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Looking for some constructive feedback about forums vs FB or other social platforms

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sharkey said:
I then went to TexasGunTalk for gun stuff and politics but funny today is the first day of spring and the first day after my 20 day suspension. Apparently people can talk crap on there but when I do it, I am "disruptive" and "confrontational" Members, to include the administrators, don't like to be confronted with the truff.
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Funny you should mention TGT ... I stopped frequenting the site when it sold a few years ago.
It was kind of like a comfortable, trustworthy mom and pop motorcycle shop selling to Freedom.
Felt like a needed a shower after visiting.
 
sharkey said:
Not only that but when I first got here it was mostly ST and now it is mostly ADV. and folks I kinda got to know are not here anymore.
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I've often wondered about that. The ST thing used to be big everywhere. Not so much any more. Dual sport and Adventure bikes have been the fastest growing segment of the bike market for some years now. I think the crowd here just kind of followed the general trend of the market in that regard. It certainly wasn't the result of a deliberate choice on my part from a policy perspective.

Ride reports are not as frequent as they used to be either. We used to have quite a few folks that would do big trips every year and there would be lots of great ride reports to read. Maybe it is a reflection of tight times in the economy, but it seems like most stuff now is weekend and day trip types of reports.
 
Ocho said:
I suggested you add an optional name field that display on the left side (under location) for this purpose. Much easier than having to add it as a signature. Maybe add bikes as well.
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Not a bad idea. I will look into doing that. There is already a spot in the user profiles where they can add their real name and contact info. I have just never put that over under their avatar.
 
Tourmeister said:
I've often wondered about that. The ST thing used to be big everywhere. Not so much any more. Dual sport and Adventure bikes have been the fastest growing segment of the bike market for some years now. I think the crowd here just kind of followed the general trend of the market in that regard. It certainly wasn't the result of a deliberate choice on my part from a policy perspective.

Ride reports are not as frequent as they used to be either. We used to have quite a few folks that would do big trips every year and there would be lots of great ride reports to read. Maybe it is a reflection of tight times in the economy, but it seems like most stuff now is weekend and day trip types of reports.
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Yeah, it is what it is. You're right ADV got popular and overshadowed ST. I just never got into riding in the dirt. I think the economy is part of it but I also think forum users here and cycle riders are just getting older. I think that is why HD is also having issues. I will be 50 in May and when I started riding at 25, having a cycle was cool, entertainment, and fun. I think a lot of the younger generation just isn't into it - forums and cycles.

FB is also an older crowd and someone mentioned using an alias which is what I began to use when I was looking for a new PD job 2 years ago. It is a brave new world.........and not in a good way. I think some of my fondest memories about riders and TWT was the Thanksgiving Day ride. Been on a couple hospital visits and I remember when we had almost 50 folks on a Tarrant Co. meet and eat. For a week night, THAT was impressive. Then throw in the turf war between The Tarrant Co. Mafia and those thugs from Burleson and well, it was a fun time.
 
I really appreciate this forum, Scott's hard work, and the community of riders that participate. I do use FB a lot because I have friends scattered here and yon and it's a great way to stay in touch. I use bike specific forums for research purposes, but I enjoy this forum as a way to keep up with y'all when I'm overseas. I wouldn't change a thing.
As to Scott's eloquent point on making this forum more than a spectator sport, I wish I could get out more on the weekends to ride with y'all. My wife works, so when I'm Stateside the only days we have together are the weekends, as a result I do most of my riding on weekdays. When we retire in a year or two I'll get to more pie runs and get togethers. I've been here a long time but really don't know y'all personally, which is kind of weird. I'll work on changing that!
Dave.
 
Tourmeister said:
I've often wondered about that. The ST thing used to be big everywhere. Not so much any more. Dual sport and Adventure bikes have been the fastest growing segment of the bike market for some years now. I think the crowd here just kind of followed the general trend of the market in that regard. It certainly wasn't the result of a deliberate choice on my part from a policy perspective.

Ride reports are not as frequent as they used to be either. We used to have quite a few folks that would do big trips every year and there would be lots of great ride reports to read. Maybe it is a reflection of tight times in the economy, but it seems like most stuff now is weekend and day trip types of reports.
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What is ST?
 
It's funny the 2 forums that got me really into using the internet way back in the early 2000 era are almost gone. Dirtrider.net I think, never even check it anymore as there is never any new content and texasoffroad.net. It's used to be very active but it has last to Facebook by users, and promoters, clubs ect. I still use it daily as it's a still a good choice for buying/selling dirt bikes. And there'a few on it like Irishcoffee that just won't use FB. At one time it was my go to just like TWT is now.

This site and the few folks I actually interact with has really made my bike riding more enjoyable than I ever dreamed. Hopefully TM and US can keep it alive for several more years. I like the idea of an option to put your "real" name under username.
 
In 1999 when DirtRider.Net started, the goal was to provide a place for people to talk about dirt bikes and help each other out. For the knowledgeable to share their experience with those just starting out. A place to bench race and share stories. All of that and more happened. We soon hit 100,000 members and a million posts. DRN was arguably the first modern-day dirt bike forum. 100,000 members way back then to not much users now. Wow.
www.dirtrider.net

And I browse but don't post very often ktm.talk.com, it has a tremendous number of members and still has a lot of traffic, but still nowhere near what it was in it's hey day. Years ago he thought he could profit by charging for ads, as that was the go to place to sell KTM's and parts. Didn't go over well at all now there is almost zero activity for sales even tho it's been free again for years. Buzz kill for sure. I think TWT option of donation is way better.
 
"S"port "T"ouring
 
Now that you mention it I guess the site has become a little more ADV based over the last few years. This certainly contributed to me morphing from an FJR to more ADV/dirt focused bikes. But I think the vast majority of these ADV bikes are really just used as comfortable ST bikes.

I have attended a couple of BB rides and a few Mexico rides, many had a large number of riders. I haven't been part of many of the local rides. I think the reason for this is the format. In BB/Mexico you travel to a destination and then break up into smaller groups of similar riding styles, skills and interest whereas with the local street rides it's usually been a larger group riding in a train. That format I find frustrating. So for local rides I hook up with some folks I've met here on TWT and organize a small group of 3-6 of us who all enjoy the same speed and terrain. Not sure how the site could foster such a format.
 
Tourmeister said:
Not a bad idea. I will look into doing that. There is already a spot in the user profiles where they can add their real name and contact info. I have just never put that over under their avatar.
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Wait..I wasn't supposed to use my name as my user name?
 
BTW, if folks like reading the trip reports then it's very encouraging for the poster to hear some feedback to that effect. People share because they think others will enjoy the content and share in the rider's enthusiasm. If they hear crickets then in no time they'll stop posting.

When I joined my first couple of forums I was very nervous about posting. I would just read and enjoy. I thought I was getting a lot out of them however only once I started posting and interacting with people did I really feel connected and part of the group.

So post. Nothing you post can be dumber than a bunch of things I've posted I can promise you that!
 
I'm about to kill facebook because it is awful, and the posts here are helping me get over my fear of killing it. As far as improvements to the forum, I would say notifications, but I think I can get that with tapatalk, I just never really figured out how to use it right. It kept notifying me of forums and posts I didn't belong to or post in. And tapatalk was a huge hassle with the off topic forum with the "big kids" password.

The other thing I use facebook for is news (both motorcycle and not). And this is something I can do myself on the forum. I can add general motorcycle industry news links about stuff I like and hopefully encourage more people to do so. Maybe I'll do that after I kill facebook. I follow several cafe racer sites...
 
woodsguy said:
It's funny the 2 forums that got me really into using the internet way back in the early 2000 era are almost gone. Dirtrider.net I think, never even check it anymore as there is never any new content
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Okie has tried to resurrect the site but has had little luck at driving traffic to it. There's a few of us mods that still communicate on there but it's mostly in the moderators sub-forum. I think part of the reason for the death of that site was doing away with DirtWeek. I know that it was a ton of work for Bob and David to put that together and there was also the stress that came with the responsibility of 400+ bike/rider event.
 
Diderich said:
I'm about to kill facebook
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This is a broader and broader trend. FB isn't on the ropes yet, but usage in a lot of important demographics is dropping.

Perhaps find a way to highlight the "really good" ride reports. There is AWESOME content in some of those. Book-worthy writing, amazing photos. But you gotta poke and hunt for 'em. Perhaps have a way to 'nominate' reports to be listed some place obvious?
 
I was going to say that what makes facebook so addicting is the "likes". It drives the ego. But it IS a useful way to mark "nominate" content. I JUST noticed the like function here...what does it do?

Jeff S said:
Perhaps find a way to highlight the "really good" ride reports. There is AWESOME content in some of those. Book-worthy writing, amazing photos. But you gotta poke and hunt for 'em. Perhaps have a way to 'nominate' reports to be listed some place obvious?
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Just a suggestion but is there a way to use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram...... As just a funnel back to the Forum? My wife is a writer and we run her blog/website through WordPress. We auto post to Facebook and Twitter to bring traffic back into the Blog. Not all traffic comes but a good portion does. We have also started a YouTube channel to compliment things and are doing much the same thing. She does not interact much on any of her platforms besides the blog but they all act as funnels back to her source.

Im not sure what that would look like but ride pictures posting to Instagram, trip reports posting to Facebook and Twitter may bring a good amount of traffic back to the source.

I'm 36 so I'm kinda young even though I don't feel like it much any more but I work with a lot of kids (23-28) and they love bikes. They are most interested in dirt/trail riding but most of them have small street bikes as well. "Kids these days" I think are just as interested in bikes but they are wanting adventure and to go against what they have been told about the 9-5 with the commuter car. They want cheap and frugal. One guy rides his ruckus on Fridays just to change it up. The kids are out there but the need to find great sources of information like TWT.
 
I find forums easier to use than Facebook. I don't know how many times I've seen something interesting on FB and then couldn't find it again. Especially on the phone- sometimes I swap to email and then back to FB, so the screen refreshes just as I was about to open something, and now it's gone! The few groups I've joined seem hard to keep up with - nothing seems to make sense to me with how things are ordered. Where I expect chronological order I get something else, and again, I don't ever seem successful searching for something I saw earlier.

I don't know, hard to be specific to why, but I have so far never participated (in real life) in anything I found on Facebook. I did join Jarrett's NT ride group, so that may change.. but I'm also in a couple of other local groups for dirt bikes and dual sport- but I never see anything until too late, or I can't tell what the heck is going on so I don't want to join.
 
jqueen said:
I find forums easier to use than Facebook. I don't know how many times I've seen something interesting on FB and then couldn't find it again. Especially on the phone- sometimes I swap to email and then back to FB, so the screen refreshes just as I was about to open something, and now it's gone! The few groups I've joined seem hard to keep up with - nothing seems to make sense to me with how things are ordered. Where I expect chronological order I get something else, and again, I don't ever seem successful searching for something I saw earlier.
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What he said!

FB navigation drives me nuts.
 
98 posts and counting. This one really took off Scott. Seems everyone has an opinion especially when fb is involved . :ponder:
 
One thing I don't like about FB is open groups.

If you post a comment in an open group, anyone who is your friend on FB can (and will likely) see that comment on their feed.

The solution to that is closed groups, but then the info in the group is not accessible to non members. Most admins that want to grow their group don't want it "hidden" in that way.
 
I used to be somewhat active on forums, FB, etc...but now I just stick to calling my friends and planning a ride. I've found that it's much easier/safer to ride with the same small group frequently, and easier to organize. Not that we wouldn't welcome anyone on our trips, but we noticed that out of a group or mailing list of 50+ people, it was always the same 4 or 5 guys doing the planning and actually going out riding. The other ~40+ people ALWAYS had an opinion and never showed up, causing more trouble with planning than it was worth. So we closed the FB group, got off the forums, and now just call or text each other and go.

I don't even come here to TWTEX that often any more, maybe once or twice a month, if that.
 
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