I’m trying to get Facebook groups users to migrate to Discourse and it’s interesting how people use computers. Some people don’t use desktops because they don’t know how (they use their phone usually).
I just know that:
- Facebook and mobile apps have made Internet forums/groups more accessible for people. Suddenly a lot of people can now use online groups.
- A lot of people are getting stuck on Discourse. I would assume that Discourse is a lot easier to use than phpBB. But even Discourse is… challenging… for some folks. For example, somebody went to the site on mobile and hasn’t yet figured out how to read a post… because they got confused by the categories setup or something.
And somebody asked me how long email takes to arrive (because they didn’t get their activation email). You and I would probably assume a minute or so, but people get stuck on this stuff. And when they get stuck, they get really stuck. In this particular case, they don’t know that they should read %{email} for typos because they weren’t explicitly told to do so. They don’t have troubleshooting instincts that would lead them to take that initiative.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’m only learning about this stuff now because the forum’s topic (vaccine injury) affects a cross-section of society. Suddenly, people with computer allergies really want to use online groups to get information about their health (e.g. they can’t work anymore).