I've been a member of Thirdgen.Org since 2001. I've seen the rise of Facebook decimate forum activity, BUT, I've also seen it galvanize the "true believers" for lack of a better term. In the thirdgen community, FB really took a lot of traction from the forum, but FB is a disaster, both in terms of discussion, maturity, knowledge, etc. etc. It's great for pretty pictures. Our forum polices behavior AND the accuracy of information being spread. It's pretty strict, but that's why people like it.
Forums also have a structure more conducive to group participation across multiple topics. FB is all about what's new, -which of course, is what the algorithm wants. LOL! Seriously though...there's no benefit to FB to have someone helping someone else. It just wants to pump out more content.
My local club forum had a lot of participation long after a lot of us "settled down" and got married, had kids etc. etc., but we all kept in touch on the forum and kept talking shop, even though life had changed and we didn't really function as a club. Some of the younger guys suggested a FB page. As the founder, I said no as it would kill activity. They did it anyway. Club was dead two months later.
