Cruise Meets moving to FB?

[abayaflowers]

I have been checking my Meetup group for the Alaskan cruise and it has been moved to FB. Is this common? Am I "old school"? I remember when we went to the Baltic Cruise (2015) and Caribbean (2016), there was so much activity on Cruise Meets. I really love this website, because it's all in one location for me to peruse. Thoughts?

 

[MelSpees]

A great many groups have moved to FB. Our 2015 cruise was there as is our upcoming 2018. Many people like the interaction there better. I like both sites. Our EBPC this fall is on both and I check them both. Most activity is over on FB. I think the move there has largely been because of some restrictions here.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I have been checking my Meetup group for the Alaskan cruise and it has been moved to FB. Is this common? Am I "old school"? I remember when we went to the Baltic Cruise (2015) and Caribbean (2016), there was so much activity on Cruise Meets. I really love this website, because it's all in one location for me to peruse. Thoughts?

I am disappointed with the move, I do not go on FB very much. If there’s a group here I join. We have a pretty good turnout for DVC’s Member Cruise.

 

[MelSpees]

I think that a lot of people don't realize that you don't have to be generally active on FB to be part of a group. You must have an account, but then you can join the cruise group and only go to that page. You can also ask for notifications so you get a notice when something is posted on the page. You don't need to go to your homepage at all, or even request friends. You don't have to get involved in the whole social media scene if you don't want to.

 

[Chemist]

I only use Facebook for meets. I have no other friends etc.

 

[tidefan]

There are FE groups here as well. Check your cruise meet thread. However, it does vary widely. Some groups are active here and some are not.

I, like a number of people, am not on FB, so we prefer to do the FE here...

 

[Ravenne]

I've seen the shift from here to FB as well. I'm not a fan of the shift either. My next cruise's group is all on FB. Thankfully, this one has been more chill, and laid back about it, but in the past, I've had admins who want to know EVERYTHING about everyone in the group, and if you don't share it, along with pics, you're a creepy pariah. As if there aren't hundreds if not thousands of other people on the same cruise that's not on FB or in the group. Oh, that's not creepy at all. I just don't share a whole lot on FB. I don't even share pics with my real life friends on FB. I just want to do a FE. They don't need to know my ancestry for that.

 

[Dug720]

The biggest advantage on here to me is that the listing is much more uniform. Unless you know EXACTLY how someone has titled it on FB, it's a lot harder to find things and could easily lead to more than one group IMHO.

 

[mom2brooke76]

I'm going on my 11th cruise soon and noticed the switch too in the last couple of years. It's sad because ALL of my FE memories are from here and I met some wonderful people too. Unfortunately it is what it is now and social media seems to have taken over. If you look at cruise meet groups on here you'll notice most don't have much activity. That's because the majority are on FB. We're on one for our 11th cruise and as far as those without FB accounts or lots of pics, etc, many people will talk to us and explain that they don't typically use social media and made up an account just to join. A simple confirmation of that is all that's needed. We don't need to know your life history or for anyone to "unlock" their page LOL Anyone who is doing that in a group shouldn't be.

 

[abayaflowers]

There are FE groups here as well. Check your cruise meet thread. However, it does vary widely. Some groups are active here and some are not.

I, like a number of people, am not on FB, so we prefer to do the FE here...

Yes, my cruise meet for the June 4th had 1 page of postings which is sad for me, because I look forward to the ideas on it. Now with the issues that FB is facing, I hope that it transitions back to Disboards.

 

[disneycruise100]

My meet-up group is only on Facebook...

 

[kuhltiffany]

The FB ones are a lot easier to follow, IMHO. Just check and see who the admin is, if it's not someone with the initials AK, the group should be fine to join

 

[RebeccaLovesDisney]

The biggest advantage on here to me is that the listing is much more uniform. Unless you know EXACTLY how someone has titled it on FB, it's a lot harder to find things and could easily lead to more than one group IMHO.

This exactly. I've never been able to find my cruise meet on FB by doing a simple search. I admit I haven't spent a lot of time trying multiple title/name combinations, but it does take some effort to find. Maybe that's the point.

 

[ACQUADUCK]

Main issue here is posters hiding behind names, but on FB it's honest real people that you know. And know are actually cruisers who are booked on current cruises.
The group I am in has 150 members, but only 5 posted here.

There is an assumption that it's migrated from here, many do not know of this forum, I would say 95% come from other sources direct.

I.e. When in one FB group, FB highlights other potential groups of interest, say with same friends or same type of ship cruises. A google search will bring them up as well.

Anyone can open FB and limit it to what they want like a group.

I will not go back, as said 95% do not come from here.

Finding stuff on FB is easy as it has an effective search facility.

 

[Dug720]

Main issue here is posters hiding behind names, but on FB it's honest real people that you know. And know are actually cruisers who are booked on current cruises.
The group I am in has 150 members, but only 5 posted here.

There is an assumption that it's migrated from here, many do not know of this forum, I would say 95% come from other sources direct.

I.e. When in one FB group, FB highlights other potential groups of interest, say with same friends or same type of ship cruises. A google search will bring them up as well.

Anyone can open FB and limit it to what they want like a group.

I will not go back, as said 95% do not come from here.

Finding stuff on FB is easy as it has an effective search facility.

There is at least one person who has her fingers in a lot of the FB meets who is in no way, shape, or form going on the cruises. So FB is NOT a guarantee that people are actually on there vs. on here.

It's not the search function that is the problem. It is the lack of uniformity in how they are listed. Unless you know the exact wording to find something, you're getting a ton of stuff that is NOT correct. Much like on here, true. But there is the master list here that is pretty uniform in how they are listed - or at the very least it's in the main thread to find.

 

[bumbershoot]

Main issue here is posters hiding behind names, but on FB it's honest real people that you know.

You think that all people on FB are using their real names? Hmm. I know many people who don’t use their real names.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Main issue here is posters hiding behind names, but on FB it's honest real people that you know. And know are actually cruisers who are booked on current cruises.
The group I am in has 150 members, but only 5 posted here.

There is an assumption that it's migrated from here, many do not know of this forum, I would say 95% come from other sources direct.

I.e. When in one FB group, FB highlights other potential groups of interest, say with same friends or same type of ship cruises. A google search will bring them up as well.

Anyone can open FB and limit it to what they want like a group.

I will not go back, as said 95% do not come from here.

Finding stuff on FB is easy as it has an effective search facility.

You can't assume the people on a FB meet group are "honest" or "real" or even "actually cruisers". It doesn't take much to create a fake FB account and there have been ample examples of people on FB meet groups that aren't actually cruisers on that cruise.

Whether or not most people participating on FB are members of DISboards doesn't change the fact that the Fish Extender idea started here, and it's sad that so few people participate in the cruise meet groups here.

 

[eeyoreandtink]

Biggest draw is that FB is much less restrictive. It's a LOT easier to set things up.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I have been checking my Meetup group for the Alaskan cruise and it has been moved to FB. Is this common? Am I "old school"? I remember when we went to the Baltic Cruise (2015) and Caribbean (2016), there was so much activity on Cruise Meets. I really love this website, because it's all in one location for me to peruse. Thoughts?

Time was the Cruise Meet threads were the place where all discussions about your upcoming cruise were handled. Including Fish Extender exchanges.

Then people started using facebook to "get together" outside the cruise meet thread for more personal discussions (How's the kids? I remember you from XXXX! etc). But the discussions related to the actual cruise still happened on DISboards.

Then some groups just "met up" on FB and started their own cruise meet groups. Including setting up FE groups.

Then they started showing up here on DISboards and "inviting" others here to their group. Basically gutting the cruise meet groups here.

DISboards then responded by setting a new policy not allowing links/directions to other social media sites for such things.

That's pretty standard across most forums.

There's absolutely no reason that different social media sites can't have their own meet groups/FE groups. I was part of two different forum's cruise groups (each with their own FE group) for the same cruise. There were people in both groups and some only in one or the other.

The idea is every site should have it's own group. You can't call a FE group on any other social media site a DISboards FE group. And I don't think everyone understands that.

 

[tidefan]

Biggest draw is that FB is much less restrictive. It's a LOT easier to set things up.

I don’t find it that hard to set up on DIS. For our July Dream Cruise, we’ve got 16 cabins in the DIS FE group, so they can still flourish here. I think it mainly takes someone willing to administer it...