Tweet Nitrateville Facebook Fan Page?

Curious...what are the chances of a Nitrateville Fan Page on Facebook? That would be wonderful!!!!

I had to explain to two of my cousins in words of one syllable -- and four letters -- that I was not their friend, I was their family.

Bob

[Mike Gebert]

I'm connected to a zillion people, many of them because of NitrateVille, on Facebook, and I get the person to person part, but I don't see what the advantages of fan pages are. Anyone able to explain it?

For Nitrateville, it's more of an extension to the site. Fan sites are different from friend accounts. You're not adding family members, people who join are members of the site and those who are silent fans and are not aware of Nitrateville.

Granted, social media has a connotation of young people hooking up with friends but as many of you are aware that many older people are involved and are using Facebook. We may be able to entice family members of past silent film stars to also chime in.

Also, to connect with people from involved with silent film distribution, restoration, silent film festivals on Facebook through Nitrateville. I think it would be great.

It's even easier for people to promote for example silent film festivals. There are only so many areas where these film festivals can promote their upcoming events. So, if it's posted on Nitrateville, for us who are members we can recommend it or comment on it or share the information with people within our own personal facebook accounts and essentially promoting it to more people out there.

So, it's a plus!

Absolutely it's a good, free marketing tool for festivals and DVD-releasing companies, and it's been very useful to keep in touch with people a) met only at festivals once or twice a year and b) only know from here, but I consider friends; I can't quite see how it would be useful for Nitrateville, though....

Here are how some sites are driven...like mubi.com which has its videos via theauteurs, they have their forums via mubi.com and this is how it's utilized through Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/apps/applicatio ... MUBIdotcom

With Mubi, you post something on the forum, you can make it show on your own personal account that you have posted a thread on mubi.com.

There is a silent film facebook group which has not been active since Sept. 2009 (and it appears we post Nitrateville.com links on FB from time to time):

http://www.facebook.com/apps/applicatio ... ilentfilms

Another cinema-based site that usually posts info. and trailers to classics on YouTube:

http://www.facebook.com/apps/applicatio ... 6440810719

Classic Hollywood:
http://www.facebook.com/apps/applicatio ... 2262843851

If anything, it's an extension of Nitrateville.com and reaching out to more people who are not familiar with the forum. It doesn't cost anything, really doesn't require much maintenance.

A recent example would be the thread on Richard Patterson's documentary "The Gentleman Tramp". Posted about it and linked it to the Nitrateville.com forum. Noticed that people I knew purchased the DVD, even joined on Nitrateville.com and posted their autograph copy of the DVD and even posted it to their personal FB letting people know about it and visit the Nitrateville.com thread for more information.

(going on a tangent in related to the above post) Granted another thing that Nitrateville.com can do... Nitrateville.com could also have an Amazon affiliate banner (for members to support the site and proceeds go to Nitrateville.com's server costs).

[Mike Gebert]

My concern is the degree to which it has the potential to shift discussion from NitrateVille (which is 1, built for discussion, 2, searchable, and 3, under the control of someone (me) actually interested in the subject and preserving the discussion long term), to a place that is 1, less well built for long discussions, 2, not searchable from here or much of anywhere, and 3 could change policies at any time.

Of course, I just left a comment on Frederica's FB post two seconds ago, so it's not like I'm not inclined to do a little of that too. But it's one thing for FB to be a place where the same folks chitchat a little about totally extraneous things, it'd be another if genuine discussion moved over there.

I guess I should make a page and see what happens, but... I don't want it to suck any life from here.

[Christopher Jacobs]

Well, I still use dialup with Internet Explorer 5.0 and 6.0, depending on whether I'm on my old reliable 10-year-old Windows 98 laptop (like now) or my not quite as old but still ancient by modern standards Windows XP laptop, so there's no way I can even access Facebook, let alone Youtube, unless I've got my little year-old XP netbook plugged into the university's ethernet, which isn't very often.

I understand that a lot of people of all ages do use Facebook, however, and a Facebook presence that would help increase traffic and serious participants on NitrateVille should only be a benefit. I would see a Facebook fan page as strictly a promotional tool for NitrateVille, and not something that would divert conversation from the NitrateVille forum topics. What I've seen of Facebook is much more superficial and unorganized, compared with the easier-to-navigate forums that use software like NitrateVille's for multiple categories of discussion.

I could see a Facebook page potentially cutting down conversation on NitrateVille's "Site Chat" forum, but that's never been a particularly active forum anyway most of the time.

--Christopher Jacobs
http://hpr1.com/film
http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs
http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs/Old ... BluRay.htm

My concern is the degree to which it has the potential to shift discussion from NitrateVille (which is 1, built for discussion, 2, searchable, and 3, under the control of someone (me) actually interested in the subject and preserving the discussion long term), to a place that is 1, less well built for long discussions, 2, not searchable from here or much of anywhere, and 3 could change policies at any time.

Of course, I just left a comment on Frederica's FB post two seconds ago, so it's not like I'm not inclined to do a little of that too. But it's one thing for FB to be a place where the same folks chitchat a little about totally extraneous things, it'd be another if genuine discussion moved over there.

I guess I should make a page and see what happens, but... I don't want it to suck any life from here.

I doubt it will hurt the main site. For example, Criterion posts something about Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times" on Facebook, it's then shared on the Nitrateville site. But if anything, the discussions are very short.... While on Nitrateville....we get into longer discussions.

Same thing with KINO, Warner Archive...they'll post videos, we can share the silents and talkie videos the post up but the discussions we will have on Nitrateville.com are going to be longer and while FB will be more like "I can't Wait until it comes out", "I hope (name of company) releases this title"....short, terse discussions that won't hurt the main site.

Facebook was never meant for long discussions. In fact, if you do create a Facebook fan page, no need for a discussions section because that is what Nitrateville.com is all about. All that is needed is just the wall where people can share youtube videos, short discussions and things like that.

Also, another thing which we will more than likely see on Facebook are the use of YouTube videos that people can share.

But if anything, it's more or less a fan page nothing more but to compliment the main website.

[Mike Gebert]

Okay, there's one created, I think. Not very clear to me what's there, when I go there I get a page telling me more stuff to do to it, I don't know what you'll get.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/NitrateVi ... 2944033727

[silentfilm]

Mike, you used to post the "thread of the week" on alt.movies.silent. Maybe that would be a good idea for Facebook.