I posted my Full Moon Moonglow in CWOTD thread, and then later spotted that this was the one millionth post made on the CW forum
I've been around for ten years, but there are plenty more who are longer standing members, and plenty more who are regulars but don't talk as much as i do... You'd be better listening out to their thoughts. But I didn't want to let the milestone pass, and so I want to put down some thoughts about the Forum, and why I think it's a great place.
I'm sure that Instagram and similar are important places for CW in terms of visibility of the company to the watchie community. But the importance of the Forum is about engagement, and the two are very different things. For me social media platforms are for sound bites / instant hits / "checking in" - but not engaging. I'll try and explain what I think... (I'll stick to talking about IG because it's so visual and therefore so valuable to watch companies getting their vibes out there)...
We all realise (or should realise) that social media platforms are set up to engage people with the platform itself. This is done by appealing to our dopamine system - the magpie part of the brain that loves novelty, hates boredom, likes bright colours and visual stimulation; and the emotional parts of the brain that seek feedback, connection, instant validation (oh look! some people who have never even met me liked my post!). The platforms don't care what you're talking about, so long as you remain engaged with the platform. So the CW 'space' on IG doesn't actually belong to CW, nor is it created by CW, nor do they set the rules of engagement . It's set up by the platform. CW, and anyone else, whether company or individual, can just take up a bit of the space and call it their own. The reason that a lot of the discourse on any social media gets reductive, and barky, and reactive, and limited in scope is because people aren't aware that it's the platform setting the pace and tone, and not the punter.
The Forum is a space created by watchies for watchies.
I've always thought that it's more like your local pub. Over in the corner there's someone playing the dopamine slot machine that is IG, but if they take a look around there's this other space where a bunch of us have been hanging out for a while, having a chat down the years, and remembering what it's like to engage with something we're enthusiastic about. Sure you can bark about anything you like in the local pub, but instead of getting an instant dopamine hit when someone amplifies your bark, well here in the local pub there are an interested bunch of folk who'd rather buy you a drink, hear your bark, then engage you in conversation about other stuff too (and the other stuff might be watches, or it might be what bike you ride, or what the full moon makes you think about). Conversations are only limited in length by how long they maintain the interest of whoever happens to be engaged in that particular conversation in that particular corner of the pub. People come and go because we all have lives outwith the pub. There will be a slightly different bunch of punters every time you step inside (and some 'locals' or 'regulars' who you'll always find in their regular seat over by the fire). There's time to think about what you want to say and how you want to say it on the Forum - that's so precious when the social media platforms are really just driving instant response, instant (unconsidered) strong feelings.
The Forum is the sum of who's here and what they pay in in terms of friendliness, enthusiasm, photos, shared experience, and any other stuff that comes up along the way. In other words, it's about true engagement - being in the room. I really like it here. Quite handy really, since I quite like watches too
But it's nice to see people settling in to the Forum however they arrive
