[Vision2020] Facebook; The death of Vision 2020?

Sat Aug 14 22:40:38 PDT 2010

Isn't pleasant to have a civil conversation on the V? Thank you for this! : )

I certainly do agree with everyone that we need to extend our gratitude to First Step for their willingness to maintain the site. 

However, I think it would be sad to see it all be in vein if the V dies out because only people over 40 are still willing to use the old style 90s forum as we move deeper into the 21st century. Will we have only a handful of members in their 50s+ still using this 90s technology in 10, 20 or 30 years? Or will we at some point decide to communicate using a 21st century method? I would think at some point we must cross that technological bridge or the V will cease to exist.  Why not now while the bridge is shorter and we have some active members left? 

Switching from Pony Express to Morse Code probably wasn't easy either. And I am sure the older generations were probably opposed with excuses like, "What if a tree falls and the line breaks!" and "We don't have enough electricity" or "I don't want to pay someone to interpret Morse code." But evidently we did switch from Pony Express to Morse code because Morse Code was more advantageous even if a line fell. 

Some of the reasons for not using FB or a similar forum are valid, but most are not, just paranoia and unfamiliarity with how FB operates today, not years ago. The reasons to switch to FB or a similar forum far outweigh the reasons not to;

1) FB is harder to fake identities, and nearly impossible to pretend to be someone else on the forum. 

2) You can block people from accessing your information, you would have to "friend them" in order to allow them access to your information. 

3) You can easily follow a conversation, in real time, or over a long period of time. 

4) You don't have to open 25 emails to follow a conversation. 

5) You can post live videos, pictures (like of your lost dog or kitten), and invitations to events.

6) You can completely control all the content and your information. 

7) You can search older content because you can set it up like the V where all posts are emailed to your email account and you can search old posts. 

8) Conversations would be more civil.

9) Younger people (Under 35) would be more eager to join and contribute.

Again, eventually we will have to switch over, the sooner the easier. And there is nothing that Vision 2020 can do that FB cannot. If you don't believe this to be true, consider it because you have not fully explored the recent options of FB. 

Donovan Arnold

--- On Sat, 8/14/10, keely emerinemix <kjajmix1 at msn.com> wrote:

From: keely emerinemix <kjajmix1 at msn.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Facebook; The death of Vision 2020?
To: donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com, vision2020 at moscow.com
Cc: webmaster at fsr.com, services at fsr.com, techsupport at fsr.com
Date: Saturday, August 14, 2010, 7:44 PM

I'm on vacation and haven't bothered to read all of the other posts regarding the supposed ease of Facebook over that of Vision 2020, but I have a couple of thoughts:

One, the people at First Step have been remarkably generous in providing the I-don't-know-what-to-call-it technology that enables us to have a "Vision 2020," and no discussion of its future should take place without acknowledging the debt all of us who have been active on this forum owe to First Step.  I've made some precious friends on this  forum, and quite a few enemies, but I can't imagine my last several years in Moscow without Vision 2020.  

Two, I'm one of those dinosaurs who has a Facebook page with nothing on it because it seems like an unnecessarily complicated mode of conversing, and because I prefer, still, to talk one-on-one with people via email.  Even the group emails I send, I send to people with whom I'd be sitting around having a beer if they all lived in Moscow.  And I realize I'm in the minority here; Facebook certainly has taken off and done quite well without me.  I am not at all interested in what I see as the "instant intimacy," or at least the indiscriminate intimacy, of Facebook or MySpace.  I'm blessed to have a great many acquaintances, a lot of pals, a few friends, and just a handful of intimates -- those people with whom I discuss, and from whom I hear, things that by their precious nature aren't something I or they want to plaster across a constantly-changing electronic billboard like Facebook.  I understand I'm not in the cultural mainstream here, but my
 Luddite tendencies suit me well.

Three, I think there are others like me who want to continue discussing the things we all discuss on Vision without revealing much more of ourselves than the content of our posts.  Maybe I just don't get it -- gee, could it be? -- but I want my participation on Vision 2020 to reveal nothing about me other than what I have to say on a given subject.  I don't have the time, energy, or inclination to wade through the "I just ate some yogurt," "OMG, did you see Hell's Kitchen last night?" and "My Favorite 25 Punk Songs" musings of other people, and (except for the 25 punk songs) I can't imagine anyone would want to go through mine -- unless they were close friends, in which case they'd either already know, or they'd get an email, phone call, or letter from me.  The advantage of Vision is, to me, its existence as a stand-alone feature/forum that pretty much means "When you're in, you're in for this, nothing else"   --  No offers to extend body parts I
 don't have, no garbage from people who think the supreme expression of my devotion to God is to hit "Send" to 10 other people, and no emails from friends who have no idea what to think about Highway 12 because they live in Virginia.  It's Vision 2020, all about Vision 2020, all the time.  I like that.

Now I'll read the other posts, or not, and do so knowing that I've confirmed my status as someone as overwhelmed by technology as Doug Wilson would be by a gaggle of ordained women Reformed intellectuals at a conference on female Pentecostal history.  Yeah, that bad.

Keely
www.keely-prevailingwinds.com

Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2010 10:31:18 -0700
From: donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
CC: webmaster at fsr.com; services at fsr.com; techsupport at fsr.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Facebook; The death of Vision 2020?

I believe, that Vision 2020, that hasn't changed its low-tech format since 1994, which is both annoying and unnecessarily inconvenient to use by its subscribers, will be replaced by another Internet company or reputable company or organization that establishes such a forum on Facebook or similar network. 

Sure, anyone could establish a Palouse Forum, but people would be more likely to join a forum created by First Step Internet that uses the same name. 

Image a Vision 2020 that took only moments to skim through instead of opening and closing each email, or getting one at the end of the day after the conversation is over. You could post links, images, and information much more quickly. And perhaps the best things of all would be that people could not use your name in postings or false names to launch personal attacks against members of the community. 

A Facebook account would be more meaningful and helpful to a community that wished to grow and be productive with its online networking. It would also be of better service to facilitate the purpose and mission of Vision 2020.  

Vision 2020 will eventually be replaced, the question is how it will be replaced, and by what entity. I hope it is still First Step Internet. But I don't see it making any moves to save Vision 2020 and keep ownership of its own idea of an uncensored soap box forum to facilitate change in the Palouse Community. 

Donovan Arnold 

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