Are MFP "Groups" useless?

chris_in_cal

On MFP there are forums/Message Boards (where I am posting now) and we all see them, the get used a bunch. The Message Board feed is on all of our homepages.

But, MFP also has "groups." I've started a handful of groups. I've joined a handful of groups. There is one group that has some activity, but it basically is one message that all the members added to "did you swim today".

One MFP'er told me groups are not useful because there is no way to link to a group or bookmark it, so that a person can go right to the group straightaway. You have to log in, then click a handful of times to get to a group.

I expect there will be a handful of people reading this who think, not groups are okay, don't stress. But why do the rest of us not seem to really use the MFP groups at all?

chris_in_cal

BTW: I wasn't exactly sure the best message board to post this one, so I picked "Motivation and Support" cause I would image a functioning group could really help with Motivation and Support

nutmegoreo

I think it depends on the group. Ones that are started for challenges tend to be more active. If it has a large number of members it tends to be more active. If it's members are people who are here very regularly, it tends to be more active. If it's a group of people who all say "let's support each other," but there's minimal common bond, I would think it would fall apart pretty fast. Particularly if it's a smaller group.

88olds

I click Communities and get a list of forums, including Motivation & Support. At the bottom of that page I get a heading, My Groups with GoaD, the only group I’m in.

If you use the search function to search for GoaD you can find us, Guys On A Diet. Yeah, we aren’t on a diet and we aren’t all guys. We got together on Weight Watchers years ago. Then WW got rid of its boards. You don’t need to do WW to be in our group. Lots of us quit WW long ago, some this use it I think. Give us a look. We’re there every day.

Lounmoun

On the web page for the forums if you scroll down the groups you have joined are listed at the bottom. Once you have joined a group they are easy enough to find.

I think people have trouble finding groups that they might be interested in among all of the redundant, inactive groups. It'd be nice if groups that had no activity for say 3 months would expire and be removed.

I think an active group is going to take some work and a lot of interest from those starting it. The people who start groups often stop participating in their own groups. They do not try to start and keep conversations going. They do not seek out members on the forums. If there is nothing new or no connections made there is no reason to go back.
Groups that have just one long ongoing thread might as well just post a thread on the regular forums.

I want to like groups. I think they could be useful for support and ongoing discussion of particular topics. They just don't seem to work well here or on other sites I've been on that have the option.

chris_in_cal

Lounmoun wrote: »

I think people have trouble finding groups that they might be interested in among all of the redundant, inactive groups. It'd be nice if groups that had no activity for say 3 months would expire and be removed.

This is a great idea. Or the ability to sort by 'amount of activity'.

lorib642

Then there are groups that discourage posting until you have researched the problem on your own. I feel intimidated about posting.

writerAndrew

chris_in_cal wrote: »

But, MFP also has "groups." I've started a handful of groups. I've joined a handful of groups. There is one group that has some activity, but it basically is one message that all the members added to "did you swim today".

Just out of interest Chris, what sort of groups in particular are you referring to?

I am wondering if some are more popular/enduring than others and if so, why.

chris_in_cal

writerAndrew wrote: »

Just out of interest Chris, what sort of groups in particular are you referring to?

"Groups" in MFP generally. Like their own ppendix I bet most regular active users aren't even aware that MFP has groups, or what the distinction is between the message board forums and MFP groups.

The forums buzz by the second, groups languish for months.

pinuplove

chris_in_cal wrote: »

writerAndrew wrote: »

Just out of interest Chris, what sort of groups in particular are you referring to?

"Groups" in MFP generally. Like their own ppendix I bet most regular active users aren't even aware that MFP has groups, or what the distinction is between the message board forums and MFP groups.

The forums buzz by the second, groups languish for months.

It really depends on the group. I'm in a couple that were both spun off from main forum threads and are mainly populated by those who were there at the inception. I like having a more intimate place to talk about things that aren't necessarily directly related to fitness and weight loss with friends I've made here. I'm also in a big (3k + members) group that was very active and fun when it started in 2012 but is pretty quiet these days.

writerAndrew

chris_in_cal wrote: »

writerAndrew wrote: »

Just out of interest Chris, what sort of groups in particular are you referring to?

"Groups" in MFP generally. Like their own ppendix I bet most regular active users aren't even aware that MFP has groups, or what the distinction is between the message board forums and MFP groups.

The forums buzz by the second, groups languish for months.

But then don't you feel that although the forums buzz by the second, there is a lot of repetition there and in some cases banality?

For me, the concept of groups is that they cater to like minded individuals based on specific topics/interests.

But the problem with that on MFP is finding them initially, And then, when they do exist populating them with sufficient user numbers and also maintaining frequency of postings to keep the level of interaction up or draw new people.

Are any of the groups you are still in active or mainly all stagnant?

LumberJacck

I've been a member of Myfitnesspal for years, since about 2013 I think. It'd be fair to say that the number of users on the site has declined, probably due to apps like Instagram and Snapchat which allow weight loss related messaging. Not just Myfitnesspal, pretty much all of the weight loss forums have declined, some are on life support. As far as I know, Myfitnesspal is the most popular weight loss forum on the Internet.

The groups here used to be a happening place, but not anymore. The Challenges forum has taken over what the groups used to be. That's killed a lot of groups activity, the Challenges forum.

Sorting by posts per month or similar value would be a great way to find what groups aren't dead.

singingflutelady

There are a few great groups here @pinuplove

pinuplove

@singingflutelady That's because they have all the best people.

chris_in_cal

writerAndrew wrote: »

Are any of the groups you are still in active or mainly all stagnant?

No. I am not shilling here to get group members, but let me give specifics.

The #1 group on MFP is "Fitbit Users" I bought a garmin. I searched groups and found four groups related to garmin users. The 'Owners' of all four groups are gone. I posted a message describing the Garmin Group choices in all four groups about a month ago. It was the last entry in all four of the groups. I am not crying over my plight. I am just wondering, in general, as I titles this thread, are MFP groups useless?

So far one or two large groups, e.g. Fitbit Users, and I imagine a couple of very small groups, with a handful of engaged people. If they eliminated groups would most MFPers care? How about a redesign to make them more relevant.

julubeet

LumberJacck wrote: »

I've been a member of Myfitnesspal for years, since about 2013 I think. It'd be fair to say that the number of users on the site has declined, probably due to apps like Instagram and Snapchat which allow weight loss related messaging. Not just Myfitnesspal, pretty much all of the weight loss forums have declined, some are on life support. As far as I know, Myfitnesspal is the most popular weight loss forum on the Internet.

The groups here used to be a happening place, but not anymore. The Challenges forum has taken over what the groups used to be. That's killed a lot of groups activity, the Challenges forum.

Sorting by posts per month or similar value would be a great way to find what groups aren't dead.

I believe you. I've checked out all kinds forums and they're about as interesting as watching paint dry. The groups are a non-starter everywhere you go. There are some groups still logging their daily, yearly weights for years on end but that's about the size of it. When the current weights are more than all of the years gone by it's not very encouraging to hang out there. People are documenting their own journeys through instagram.

There has to be something more to lure people in. I just learned how to follow the topics I'm interested in here. That helps. I'm a member of a local organization that voted to bake and hand out hundreds of cookies for a membership drive. It was worthless exercise. It did not attract new members. I don't think we have anyone new to show for it. Trix and gimmicks are for kids. People want results and I've decided it's up to each one of us to make sure we get them. No one can do this for us. I'm going on...sans group.

Evamutt

The best most supportive group I found is the group on facebook

Evamutt

The book marks I keep up with are the volume eaters, new foods

TonyB0588

I just took a look at the four groups I've joined since being here. Three of them i hadn't seen at all recently, and the other one I only joined perhaps a week ago. None very active at all.

Meanwhile I post on the regular forum threads everyday, and there are always plenty other new posts there.

RebeccaRNBSN

It depends. I have a weekly weigh in group- it is always pretty active. Every week you weigh in on a spreadsheet. This is a great way to keep motivated! Top winners are announced every week (by weight loss percentage). Feel free to join


https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/127895-6-week-weigh-in-challenge

Feel free to join. This is a new one, so you can still join I do this a few times a year.

chris_in_cal

Thanks Rebecca, what's the secret to that group being active?

hesn92

I am not in any groups that are very active, so I never go in them. Maybe there are active groups on here somewhere, I don't know.

KittyInBoots17

Any group I have joined has either kicked me or gone dead. I found groups too demanding, because they require certain postings that I didn't always have time for - or anything interesting to post. If you didn't post then it was assumed you were not reporting, and thus you got kicked. But for the most part, no one was posting anything that helped with weight loss. My assumption with groups is that is was a place to chat about food and realistic everyday stuff related to exercise and eating. More like support rather than "keep up with others".

Not only that, I found it time consuming to go hunt down the group all the time. If it was an obvious click on the side of your feed or something so we wouldn't forget about it, I think it would really help.

I started one group myself two years ago. I thought if I could run it the way I thought would be helpful, then people would find it interesting. I got about 30 friends and some new strangers to join. Everyone seemed interested. I kept it active with new postings or topics almost every day. I had about three people post and then it just dwindled. No one remembered to log in is what I believe, because it wasn't obvious. Even some days I forgot about my own group!

I also think our own feeds are kinda like a group. We got friends, we got posts, we got a built in group pretty much.

I don't join groups anymore cuz I too, find them useless. I think they need serious improvements, like maybe badges and such that the leader could award to members that could be displayed on their profile. Some type of motivation would be great. People love positive reinforcement!

chris_in_cal

@KittyInBoots17 I could not agree more. Digging for the link to the group kills it.

TonyB0588

@KittyInBoots17 Maybe what you could've done as group owner was to send them direct messages through the MFP mailing system as a friendly reminder to keep up their participation.

AnvilHead

chris_in_cal wrote: »

@KittyInBoots17 I could not agree more. Digging for the link to the group kills it.

I've seen this issue cited a couple times in this thread, and I don't get it. On both the web version and the iOS app, all the groups I belong to show up in the "Community" section below all the other main MFP sub-forums, under the heading "My Groups". They're listed just like all the other sub-forums, all I have to do is click on them to access them. No digging or hunting involved.

As far as whether groups are useless - I've belonged to a couple of groups which were very active (one of them even more active than the regular forums), with a lot of great people in them. Sadly, both of them went dead when the group leaders and a lot of the users moved to other platforms and/or quit using MFP. I belong to a couple other groups which get a few posts here and there, but are mostly very sparse. So I'd say it depends on the group as to whether they're "useless" or not. I don't do "challenge" groups, so I can't speak to how any of them are.

LivingtheLeanDream

I am in a few groups, they get a smidgen of traffic but I keep going back because there are a few of us regulars. Its a pity they get forgotten about. In the beginning there was loads of chat and it was great spending time chatting in the group - it was shortlived though I'm not sure if that's how it is with most of the groups but that's how I've found it...and that's why I'm inclined to browse the forums instead.

LivingtheLeanDream

Lounmoun wrote: »

On the web page for the forums if you scroll down the groups you have joined are listed at the bottom. Once you have joined a group they are easy enough to find.

I think people have trouble finding groups that they might be interested in among all of the redundant, inactive groups. It'd be nice if groups that had no activity for say 3 months would expire and be removed.

I think an active group is going to take some work and a lot of interest from those starting it. The people who start groups often stop participating in their own groups. They do not try to start and keep conversations going. They do not seek out members on the forums. If there is nothing new or no connections made there is no reason to go back.
Groups that have just one long ongoing thread might as well just post a thread on the regular forums.

I want to like groups. I think they could be useful for support and ongoing discussion of particular topics. They just don't seem to work well here or on other sites I've been on that have the option.

Well put and I agree that is mostly what happens.