I have been thinking quite a bit about the purpose of online communities and forums. I have been on the road for three weeks with no internet access and decided when I got home I would finish writing this piece. Part of this comes from being involved in two of them with regard to pipe smoking and another part comes from what I do for work in training leaders on a global basis and utilizing an online forum for that process as well. So I have been involved in online forums for the better part of 12 years. I have had experience as a participant, moderator and a forum operator/administrator. On the positive side, I’ve learned and shared many great ideas, made valuable new contacts and friends and was able to communicate quickly and efficiently with a wide scope of people in all different parts of the world. On the negative side, I found that it was easy to fall into excess participation and a huge time drain and if not disciplined in my usage – very addicting as well.

As I reflected on the concept of forums I came to the conclusion that it would be helpful for me to put pen to paper with regard to what I am expecting from these forums and what they can provide for me. This kind of writing exercise helps me keep perspective on the waxing and waning life of the online community.

What an online community/forum is

1. Pipe Forums are a place of intellectual exchange. They are a safe environment for sharpening ideas and skills and reflecting on common and new experiences with other individuals who share the same hobby and passion.
2. They are a place where one can learn new ideas and refine old ones. Through the sharing of ideas and experiences new ideas, skills and aspects of the hobby can be learned and explored and earlier ideas and thinking refined.
3. A place to enjoy community – though this is at some levels artificial, it does open the door to ongoing enjoyment and sharing with some of the individuals I seek to know more fully through phone, emails, private messages and often through personal visits and the exchange of gifts.
4. Influencing the forum’s evolution by becoming an involved member. The beauty of being positive contributor to the shape and form of the community.
5. Contributing to the learning and experience of others and reciprocally receiving from them in like measure.
6. Making new friends and contacts – this often comes as follow up work is done and relationships are worked on through the various channels mentioned in number 3.
7. A way of keeping up with current events that relate to the field of interest. A broad spectrum of forum readers makes for a broad reporting on events of interest.
8. A place that always has new opportunities to learn and develop a broader and deeper understanding of the hobby.

What an online community/forum is not:

1. The Forums are not my real life. I do have a significant social life apart from the forums and usually use the forums as a bit of escape from the normal stresses and strains of my life. Because they are not my life I do not expect them to do for me what the folks around me real time provide in terms of support and care. I expect them to provide a haven, a respite from the nonsense of people issues that I deal with every single day.
2. The Forums are a place for sharing opinions and ideas and as such they can be a bit volatile. People cherish their opinions and have a hard time dealing with disagreement. But it must be remembered the point is not to create a monochrome community where we all say nice things and always agree. Rather they are a place to sharpen one another and learn new skills.
3. The Forums are not a face to face community. They do not provide a real life context and people join by and large because of common interest or shared hobby. They cannot provide the information needed to make a full orbed assessment of and connection with another person without each individual taking time to deepen that outside the online community. In many ways they provide an artificial sense of community based on perceived shared interests. Outside of that limited setting those on the forums may have little else in common.
4. The Forums do not provide a vehicle to facilitate understanding the tone and emotions of those who post. Because they are limited to written communication (Though some have chat rooms that seem to have some users) there is no real way to know the feeling behind words that another is writing to you. It is easy to misread emotion and feeling into what is written that was never intended. Thus we can easily be sucked into drama that is unnecessary because it is not based on any reality.

Many of the ideas and thoughts were found as I researched this topic online. The next part of this article has been adapted from an article by Steve Pavlina on Effective Online Forums Usage http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/effective-online-forum-usage.htm

He lists some of the potential negative side effects of excessive forum usage that I found helpful reminders for me in learning and maintaining moderation in my participation in the online community.

1. Reduced concentration and focus
2. Reduced productivity
3. Chronic procrastination
4. Increased pessimism and/or apathy
5. Being distracted by endless debates and idle gossip
6. Gradually substituting tribal group think for your own intelligence
7. Impaired social skills, neglected relationships, and a weakened social circle (a consequence of substituting online socialization for face-to-face conversations)
8. Reduced energy (forum participation is sedentary compared to more active social outlets)
9. Reduced self-esteem
10. Career and income may suffer (including loss of employment)
11. Forum addiction

From that point the article gives some suggestions that I thought were helpful in using forums effectively and avoiding the negative side effects. I am not sure I agree with all of his suggestions but I found them thought provoking and worth passing on to those of you who are reading this piece.

1. Take a Forum Fast  – First, if you’re currently active on any forums, go on a forum fast. Stop visiting all forums for a while; don’t even lurk. I recommend a fasting period of 30 days, with a bare minimum of 14 days. This will help you break any unconscious habits and regain your perspective, so you can intelligently evaluate the role forums should play in your life. Otherwise, you may be coming from a place of unconscious habit and will likely overestimate the value of continued participation. If you’re currently a forum moderator, take a forum vacation, and enlist someone to temporarily assume your moderation duties. Redirect the time you would have spent in online forums to something positive like exercising or reading books. If you don’t think you have the discipline to do this, simply make a post in each forum explaining that you’ll be taking the next 30 days off, and if any forum member catches you online, you’ll pay the first person that emails you about it $100. This should give you enough leverage to stick with your fast.

2. Reassess Your Forum Usage Habits – Once you’ve completed the initial fasting period (and not before), take a fresh look at your forum participation habits. Imagine that you just discovered each forum today for the first time. What are the pros and cons of participation? Is this the best use of your time, or can you imagine something better? If you’re using forums to get specific information, would it be better to simply read books, articles, or blogs? If you’re using them as a social outlet, would it be better to join a local club and meet people face-to-face? Looking back on your previous pattern of behavior, would you say you were addicted? Did your usage pattern become unconscious? If so, how do you intend to prevent that from happening again?

3. Clarify Your Expectations – If you decide to participate in online forums, clarify your expectations. Whether you intend to use forums for market research, to make new contacts, or as an outlet for your humorous wit, get clear on why you’re there.

4. Establish Reasonable Boundaries – To limit the risk of forum addiction, set clear boundaries for yourself and write them down. You can limit the number of times per week you check each forum, the total amount of time you spend participating, or the number of posts you’ll allow yourself to make each week. Track your weekly usage on a scrap of paper to keep yourself consciously aware of your participation habits. Don’t go dark and succumb to unconscious habituation. Establish clear boundaries such that if you cross them, you know you’re at risk of falling into a pattern of addiction. And if that ever happens, it’s time to immediately begin a new fasting period.

5. Let It Go – If you find yourself repeatedly succumbing to forum addiction or other negative usage patterns, you may decide it’s best to simply do without. At the time of this writing, I no longer regularly participate in any online forums or message boards. When I clarified my intentions, I realized my #1 reason for participation was to contribute and to help people. But using forums as a contribution outlet was inefficient, since it would too often lead to lengthy (and mostly unproductive) debates. I found that sticking with one-to-many outlets like writing articles and maintaining a blog were a much better use of my time. Blog comments still allow some interactivity, but the time required to manage them is reasonable and the personal relevance of most blog comments is extremely high.

6. Replace Online Socialization with Face-to-Face Contact – Regarding the social aspect, online forums are a poor substitute for meeting people in person. While there’s certainly some social benefit to forums – many people have met their spouses in online forums, including me – it’s important to physically spend time with human beings instead of via a computer screen. If you need a new social outlet, join a local club or association, especially one that meets weekly. I found that when I joined Toastmasters International and began attending meetings and competing in speech contests, my interest in socializing via online forums fell dramatically. Even the best online communication pales in comparison to face-to-face, belly-to-belly contact.

7. Be a Dabbler, Not a Fixture – Another tip is to treat forum participation as temporary. If your goal is to make new business contacts, then dive in and participate actively for a while, maybe 30-90 days. Make new friends and contacts, collect private contact info, and then abandon the forums. Continue to develop your new relationships via one-to-one communication like email, phone calls, and if possible, face-to-face meetings (such as at industry conferences). Temporarily dabbling in many different forums is a more effective way to build contacts than pushing a single forum far beyond its usefulness.

You can also use the dabbling method to gather general information on a subject. Seek out a number of relevant forums and bookmark them. Then spend a few hours scanning each forum once every six months to soak up the current wisdom. Whenever you have a specific question, pop in and search the forum archives. If searching turns up a blank, feel free to post a new message, harvest the answers, and disappear.

8. Avoid Addiction – Online forums are tricky beasts. At the time of this writing, my feeling is that ongoing daily participation in any single forum for more than a few months is almost invariably unproductive. Eventually the initial benefits like gaining knowledge and making new contacts produce diminishing returns. And then the negative effects like forum addiction set in. Regular participation (even from unconscious habituation) will still provide some benefits, but the longer you participate, the less efficiently those benefits are realized.

Close cousins of forum addiction include online gaming addiction, web surfing addiction, blog addiction, email addiction, and news addiction. The common pattern is that unconscious habituation overrides conscious, clear-headed decision-making. If you ever find yourself with such an unproductive habit, take steps to reassert conscious control. Use a period of fasting to regain your perspective, reexamine your motives, set clear boundaries, and find alternative outlets. Manage your forum usage consciously to serve your goals, and avoid the trap of addiction.

Online forums can be a powerful productivity tool, but self-awareness and discipline are required to prevent them from becoming a pitfall of procrastination.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the use and abuse of Forums. They are a great tool for making our world much smaller and a way for us to reach out to others who share a common interest in the pipes and tobaccos we love. Let’s have your responses.