Have you ever noticed that Webmaster communication habits are usually ahead of everyone else's? We were the first to embrace e-mail as a viable business communication medium. We were the first to capitalize on instant messaging and all the real-time business advantages that medium possesses, and now we've moved on to dominating real-time organic community-building in the form of the ubiquitous Webmaster bulletin board.
LAJ from YNOTMasters recently wrote in an article that the proliferation of boards is an industry trend bound to continue throughout 2003. I agree, but I'll go a little further. I don't think there are enough bulletin boards. I want more. In fact, I hope that by the end of 2003 there are five times as many Webmaster bulletin boards as there are today. I want five times the smilies, five times the funny signatures, five times the stupid questions, five times the marketing, five times the arrogant pricks, five times the contests, five times the post-whores and what I really, really want is five times the drama.
I hope new boards emerge and challenge the dominance of some of the top-trafficked boards like GFY. I want to see board wars declared and gauntlets thrown down. Most of all, I want every single person reading this column to start their very own Webmaster bulletin board.
More boards means more people working hard to build a communication infrastructure that keeps us all connected, all the time. I believe that bulletin boards (as old as they are) are the next step in the evolution of Webmaster communication tools. We've transferred our instant messaging identities into these real-time blogs of our personalities intended to sell ourselves and our skills to everyone else. There's something to be said for a resource that lets you keep an eye on clients, the competition, and industry trends within one interactive framework. What's more, the marketing feedback on a good board is instantaneous. Within five minutes of posting an announcement about a new product or service, you can get instant response and valid criticism from potential clients, which is better and more responsive turnover than any focus group or customer survey could accomplish.
Ideally, once we see interoperability between competing bulletin board applications, the size of the audience visiting the boards is likely to grow. For instance, the implementation of a standard protocol enabling a registered user of a phpBB community to easily register with a vBulletin community, and vice versa, would cut down on the amount of registration time for both. Less time on registration means more time for the contribution of information and knowledge. More information and knowledge means more access to money. Get the picture?
Theories behind the Web bulletin board as a communication medium have yet to be substantially documented. Yet it is abundantly clear that the accumulated news, gossip, information, and drama in one day on a busy board can rival that of any traditional media outlet. Through the posting of videos, pictures, news, and gossip, the Webmaster who regularly visits bulletin boards is contributing to a huge alternative media source - with each user acting as an independent reporter and editor relatively free from the filters and censorship found in most media newsrooms.
Bulletin boards provide self-regulatory and mediation functions for the Webmaster that are unparalleled in mainstream industry. Throw in corporate cliques and their mega-marketing campaigns and you've got a B2B free-for-all that makes sitting in front of a computer on a Friday night worthwhile.
Having five times as many Webmaster bulletin boards might seem like madness at first. Give it a little thought and you'll quickly realize that more boards means a larger audience and community of users, which means we'll see more new applications and technology dedicated to improving the board experience... and we can all win from that.
Warning: Every so often FillmoreSlim drops in to talk boards, broads, and booze. We can't control what he says, and the YNOT Network claims no responsibility for any of the drivel that escapes this asswipe's mouth. In fact, it is our opinion that your life might be better off without reading the following column. You've been warned.
This editorial was originally published at www.ynotmasters.com.
[Editors Note: The above words come from FillmoreSlim himself... YNOT claims no responsibility for his warnings, either.]
FillmoreSlim can be reached at [email protected].
