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Randito
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Randito
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PostSat Dec 07, 2019 9:23 am 
Backpacker Joe wrote:
and therefor I do not participate in any of it.
Earth to Backpacker Joe -- NWHikers is a social media site. Social Media isn't limited to FB and Instagram.

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MtnGoat
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PostSat Dec 07, 2019 1:34 pm 
I don't agree with that definition. Social media is usually seen as members using separate accounts, and the interaction, likes, etc take place on their accounts.

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
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Randito
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Randito
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PostSat Dec 07, 2019 2:57 pm 
MtnGoat wrote:
I don't agree with that definition. Social media is usually seen as members using separate accounts, and the interaction, likes, etc take place on their accounts.
NWHikers is Social Media in the context of this thread. Posting trip reports here definitely has the effect of generating more interest and visits in those locations and also in posts admonishing others to "don't share about that destination" NWHikers lacks a "like" button per se, but folks can and do reply to Trip Reports with a thumbs up icon or similar post that is akin to a "like".

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Malachai Constant
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PostSat Dec 07, 2019 3:24 pm 
Forums are generally considered social media. Even BBS and USENET are social media just not WWW ones.

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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Cyclopath
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Cyclopath
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PostSat Dec 07, 2019 3:48 pm 
MtnGoat wrote:
I don't agree with that definition. Social media is usually seen as members using separate accounts, and the interaction, likes, etc take place on their accounts.
We all have separate accounts here. Yours is MtnGoat, mine is a play on words for bike path. If you google "define social media" you get a bunch of answers about creating and sharing content - like trip reports here. But more to the point, the whole reason we all come here is to socialize (online) with other hikers.

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joker
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PostSat Dec 07, 2019 3:54 pm 
Yes, this site is "social media." And MC is right - so are truly old school forums like BBS and USENET. Per Merriam Webster (which is in line with many other definitions you'll find if you go looking):
Quote:
forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos)
That said, for sure Facebook and Instagram and Twitter have reached incomparable scale. That doesn't mean smaller online communities aren't forms of "social media" though.

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neek
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PostSat Dec 07, 2019 4:46 pm 
Read the wikipedia page, the term is ambiguous so who cares what definition you choose. The more interesting point is
Backpacker Joe wrote:
From what I've seen, its divisive as hell!
from a guy who's made more than his fair share of divisive comments here! (Hope I can get by with saying that, since he's also a decent guy from what I can tell.) Anyway, social media, like any tool, can be used for good or ill, and with or without competence.

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fourteen410
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PostSat Dec 07, 2019 5:07 pm 
The distinction between NWH and Instagram/Facebook is the extent to which they are image driven. I'd say NWH is content first, pictures second. IG/FB are pictures first, content second. NWH requires you to click on a post before you can see pictures. IG/FB show you the picture right away. That does make a difference. It's much quicker to find "beautiful places" scrolling through photos than having to click on numerous trip reports. Not saying NWH doesn't have any impact, but I'd say it's less of an impact than IG/FB.

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Randito
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PostSat Dec 07, 2019 6:22 pm 
fourteen410 wrote:
Not saying NWH doesn't have any impact, but I'd say it's less of an impact than IG/FB.
I think you are splitting hairs to a very fine degree. Also FWIW NWHikers content is indexed by Google , while FB/IG content is far harder to find by search outside the platform itself. The WHC FB page has a ton more users, I think that is the reason why a location posted on WHC sees a large horde the following weekend, while a post solely on NWHikers will result in a much smaller bump in visits, but more visits it does. All of that feeds back to the growing "think before you post" LNT principle. A location specific post to WHC will certainly result in more footprints in the following days than an identical post on NWHikers, but the principle is the same. If you want to post a bunch of location specific content, but not have anyone follow your steps. Google+ was the way to go, until it was shuttered anyway.

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Backpacker Joe
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PostSat Dec 07, 2019 7:12 pm 
RandyHiker wrote:
Backpacker Joe wrote:
and therefor I do not participate in any of it.
Earth to Backpacker Joe -- NWHikers is a social media site. Social Media isn't limited to FB and Instagram.
I would disagree, but it's interesting. So, what were forums like these (and forums prior to the existence of the World Wide Web) called or thought of BEFORE the very term, or the sudo understanding of the term Social Media was created/invented? Personally I don't consider the World Wide Web social media. If everybody is concerned with trip reports and general hiking related topics hurting our environment, lets create a dark web version of NWH.

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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Malachai Constant
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PostSat Dec 07, 2019 7:22 pm 
As I said above before the WWW there was BBS and USENET had hiking, climbing, MTB, and skiing groups. There were active flame wars and trolls. Only real difference was most users then were computer nerds as access was more difficult numbers were way smaller and modems were slow.

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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joker
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PostSat Dec 07, 2019 8:01 pm 
Fwiw the documented use of the term social media to describe online community interactions using text and media goes back to at least the late nineties (in other words, predating Facebook twitter insta etc) possibly even the mid or early nineties. What it describes was started before that though. I think the biggest difference between the sites/communities being discussed above is the scale of community they've reached.

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Cyclopath
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Cyclopath
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PostSat Dec 07, 2019 9:51 pm 
I think nwhikers is a more positive place than Facebook etc, but that's probably in part because I'm biased against FB. I know that a lot of people use FB to keep up to date in the lives of family and friends, which is a good thing, not just to throw elections. NWH is for sure more of a community. The annual social, the fact that people make friends and hoping/climbing partners, means nwhikers isn't only a web site. But it is social media. Like how in Dorothy's world there were good witchs and bad witchs.

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Randito
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PostSun Dec 08, 2019 12:10 am 
Any other old farts remember the forums hosted on Eskimo North with acoustic coupled 300 baud modems?

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neek
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PostSun Dec 08, 2019 7:43 am 
RandyHiker wrote:
Any other old farts remember the forums hosted on Eskimo North with acoustic coupled 300 baud modems?
my first real internet account was at eskimo (hacked of course...so it goes). before that, my bbs would exchange fidonet data every night - social media before the internet was much of a thing. never had the pleasure of using the couplers but i was able to voice-connect to modems at 300 baud and make some gibberish appear by screeching into the phone.

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