Facebook vs. Forum

[Ah-bin]

I have just been thinking about the flurry of activity on various Facebook groups in the last month or so. I've been finding I get many answers very quickly to my questions, and a lot of people respond in detail about things that their parents used to say. Unfortunately, there is a downside. It is not possible to search in Facebook for topics, and it is very difficult to track down things from just a few weeks ago. Some of the same topics are being covered there as have been covered here, such as names of fish.

My own facebook effort hasn't really got off the ground. I would like for people to see my questions, but they tend to get missed. The problem is that you have to pay for people to see things on facebook, whereas they are free here.

Another advantage of the forum is that things tend to be discussed in very great detail, whereas facebook discussions can be rather fleeting and superficial. It would be a pity if all communication switched over to facebook, but I am guilty of getting involved in conversations there rather than starting them here.

I am posting this in the hope that it might revive a bit of interest in posting here. Maybe it's just a matter of time, and interest is low at the moment...

[Abun]

I fully agree. I too made the experience that you can get quick answers on facebook, but rarely ever profound ones. Plus, the group I have frequented a lot consists mostly of native speakers (well, apart from me and maybe a few people who want to rediscover their origins). That definitely has its perks, because of course these people can tell you best what word they would use for a certain thing. But it makes it different to ask questions on grammar very hard because native speakers usually don't think about the rules of their language (I'm no exception, I would have utmost difficulty explaining German grammar as well).

So for me, those facebook groups occupy a different niche for me than this forum. If I am just quickly asking for a word and don't expect any problems concerning its use, I would ask the former; if I have a grammar question or expect rather profound problems, I would post it here.

[amhoanna]

That's the thing -- Facebook is where the "users" are at right now, but everything that's posted there goes "down the drain", so to speak. I'm all for doing as much as possible out here on the open internet.

Cin hoaⁿhí khòaⁿkìⁿ ǔ lâng tńglâi cia.

[Ah-bin]

I have been carefully collecting all the vocabulary and information on the Penang variety from Penang Hokkien forums. Although I can't work out what some of the words are or how they should be pronounced, most of them I think I'll be able to find in my collection of reference books, though. I hope someone else is doing the work for other kinds of Hokkien!