Matt Helms & the Rise of the Fabulous Ferndale Forum
Story by Jackson Drapier | Photo by Ed Abeska
Matt Helms is a fan of freedom of speech.
As a writer for the Detroit Free Press and a co-founder of the popular Facebook Fabulous Ferndale forum (which has the text of the first amendment as part of its “description” section), Matt has built a life around the ability to freely community with, and about, the world around him. An active Ferndale resident for the last 20 years, the Michigan State graduate has recently found himself at the center of an exploding controversial fad in the City of Ferndale: Facebook forums. And with over 2,500 members on its roster, his Fabulous Ferndale Forum has risen quickly to become one of the city’s most popular.
Though he’s been a Facebook user since late 2007, Matt’s first foray into forum-ing on Facebook came by way of the Jerks of Ferndale forum, which he discovered after noticing an influx of Facebook groups tied to the City of Ferndale. The group, which boasts about 500 members, offered Matt a relaxed place to joke around with like-minded people and discuss current events in the city. “It’s not all that complicated,” Helms said about Jerks of Ferndale. “It’s just a diverse group of people who get together and talk about stuff.”
As his interest in local forums grew, Matt became a member of the largest Ferndale-related forum on Facebook: the aptly named Ferndale Forum, which at the time of publication had almost 5,000 members in and around the city. The idea of having an open place to discuss the ins-and-outs of life in Ferndale was certainly appealing to Helms, however, due to philosophical differences, after less than a month of membership Matt and a few friends set out to start their own, and the Fabulous Ferndale Forum was born.
“If you actually look at what gets posted in our group and what gets posted in the Ferndale forum, there’s a lot of similarity. It’s just a philosophical difference about how the groups are managed.”
The response so far has been, in a word: fabulous. After only being open for five short months, the forum already counts more than 2,500 members within its ranks, and is growing every day.
The Fabulous Ferndale Forum and the original Ferndale Forum are only two of the dozens of Ferndale-related forums that have populated Facebook in recent years. There are groups that specialize in certain areas of Ferndale like the Allen Street and Chesterfield Street forums, as well as those for specific interests like Ferndale Freecycle, Ferndale Area Runners, and the Ferndale Walking Group. All of these, says Helms, help the citizens of Ferndale better connect with the place they call home.
“We’ve attracted a lot of top city officials and a lot of business owners in the city, and we want people to be able to have access to those folks just as much as they would in the other forums.”
Though the Fabulous Ferndale Forum is mostly used for discussion about current events, recommendations, local business reviews, and variety of other hot-button topics, Helms and various members of the forum are using their collective efforts to better the community they love both on and off the computer screen. “We as a group also sponsored Clean the Ferndale Up! in May, and about 18 of us got together for that event and helped clean up a park.” Helms said. “So, that’s really the gist of what we want to do. We want people to be able to know, and have information, about how to actively participate and live in a community like Ferndale.”
When asked if there has been negativity surrounding the founding of the Fabulous Ferndale forum, Matt was quick to say no. “(There’s been) no backlash at all. I think the idea of us being about free speech and supporting the city’s diversity has caught on.”
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To find the Fabulous Ferndale forum, the Ferndale Forum, or any other Ferndale-related forums on Facebook, simply enter the name of the forum in the Facebook search bar.
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