# Facebook Groups - Zuck is coming for us
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437
**Category:** Community Building
**Tags:** facebook-migration
**Created:** [13 ביוני, 2017, 4:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437 "2017-06-13T16:43:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [8 במאי, 2018, 8:09am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437/44 "2018-05-08T08:09:28Z")
We’re certainly not opposed to a community-contributed comparison 😉
Beyond that, there’s just not a whole lot to gain from us trying to prominently position ourselves as a Facebook Groups alternative. Fact is, if your group is relatively tiny and strapped for cash then you’ll have an easier time getting started on a free platform that’s subsidised by a larger vertical play. Probably only 0.01% of Facebook Groups out there would be able to pay for hosting, and being _willing_ to is a whole other story when you’ve gotten used to the idea of 🆓.
Without even having a dedicated sales or marketing department to speak of, this isn’t a market segment we want to mess with at the moment.
My main concern about Facebook Groups is that as far as I can tell they still don’t provide a good export path, which is deplorable.
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### Author:  [@SouperC](https://meta.discourse.org/u/SouperC)
#### Post date: [9 במאי, 2018, 9:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437/45 "2018-05-09T21:16:19Z")
> [@merefield](#):
>
> The Facebook UI is a crowded, noisy mess. (Test: where is FB Group search? You have 5 seconds ;)) Coming back to my Discourse instances is like breathing fresh country air in comparison.
I think this gets overlooked. The user experience on Facebook is not great… but people are indoctrinated to use it.
Offer a better experience with higher quality information/curation and clarity and people will come visit your forums.
Plus, search traffic.
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### Author:  [@SouperC](https://meta.discourse.org/u/SouperC)
#### Post date: [9 במאי, 2018, 9:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437/46 "2018-05-09T21:19:18Z")
> [@arnie](#):
>
> Facebook is closed platform, it cannot be indexed… New people will not come from open web… You are not the owner of the content… People who don’t use fb cannot participate… Many reasons to use discourse are there
Indeed these are all valid, but none of them really matter to the people who you are looking to attract to your forums\website.
Whatever it is… it needs to provide value TO THEM vs facebook group (or anything else)
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### Author:  [@SouperC](https://meta.discourse.org/u/SouperC)
#### Post date: [9 במאי, 2018, 9:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437/47 "2018-05-09T21:32:54Z")
This isn’t a slight on Discourse, but most people won’t and don’t care about it’s features, or how much “better” (functionally) it is than facebook groups.
They _do_ care about better conversation, better quality of information, curation, status and so on. You need to embody and demonstrate those values before you even think about a list of features of Discourse.
Features can be the icing on the cake. But if you dont have the above, you’re hosed until you figure out that part. Once you do, then you can start to talk about some of the benefits of the platform that can add value to their experience in your community.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [9 במאי, 2018, 10:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437/48 "2018-05-09T22:12:05Z")
> [@SouperC](#):
>
> They _do_ care about better conversation, better quality of information, curation, status and so on.
💯❗ Content is king. If you have great content, everything else follows. If you do not..
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### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [16 ביולי, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437/49 "2018-07-16T14:38:04Z")
So I did a quick straw poll of my users and so far it’s looking like:
- 18% refuse to touch Facebook for the purpose
- 74% prefer to use my Discourse instance over an equivalent FB Group
- 4% happy to use either
- 4% prefer Facebook
So the message from my main Discourse forum is the vast majority prefer Discourse over FB 🏆
The challenge for me is turning that into an instance that at least covers its costs … 🙂
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### Author:  [@notriddle](https://meta.discourse.org/u/notriddle)
#### Post date: [16 ביולי, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437/50 "2018-07-16T16:08:01Z")
> [@merefield](#):
>
> 50% prefer to use my Discourse instance over an equivalent FB Group
> [@merefield](#):
>
> - 12.5% happy to use either
> - 12.5% prefer Facebook (probably because I annoyed them by moderating one of their comments at some point 😉 )
That’s 75% of your user base accounted for. Where’s the other 25%?
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### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [16 ביולי, 2018, 5:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437/52 "2018-07-16T17:53:48Z")
Do you only have 8 users?
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### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [16 ביולי, 2018, 6:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437/53 "2018-07-16T18:53:29Z")
> [@Stephen](#):
>
> Do you only have 8 users?
hahaha, in fairness I did say ‘straw poll’ and ‘so far’ 😉
Don’t curb my enthusiasm!
4k, but only about 300 or so active at the moment
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### Author:  [@westes](https://meta.discourse.org/u/westes)
#### Post date: [17 בדצמבר, 2025, 8:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437/54 "2025-12-17T08:37:31Z")
Can I see your Discourse? I would like to see how you use the Wiki feature in each topic.
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### Author:  [@isaac](https://meta.discourse.org/u/isaac)
#### Post date: [19 בדצמבר, 2025, 2:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437/55 "2025-12-19T14:33:09Z")
You might find [Editing and creating wiki posts](https://meta.discourse.org/t/editing-and-creating-wiki-posts/30801) interesting (as a live example) 🙂
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### Author:  [@westes](https://meta.discourse.org/u/westes)
#### Post date: [19 בדצמבר, 2025, 10:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437/56 "2025-12-19T22:58:55Z")
I guess I don’t have access to the Wiki change user interface yet, because I am a new user with a low trust level?
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [19 בדצמבר, 2025, 11:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437/57 "2025-12-19T23:02:07Z")
Editing wikis here on Meta requires trust level 2. There is a wiki post in the sandbox forum [How can I make a post Wiki? - #2 by techAPJ - discourse - Discourse Demo](https://try.discourse.org/t/how-can-i-make-a-post-wiki/325/2) which you can use for testing.
[Previous page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-groups-zuck-is-coming-for-us/64437.md?page=2)