Are online forums dead?
- Thread starter slippy
- Start date
fatboyonabike
Captain oblivious
gone......have already moved on
virtual cuddles to make up?
virtual cuddles to make up?
moorey
call me Mia
Yeah, nah, you haven't....besides, You have chiggers.
fatboyonabike
Captain oblivious
chiggers?...
ozzybmx
taking a shit with my boobs out
Yes... tumbleweeds indeed Slippy. I still am the 2nd highest poster on there and have spent a lot of time and effort on that forum. I still post occasionally but don't feel the love any more due to constant censorship and post deleting by moderators/admin who don't take part in the forum. It has a lot of good information on there but sadly its ground to a halt.
I don't use fakebook for anything other than sharing photos of my kids back to my family in Ireland but its not hard to understand why there is a shift towards fakebook, Instagram ect when you can upload a ride pic in seconds for all to see and receive comments immediately or take a pic of your bike, stick a price in the comments and boooommm... its for sale. There are some of us older lot who still value a chat rather than a superficial "look what I'm doing and eating" photo instagram'd, but that's the way its going.
Pictures on the forum need to be uploaded to photobucket, then posted... all getting too hard for what ? For some self appointed mod to delete it if they feel its not the "image" the "club" who distanced themselves from us, want to project. It used to be a thriving hub of info and ride hook ups... In my opinion, its now an online archive of what was... and that is quickly turning to old school with new standards every 5 minutes.
I will continue to post up the occasional pic and comment but its never going to be the way it was again.
steve jobs' pancreas
Eats Squid
^^^^^ the great philosopher Tex Perkins had something to say along those lines
" Oh it ain't no fun no more
I dunno what to say
the honey moon is over baby
Ain't never gonna be that way
Again !!!!"
" Oh it ain't no fun no more
I dunno what to say
the honey moon is over baby
Ain't never gonna be that way
Again !!!!"
moorey
call me Mia
Hehe. Yeah, chiggers. Homer had them too.
moorey
call me Mia
Yeah, parasitic mites. Homer has chiggers.
slippy
Likes Bikes and Dirt
Refreshing to hear someone else say what I was thinking. I always thought forums were meant to be a place for open discussion, not another censorship template. Same thing happened to me when I lived in Queensland. We weren't allowed to have any discussions about trail building, at all, because they didn't want any opinions that might upset anyone. Any posts mentioning the topic were immediately deleted, no matter how polite, mature or considered. So where exactly could you discuss these issues?
Perhaps censorship is one of the issues contributing to the decline.
fatboyonabike
Captain oblivious
'sigh' oh thank christ for that, I thought it was a hangup left over from my days on the ice round-about
ozzybmx
taking a shit with my boobs out
Exactly, with that element of anonymity that people could speak their mind rather than saying nothing in fear of ridicule.
stinky1138
Likes Dirt
I've been a member of this forum for a minute, and I would agree that usage is down.
I personally don't frequent the forums much any more for a number of reasons...
-Facebook is easier, I rarely use a PC these days and cbf to install taptalk or whatever it's called to peruse the forums.
-The level of shit dropped on new member is ridiculous. Blaming them for not using the search function--that frankly doesn't work that well......--is nuts. The forum has a large number of douchecunts who feel the need to be their normal sarcastic selves to new members who don't realise that these people will never get any nicer or more helpful.
-If you don't have 6000 posts per day, most of what you say gets ignored here.
-I know of maybe 5 mods, at least 1 of those mods have said outrageously racist/derogatory things on many occasions. Many members also say these things, then get quite butthurt when someone is offended.
-Personally, I don't find anyone to be helpful anymore. Seems like no one can just say what their experiences are without shitting on someone else's choices.
-I don't like be censored about bad experiences in bike shops. If I got totally stuffed around by Bike Barn Parramatta, I should be able to warn my fellow riders that ombudsman action had to be taken to resolve the issue. WHY can't we freely discuss an issue if it came up ??? That's like not warning the other parents at the park the guy near the swings made lewd gestures at a kid. Fuck that.
Chances are I won't even see this post again for weeks if I even remember to look, so...whatever. Evolve or die.
I personally don't frequent the forums much any more for a number of reasons...
-Facebook is easier, I rarely use a PC these days and cbf to install taptalk or whatever it's called to peruse the forums.
-The level of shit dropped on new member is ridiculous. Blaming them for not using the search function--that frankly doesn't work that well......--is nuts. The forum has a large number of douchecunts who feel the need to be their normal sarcastic selves to new members who don't realise that these people will never get any nicer or more helpful.
-If you don't have 6000 posts per day, most of what you say gets ignored here.
-I know of maybe 5 mods, at least 1 of those mods have said outrageously racist/derogatory things on many occasions. Many members also say these things, then get quite butthurt when someone is offended.
-Personally, I don't find anyone to be helpful anymore. Seems like no one can just say what their experiences are without shitting on someone else's choices.
-I don't like be censored about bad experiences in bike shops. If I got totally stuffed around by Bike Barn Parramatta, I should be able to warn my fellow riders that ombudsman action had to be taken to resolve the issue. WHY can't we freely discuss an issue if it came up ??? That's like not warning the other parents at the park the guy near the swings made lewd gestures at a kid. Fuck that.
Chances are I won't even see this post again for weeks if I even remember to look, so...whatever. Evolve or die.
Jesterarts
Likes Dirt
To answer the original question; 10 pages of responses to this thread in 3 days.
Forums are not dead as there is more of a community sense about them.
FB is 5% helpful people and 95% people trolling or talking absolute rubbish.
Every time I want to know an answer about something, I start by joining a related forum.
I'm a member of a BMW forum, Peugeot forum, Searay forum, HSV forum, X-trail forum, a Dayz gaming forum and this forum.
I know that if I have a question relating to any of the above, I will get a decent answer on a forum. (Aside from the DayZ forum which is full of keyboard warriors and raging 12yo nerds.)
I was part of a FB fishing group. I caught a fish I hadn't caught before so took a snap, released it and posted asking if someone could help me.
80% of the comments where telling me I shouldn't fish if I don't know the species and the other 20% were other smart are remarks.
Posted on a fishing forum and in 3 hours I had not only an answer about the species, but locations where they are common, best bait and how to cook it up.
Forums are not dead as there is more of a community sense about them.
FB is 5% helpful people and 95% people trolling or talking absolute rubbish.
Every time I want to know an answer about something, I start by joining a related forum.
I'm a member of a BMW forum, Peugeot forum, Searay forum, HSV forum, X-trail forum, a Dayz gaming forum and this forum.
I know that if I have a question relating to any of the above, I will get a decent answer on a forum. (Aside from the DayZ forum which is full of keyboard warriors and raging 12yo nerds.)
I was part of a FB fishing group. I caught a fish I hadn't caught before so took a snap, released it and posted asking if someone could help me.
80% of the comments where telling me I shouldn't fish if I don't know the species and the other 20% were other smart are remarks.
Posted on a fishing forum and in 3 hours I had not only an answer about the species, but locations where they are common, best bait and how to cook it up.
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Can you elaborate on this please? What would a forum based website do to evolve and progress?
Ivan
Eats Squid
Seeing as most mtb news is in social media now, updating the vbulletin code to allow insertion of Instagram and Twitter posts could be a good place to start.
Keeping mtb posts on-topic through moderation would also be a good.
Maybe Rotorburn could move its buy and sell sections onto Facebook, with the only way of joining the Facebook group is to be a Rotorburn member. This could boost membership? And also reduce the risk to the owner of Rotorburn by keeping the trading off of his website
These are just some ideas off the top of my head.
Keeping mtb posts on-topic through moderation would also be a good.
Maybe Rotorburn could move its buy and sell sections onto Facebook, with the only way of joining the Facebook group is to be a Rotorburn member. This could boost membership? And also reduce the risk to the owner of Rotorburn by keeping the trading off of his website
These are just some ideas off the top of my head.
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Become a sentient artificial life form that takes over the earth and ultimately heads to the stars to fuck other lifeforms over.
I'm new to here (and to MTB) but compared to others I've been to (other interest groups, not bike related) this one seems pretty active. Sure it has more than its share of in-jokes and sarcastic commentary but it's light hearted enough and essentially non-malevolent on the whole.
steve jobs' pancreas
Eats Squid
Thanks for the suggestions, some good points that I'll run past the board.
Here's my take on the thread derailing:
It drives me up the fucking wall but it's complicated to handle. I do intend on pulling it up before it gets to the point of making the thread irrelevant but that will always come at a cost. Firstly, it effectively ends the thread and secondly, it pisses the people off who are regular members who are being pulled up. We want to see the forum active and full of relevant info but we also want to keep it easy going enough that it doesn't offend the politically correct people who don't like their feelings being hurt.
The staff of the site often ask that any post that isn't needed on the forum be reported so how about we get into the groove of you guys reporting any posts that derail a thread and we keep it cranking, that'd be sweet actually.
As for trading with folks on Facebook as opposed to trading on here, I personally prefer to do it here and have done for yonks. I've sold more from here too and want to keep this trading system well machined on this site as we get next to no issues from members who've done bad deals.