Hi ARSC,
Thanks to everyone who participated in the Online Media Committee's survey about whether we would want a Facebook Group, and to everyone who discussed the issue on the listserv. You can view the results of the survey at the following link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wP5xesZFrqNkUAh49TzjOBadqRBRicxi6fPjh1qNBZs/edit?usp=sharing
Here's a summary of the survey responses:
70.7% of respondents are Facebook users, 29.3% are not.
58.6% of respondents are active in Facebook groups for other organizations, 41.4% are not.
48.3% of respondents said they would participate in an ARSC Facebook Group if created, 34.5% said they would not, 17.2% responded "maybe".
68.4% of respondents support the creation of a group, 31.6% don't.
We also received 24 comments through the survey, which you can view with the responses above. We combined these with comments in the listserv discussion and grouped them into similar themes. You can view these below, sorted by number of comments.
Pros:
Appealing or welcoming to younger members or non-members (25)
Conducive to active discussion (9)
Media capability (5)
Self-moderation (blocking users, unfollowing threads) (2)
Ease of use (1)
Cons:
Generally dislike or distrust Facebook or social media (12)
Security / privacy concerns (11)
Potential to splinter discussion (8)
Potential behavior / moderation issues (6)
Too time-consuming (6)
Archiveability (4)
Lack of control over underlying software (4)
Accessibility for non-Facebook users (4)
Searchability (3)
Difficult to use / learn (2)
Advertisements (1)
More work for ARSC / OMC (1)
Neutral / Suggestions:
Room for both (ARSClist and Facebook) (11)
Consider alternative platforms (8)
Should be actively moderated (2)
“Stake claim” (2)
Clear rules and guidelines (1)
As we stated at the outset, the survey was for information-gathering for the committee, and we're still considering the issue. We take the reservations stated in the comments of the survey and the listserv discussion seriously and we're still looking into this and other options. For now, I'd like to request we not renew the conversation here. If you've got comments that you didn't make in the survey or original thread, feel free to email me and I'll make sure we discuss them before proceeding.
Thanks again,
Mason Vander Lugt, Online Media Committee co-chair
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