Strengths and weaknesses of Railway Forums

[43021HST]

For an A level IT project I have been set with the task of studying certain types of websites in depth and I have encountered one of the questions which may be of great interest 'What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of the 'Internet forums about railways' concept?

I have thought of a few.
Strengths
Railway internet forums can provide route and ticketing advice which you may not find on the national rail website.

Allows free discussion of peoples personal experences of various aspects of the railway, which may come in use for other people when travelling on the train.

Weaknesses

Not everything is fact based on a forum, it may just be opinion based, so the information provided is not always reliable.

Please note this is not a comparison of strengths of weaknesses of railuk, it encompasses all rail forums.
So what do you think? I dont want this thread degenerating into the weaknesses of railuk.co.uk thread.

 

[mbonwick]

Definite weakness;

You have to put up with some very irritating people, be it because of how they type, their views or because they just don't like you


On the plus side, you do get a nice wide (usually) range of opinions.

 

[Seacook]

For an A level IT project I have been set with the task of studying certain types of websites in depth and I have encountered one of the questions which may be of great interest 'What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of the 'Internet forums about railways' concept?

I have thought of a few.
Strengths
Railway internet forums can provide route and ticketing advice which you may not find on the national rail website.

Allows free discussion of peoples personal experences of various aspects of the railway, which may come in use for other people when travelling on the train.

Weaknesses

Not everything is fact based on a forum, it may just be opinion based, so the information provided is not always reliable.

Please note this is not a comparison of strengths of weaknesses of railuk, it encompasses all rail forums.
So what do you think? I dont want this thread degenerating into the weaknesses of railuk.co.uk thread.

On the strengths side, I agree with you in that it is possible to get advice which is difficult or impossible to obtain elsewhere.

The weakness, however, is not specific to railway forums - investigate any forum and you find exactly the same situation - lots of opinion and some very dubious or cherry-picked facts mixed with some real verifiable information.

Opinion-based posts cannot always be treated as a weakness. If a post is well-written, entertaining and thought-provoking it makes little difference if I agree with it or not. (Trolls are never in this category.)

Forums have many strengths compared to most usenet groups - proper moderation, better spam filtering to name but two.

The above are all opinions, of course.

 

[bb21]

Definite weakness;

You have to put up with some very iritating people, be it because of how they type, their views or because they just don't like you


On the plus side, you do get a nice wide (usually) range of opinions.

Isn't that an issue with all online forums rather than just railways ones?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

This is my own personal view of how I see RailUK forums:-

Strengths

Good administration and moderation.
A well defined set of forum rules to abide by.
A very strong railway photography section.
Specific forums to cater for specific rail-related interests are offered to members.
The ticketing and routing forum offers training by experianced members.
Members with many years experiance of working in the Railway industry.

Weaknesses

Members can make postings of opinionated views of dubious quality.

 

[theblackwatch]

This is my own personal view of how I see RailUK forums:-

Strengths

Good administration and moderation.
A well defined set of forum rules to abide by.
A very strong railway photography section.
Specific forums to cater for specific rail-related interests are offered to members.
The ticketing and routing forum offers training by experianced members.
Members with many years experiance of working in the Railway industry.

Weaknesses

Members can make postings of opinionated views of dubious quality.

Remember he is after views on railway forums in general, not on this one in particular.

 

[Greenback]

Isn't that an issue with all online forums rather than just railways ones?

Indeed it is. There are many forums in which 90% of posts are uninformed opinion and utter drivel.

I don't really think it's something that can be seperated from online forums in general. Whether it be railway, football, rugby, tiddlywinks orientated the strengths and weaknesses are the same. The subject is pretty irrelevant.

 

[mbonwick]

Isn't that an issue with all online forums rather than just railways ones?

Yes absolutely, but by the very nature of that point it applies to all rail forums in general (some far more than others though)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Remember he is after views on railway forums in general, not on this one in particular.

Your own forum is an example of any railway forum and the majority of the stated strengths and weaknesses would apply (e.g. moderation, having forum rules, etc). I am sure that the "weakness" that I quoted would be found on many forums.

However, your point is well made and is understood by me.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Your own forum is an example of any railway forum and the majority of the stated strengths and weaknesses would apply (e.g. moderation, having forum rules, etc). I am sure that the "weakness" that I quoted would be found on many forums.

However, your point is well made and is understood by me.

Trouble is we cannot give here as just an example, if klambert was to say that an advantage is good staffing, it may not be absolute gospel, as some forum's moderation can be awful...

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Trouble is we cannot give here as just an example, if klambert was to say that an advantage is good staffing, it may not be absolute gospel, as some forum's moderation can be awful...

I see your point, but I am also a member of nine other very specialised forums, two of which are sport forums, which like RailUK Forums all have excellant moderation and a proper set of rules to cover forum conduct. Maybe I am fortunate in this respect, but being on 10 forums in total is not just an isolated incidence to report.

I did respond to the posting of theblackwatch, who is one of our own moderators, in reply to his posting to me on the matter.

If I stand any further "corrections", I will say here and now that I have said all that I am going to say on this matter, unless a moderator or an administrator asks me to recant everything that I had said so far on this thread. I feel that a repeat of the events of two weeks ago may be surfacing, as happened on the "video games" thread.

 

[Metroland]

Strengths

-Good way for people new to an interest to get the information they want, sometimes just by asking questions
-Good way for people to meet like-minded others
-Good for opening up debates, even seasoned enthusiasts can learn things
-Excellent way to get news
-Excellent way to gauge general opinion on topics
-People of all ages and backgrounds can communicate and bridge gaps

Weaknesses

- Complex topics can be misunderstood by some people, and many threads have to be read from the start.
- Arguments can persist over 'grey' issues (such as how good is one company, topics like HS2, or sticky subjects in the general area like religion, politics).
- The value of some debates can be tainted by ideology, perception or strong opinion - however this is a problem in others areas such as print media, film or TV. On the other hand, strong opinions makes for entertaining threads, and these tend to get more hits than others.
- People are more inclined to get personal with others because they are not in the same 'space'
- Conspiracy theories can persist, and finger pointing at individuals and companies is rife.
- Some 'news' can sometimes not be very in-depth and print media is often still better to get the 'whole' strong written by professional journalists

 

[43021HST]

Trouble is we cannot give here as just an example, if klambert was to say that an advantage is good staffing, it may not be absolute gospel, as some forum's moderation can be awful...

The quality of forum moderation is all down to opinion, what some people may call good moderation, others may say that its too strict.

I think its the type of moderation that gives each forum a unique character, I joined this forum for information and serious discussion (know that quite often it often degererates into crap talking and point scoring, me included but at least I can admit it) and I joined the messroom for general banter and talking nonsense.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Strengths

-Good way for people new to an interest to get the information they want, sometimes just by asking questions
-Good way for people to meet like-minded others
-Good for opening up debates, even seasoned enthusiasts can learn things
-Excellent way to get news
-Excellent way to gauge general opinion on topics
-People of all ages and backgrounds can communicate and bridge gaps

Weaknesses

- Complex topics can be misunderstood by some people, and many threads have to be read from the start.
- Arguments can persist over 'grey' issues (such as how good is one company, topics like HS2, or sticky subjects in the general area like religion, politics).
- The value of some debates can be tainted by ideology, perception or strong opinion - however this is a problem in others areas such as print media, film or TV. On the other hand, strong opinions makes for entertaining threads, and these tend to get more hits than others.
- People are more inclined to get personal with others because they are not in the same 'space'
- Conspiracy theories can persist, and finger pointing at individuals and companies is rife.
- Some 'news' can sometimes not be very in-depth and print media is often still better to get the 'whole' strong written by professional journalists

This is the best post answering the original thread so far, cheers for that metroland. You have given me a lot of material

As an answer to some previous questions, It is allowed to pour criticism on the whole internet forum concept as a whole, not just for railways, lightbulbs etc

 

[SS4]

Strengths:

Information (and anomalies) are easily shared
It is far easier to organise like minded people
Clear and concise examples can be given
Differences of opinion can lead to new developments
Action can be co-ordinated


Disadvantages

Opinions presented as fact
Anecdotes not backed up by fact
By it's nature public forums can be read by anybody.
ATOC can close loopholes identified
Trolls