The Slow Demise of the Sailing Forum

[Sailor Sailor]

As some of you might know, there is a Sailing and Cruising page on Facebook, with 172,466 members now.

Human beings are visual creatures and like to see images and photos. We also are curious or noisy, and want to know about other peoples’ lives, to see what they like/love or do. We prefer to interact with real people who also share part of themselves, beyond a single common interest.

The remarkable rise of Facebook as a social media platform satisfies these interests. The spirit of Facebook is show and tell, real people or their personas, showing their spouses or significant others, their children, their activities and interests, and their progression through life. The same is true of LinkedIn as far as careers are concerned, to a degree.

Most of us celebrate our friends’ events and accomplishments: births, birthdays, graduations, marriages, anniversaries, vacations, reunions, careers, etc. We are genuinely happy for people we like.

In contrast to the spirit of Facebook of disclosure and celebration, most sailing forums allow anonymity, unsubstantiated claims and opinions, undisclosed commercial interests promoting something for financial gain, and fake personas – some of the most prolific posters refuse to give their names or even show a photo of their boat, claiming they require some kind of privacy.

It is funny to see and read of some sailors on the Facebook Sailing and Cruising page who behave as if they are on a sailing forum, concealing their identity as anonymous or trying to promote something for financial gain. They just don’t get it and they are clearly out of place. Fortunately, Facebook has a laugh button.

While forums like this will probably never disappear completely, as there will always be some who refuse to open up, I suspect these forums will die a slow death as image-based social media takes over.