Is Permies "social" media?

Ohhhh, please say it isn't true - Permies is a "social" media site???  Noooooooo, I don't, never have, never will have anything to do with "social" media!

Huhh, I mean really? Seriously???  Can't be true, please All Powerful, Awesomely Mighty Paul, do not let this be true.

Bother!

Peace

(just kidding, I do indeed like this site, social or not)

I experienced a paradigm shift when I heard someone say, "The whole world wide web is a social medium."

The forum is a permaculture site.

A place where folks with similar ideas can get together to learn and enjoy everyone's contributions.

I never think of it as a social site like Facebook ... it is just not the same format.

Thank you, Jeremy and Anne.  Feeling better now. I did feel a disruption in the Force, had a slight case of the vapors, but after having some lunch and going to the basement to talk with my worms I am stronger now ( still have my nitro pills close at hand ).

A neighbor has posted some items for sale on the local Facebook thingy, (before starting the yard sales, to clear out some of my mother's stuff) stating that she was   only listing these things for me, because I refuse to have anything to do with Facebook. (true)

Peace

I would say its a forum, rockin' it old school!  I wouldn't consider it social media because our profiles aren't complicated enough, and if we want to write about the minutia of our lives we have to write it in a thread, rather than posting it on our "about me" page.

If you told a bunch of people, "hey, there's this great social media site called Permies, you should check it out..." and they came here and found us, built a profile and started posting, they would quickly discover that they'd been duped.

Social media is misnamed.

Permies is waaaaay more sociable than anything else claiming to be what it isn't.

And I'm happy to be part of it.

j

Critics of "social media" typically have a more precise definition than "any informational medium that is used socially". When they use that term, they are referring to an app or website with all or most of the following characteristics:

1. It is used broadly, typically by millions or billions of people
2. The primary interaction is scrolling on an algorithmically-curated content feed
3. Users are encouraged to "react" to content
4. Those "reactions" partially inform how the algorithm performs its task
5. Users are encouraged to "subscribe" or "follow" other users
6. The interface nudges users toward attempting to gain their own followers/subscribers
7. The interface nudges users to participate in some kind of point system

You can see how all seven traits apply to central examples like Facebook or X. Six and a half apply to LinkedIn, which at least is used somewhat less broadly because it has a professional focus (although that has become less true lately, it seems). Reddit is more like LinkedIn too, because as you get into increasingly niche topics the focus becomes narrower and number of regular users becomes smaller. Five and a half out of seven apply to Youtube, which doesn't nudge you very hard to start your own channel or receive your own likes unless you post videos. Only two characteristics --#3 and #7-- apply to Permies and most other forums.

PS. Another way to illustrate the difference:

Imagine you navigate to www.permies.com/forums and are greeted by the same long list of forum posts, except there's a little preview of each one, and they aren't in chronological order but some other order whose basis you can't discern (because an opaque algorithm determined it), and there's an additional emphasis on who wrote each one--a little avatar or something. Also, there are no subforums, everything is just there in that one list. You can give thumbs ups/Pie/etc. and leave your comments right there in the feed, without having to drill down into any given post. At the top of the screen, instead of a background texture that resembles slats of wood, is a blank text box where you are invited to write whatever you want or add a photo or video, probably in a way that is integrated into the site so you don't have to open a separate camera app. Along the left side, instead of the names of various forums or popular posts, is a menu where you can see the Permies users you're subscribed to and tweak your own Permies profile. Somewhere prominently displayed at all times is your own number of likes or Pie or Apples or whatever else. Oh, and the ads aren't tiny anymore, they are blended in with the content. Now Permies is social media.

I have no idea if the Permies site is social media site in any strict sense. I have never engaged in any of the standard social media sites, so I have no basis for comparison.  It is as close to social media as I get, so, for me, it fulfills that function.

Jim Garlits wrote:Social media is misnamed.

Agreed. It's proven itself to be decidedly antisocial, both at the very top and at the very bottom.

Well, Permies has educational forums, meaningless drivel, and even a dating forum. However, it does not have a marketplace. Therefore, it cannot possibly be social media, right??

The intent of the forum is to share education, experience and information: specific to permaculture with many sub-categories.
Whilst it is in fact social, that is not it's Raison d'être.

John F Dean
"I have no idea if the Permies site is social media site in any strict sense........It is as close to social media as I get, so, for me, it fulfills that function."

Howdy,
I see it like this also.