams and FIFA Sports. Battlefield and Battlefield F2P, and Need for Speed vs Need for Speed World). What we ALWAYS found was that the overall elusive "network affect" was net positive to "the brand" and our primary take away was, "People are willing to commit more time to their passion then one product can provide. Reach them where they are". FIFA Ultimate Team became a billion dollar business without impacting FIFA Sports $ and transformed the way EA viewed cannibalization. Reach the audience where they are. Now, devil is in the details. How and why will continue to evolve. I would encourage members to:

1. Post useful threads directly into FB groups. This drives traffic to the forums.
2. Use our upcoming "Overland Rally Point" event creator to create events, then post the resulting "announcement" page URL into Facebook groups. The point of ORP is that it is BETTER than FB event for overlanders. That's our job.
3. Continue to post reference subjects here in the forums. As Frank said, FB group posts are very temporary.

We don't have it all figured out, but I do feel Groups will end up being a benefit overall for the growing OLB community.

M

 

[on_the_run]

Thanks for creating a FB group! Can't wait to link up with other overlanders in the west!!

 

[slomatt]

@FrankRoams ,

Just to clarify, the FB group is only open to "badged" OB members, not just members of the forum. Is that correct?

 

[FrankRoams]

@FrankRoams ,

Just to clarify, the FB group is only open to "badged" OB members, not just members of the forum. Is that correct?

This is correct.

 

[slomatt]

Hi Frank,

Thank you for the clarification. Unfortunately that enforces the perception that if you haven't "paid your dues" then you are considered a lower quality member. Is requiring payment really the best method for vetting that individuals are "a good fit" for the Facebook group? I would think that there are many other metrics that could be used as well.

 

[FrankRoams]

Hi Frank,

Thank you for the clarification. Unfortunately that enforces the perception that if you haven't "paid your dues" then you are considered a lower quality member. Is requiring payment really the best method for vetting that individuals are "a good fit" for the Facebook group? I would think that there are many other metrics that could be used as well.

That's one way to look at it, that is not the intended view of course. The reason the group is private is because of the inherent differences in a platform like facebook vs a forum. A forum forces no personal identification. You can make up a handle, show any photo you like, and share as little or as much as you like.

While these are possible on facebook, they tend to be less true. Facebook tends to be where people "live" digitally, friends and family are there and your privacy can sometimes depend on their privacy settings. Long story short, Facebook is not anonymous, most people do not have anonymous profiles or duplicate profiles. This is who they are. By requiring a member number there is some accountability and we don't just let anyone in that could use your announcement of a trip and dates and who's going with you for nefarious reasons.

it's not perfect, it's not guaranteed security but it is one step we can take to make sure the barn door isn't left wide open, so-to-speak. I hope that helps better explain the intention here. If you have been in Overland Bound for a while you know the core values and you know this is not an elitist community. And you know membership is not the priority, or the whole site and its content would be locked down. I don't want to speak for @Michael.

 

[Michael]

That's one way to look at it, that is not the intended view of course. The reason the group is private is because of the inherent differences in a platform like facebook vs a forum. A forum forces no personal identification. You can make up a handle, show any photo you like, and share as little or as much as you like.

While these are possible on facebook, they tend to be less true. Facebook tends to be where people "live" digitally, friends and family are there and your privacy can sometimes depend on their privacy settings. Long story short, Facebook is not anonymous, most people do not have anonymous profiles or duplicate profiles. This is who they are. By requiring a member number there is some accountability and we don't just let anyone in that could use your announcement of a trip and dates and who's going with you for nefarious reasons.

it's not perfect, it's not guaranteed security but it is one step we can take to make sure the barn door isn't left wide open, so-to-speak. I hope that helps better explain the intention here. If you have been in Overland Bound for a while you know the core values and you know this is not an elitist community. And you know membership is not the priority, or the whole site and its content would be locked down. I don't want to speak for @Michael.

Hi all,

I think Frank has done a very good job of explaining this. I'm glad to answer any specific questions. We do charge for some membership features. At $24.99 we believe it is reasonable, and it is necessary to maintain this community, fund software development, and pay our growing staff. Without it, OLB wouldn't exist. As a company, Overland Bound is community first, and we work very hard respond to our members needs and provide as much value as possible. This will continue. I'd strongly argue $24.99 spent here goes way farther than three beers at the local pub, but that's subjective.

In all seriousness, let me know if you have any further questions.

M

 

[slomatt]

@Michael , @FrankRoams ,

Thank you for your thoughtful replies. I understand that OB is a business and must generate revenue to stay running, and hopefully some of that revenue is used to improve page load speeds in the near future .

Seriously though, my concern isn't with the site generating revenue for the owners, it is with the idea of measuring the "quality" of a user based on if they have paid for a membership or not. If the focus of OB is creating a community then I would hope that the value added by a user is determined based on the quality of their posts, their tone of voice, and how much they help others. Sure this is more complicated than just checking if they paid up or not, but on the other hand any nefarious person could easily pony up the money to join so payment is not that strong of a filter. I would argue that a simple ratio of "average number of likes per post" is likely a better measure of value to the community. In fact, OB has an extensive badges system that is probably a better metric than just checking for payment.

In my opinion the best thing about OB is the high signal to noise ratio and the almost complete lack of trolls. This civility means that there are a lot of members who are new to offroading and who join the forum because they know they can ask beginner questions without getting harassed. My primary motivation for joining was to answer questions posted by some of those new offroaders and to try to make them aware of land use issues that effect this hobby.

Perhaps I'm just feeling like a second-class citizen because I am not a paid member. I would like to think that my posts on OB have helped others and were worth the time it took to write them. I'm a member of many forums, and frankly I have donated my OB membership costs (and more) to state and national groups that help protect motorized access on public lands.

At the end of the day the pay-to-play setup on OB is a different business model than many other forums. I think that OB has done an excellent job in setting the tone of discussion and growing a community of mostly respectful users, but I do want to express concerns about the possibly exclusionary side effects of ranking members based solely on payment. I'll leave the issue here, thank you for your time.

- Matt

 

[FrankRoams]

@slomatt,

Everything I'm reading makes sense, you're spot on that people's contributions, civility and willingness to support all levels of members skill is what makes OB great! And the lack of trolls! I don't understand where the idea that members are being measured is coming from?

I do local trail runs and meetups in Socal (Orange County) and I have non-badge (paid) members show up to both all the time. I even get flat out not even forum members just popping in for a look or "test drive" of the community. The point is, I don't ask, I don't care. All I care about is that they are here, in the moment, meeting people and having a good time. All are invited and welcome. I think that's a pretty common sentiment within Overland Bound.

I don't know if you have experienced something different, and if you have maybe we should discuss that separately. To my knowledge, no one is measuring members. I know people gravitate towards members who contribute and are a knowledgeable resource but that's pretty normal.

Let me know how I can help, no wants to feel left out of a community. And I mean that sincerely.

- Frank