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The Death of Motorcycle Forums

cabanza

cabanza

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Very interesting article from Common Tread (Revzilla):
www.revzilla.com

Why are online motorcycle forums drying up and dying? - RevZilla

Motorcycle forums used to be a great source of information and community. Now they're withering. Here's why.
www.revzilla.com www.revzilla.com

They definitely are on point. I never realized how much damage Photobucket did when they started charging. But I sure remember being outraged when I lost all my pics.
 
Photobucket should rot in hell for the stupid move they pulled.

Social media just doesn't work if you want to find something pertinent. Probably take another 25yrs for forums to go away, they are just too useful, kinda the opposite of social media.
 
ZoomerP said:
I wonder if they accidentally or intentionally forgot about the impact of forum management turning their sites into ad choked wastelands, and/or allowing poor moderation practices to flourish.
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I noticed a couple/few of the sites they mentioned were bought by VS. The author may not be aware of VS and their impact.
 
MrWellAdjusted said:
I've noticed the Jo Momma sub in the other forum is a lot less active than the CSM sub over there. Could there come a day where the CSM sub keeps that forum alive?
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I get that some people over there think the basement is the heart of the forum. Most of the people on that forum never go into the cesspool that is called CSM. Many don't even know it exists. Sure the post count is high in CSM but there is very little actual content. Just people insulting others while congratulating themselves for being so much smarter than other people.

I mostly hang out in motorcycle related parts of that forum and I still don't see any change.

I belong to a few motorcycle groups on FB but they are pretty pathetic compared to a good forum. I go on rides organized on ADVr all the time.
 
Interesting article. I never considered that so many people switching from computers to phones as a major reason for the decline in forums. I access forums as well as FB from my computer over 99% of the time. You just miss so much when using a phone and it's tiny screen. But I know many people use their phones.
 
Photobuckets fiasco definitely didn't help any forums. Some posters did bother to re post their pics in the more involved threads they felt were of vallue, but many did not bother, and it got a case of filling in the gaps yourself on some articles. And in fairness i think many were put off by this aspect.
Other factors need considering too, and on some forums unrelated to motorcycling too there were as far back as the late norties early 2010s piss poor near current ADV rider like management / moderation in operation, this devolved the forums to a large extent, and it was only a few stelwarts who kept them running at all.
The Refuge waterfowling forum went south at this time, and a strange management with brutal moderation meant some of the key posters were either hounded out banned or just left. A few on the fringe did sieze the moment and kind of made it their own with a gathering of folowers who more or less just ran around patting the new gurus on the back, and as such felt acepted.
As a sourse of real information it simply ceased to be worthwile, with a mere few putting out scant worthy of merit threads or reply posts.
Other forums worldwide did go similar directions Hunt/ fish In NZ hung on a little but it changed format a few times regulars came and went left for grass greaner new forums, and it simply lost its apeal. retro rides Vissors down and Pigeon decoying uk all had big folowings, but dwindled away or got swamped by heroes who were larger than life knew more did more and were more than anyone else. People just gave up, got disalusioned by much of this venom and went to Social media cto post pictures of the sunday lunch they were about to sit and eat for the whole world to see.
Yp. A few survive and some are sort of usefull to some limited extentb like say duck hunt chat for example, but other similar forums died out, and any left are shadows of what they once were.
 
cabanza said:
Photobucket is largely responsible as people lost a lot of data and realized they weren't in control of their data either.
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So far all my Photobucket pics are still there. I had a paid account. I think it was around $27 per year and I had just paid for a year when the fiasco happened. I figured that after that year my pics would be gone but that didn't happen. On ADVr all my pics stayed the same. On other forums they got the "proudly hosted on Photobucket" mark across them. I'm guessing that ADVr has something in its software to get rid of the mark.

Recently photobucket has been sending me E mails about my account being inactive. I won't give them a penny.

As soon as Photobucket did it's thing I switched to SmugMug. Then came the VS takeover of ADVr. Those things made me realize that I really don't have control of anything I post online or even store remotely. SmugMug could do the same thing that Photobucket did and raise their rates to a extortion level.

For those who post on other social media there are no gaurantees there either.
 
klaviator said:
I get that some people over there think the basement is the heart of the forum. Most of the people on that forum never go into the cesspool that is called CSM. Many don't even know it exists. Sure the post count is high in CSM but there is very little actual content. Just people insulting others while congratulating themselves for being so much smarter than other people.

I mostly hang out in motorcycle related parts of that forum and I still don't see any change.

I belong to a few motorcycle groups on FB but they are pretty pathetic compared to a good forum. I go on rides organized on ADVr all the time.
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Really, because it seems quite stagnant to me compared to just 3 years ago, but it's great for the community if you feel nothing's changed. I feel CSM is much more diverse in its member's than you are claiming, but we're going to disagree on that subject, so there is no point for me to bother making examples. If it's not for you, it's not for you. I'm glad you're active here, I hope you stick around, the community needs an independent forum as opposed a forum owned by a publishing group, or VS.
 
MrWellAdjusted said:
Really, because it seems quite stagnant to me compared to just 3 years ago, but it's great for the community if you feel nothing's changed. I feel CSM is much more diverse in its member's than you are claiming, but we're going to disagree on that subject, so there is no point for me to bother making examples. If it's not for you, it's not for you. I'm glad you're active here, I hope you stick around, the community needs an independent forum as opposed a forum owned by a publishing group, or VS.
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Different people will have different experiences on ADVr. There are many who will agree with your assessment on what is going on there. I think it really depends on where you hang out. The areas where I hang out are as active as ever. If anything I am seeing more activity. Despite the VS takeover I see even more activity from the inmates that I know. I personally know and ride with a fairly large number of inmates and participation from them is up.

I agree that having an independent forum like this is a good thing. It doesn't have nearly the activity level of ADVr....yet, but hopefully it will grow. I'm trying to do my part to help this forum grow.

It's good to have an alternative and backup to ADVr because who knows what the future holds for that forum.
 
It should be considered that Basement type threads take away the direction of the site for advertisers and potential buyers. Eventually leading to the demise of the original scope of a website.
At ADV there are some 14 million posts in JM and 6+ Mil posts in CSM ( Not sure if the total is 14+6 or the 6 is included in the 14). Would the site have held as much interest from VS without that post count? And as an investment would VS be willing to let those go to focus more on the travel side of the forum? Probably not. The bus is rolling and it is rolling quickly away from it's roots (Motorcycle travel and recreation)
The site as we knew it is gone as are many other sites for the same reasons. Post count is key to making money .
 
GMK999 said:
It should be considered that Basement type threads take away the direction of the site for advertisers and potential buyers. Eventually leading to the demise of the original scope of a website.
At ADV there are some 14 million posts in JM and 6+ Mil posts in CSM ( Not sure if the total is 14+6 or the 6 is included in the 14). Would the site have held as much interest from VS without that post count? And as an investment would VS be willing to let those go to focus more on the travel side of the forum? Probably not. The bus is rolling and it is rolling quickly away from it's roots (Motorcycle travel and recreation)
The site as we knew it is gone as are many other sites for the same reasons. Post count is key to making money .
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I have been on ADVr for 14 years. I got on the forum because I was interested in bikes and riding. That is the reason I am still there. In many ways the forum has gotten better over the years.

As for post count, yes the basement is active but how many new members does it attract? I don't know the answer to that but I'd bet the people come to the forum because they are interested in bikes and riding.

I don't understand your statement "The site as we knew it is gone as are many other sites for the same reasons." What exactly has changed except for the ads which are easily avoided?
 
There is basically this same thread over on ADVr. The discussion here is much better. Maybe JM is drying up over there. I mostly go to JM for the jokes.
 
I think forums in general are becoming a legacy. The issues seem more complex than photo sharing. Look at the demographics. Forum users are ageing out. As the user group gets smaller, it becomes a smaller club with club life issues. Specifically, pedantic dogpiling from the club house loud mouths. I don’t know where the younger riders are going. Perhaps to Facebook groups? I don’t use any social media. So I’m speculating.
as a lifelong plumber I used to contribute to a couple of DIY sites. Only to be told how fucking stupid I am by the regular loud mouths. Occasionally a word of thanks would trickle in.
Maybe come people thrive on ego boosting confrontation. There are some pools of sanity at ADVr. I’ve met some good peeps on rides and get togethers. I don’t know where this is going, but I sense it’s the way of chat rooms.
 
klaviator said:
Different people will have different experiences on ADVr. There are many who will agree with your assessment on what is going on there. I think it really depends on where you hang out. The areas where I hang out are as active as ever. If anything I am seeing more activity. Despite the VS takeover I see even more activity from the inmates that I know. I personally know and ride with a fairly large number of inmates and participation from them is up.

I agree that having an independent forum like this is a good thing. It doesn't have nearly the activity level of ADVr....yet, but hopefully it will grow. I'm trying to do my part to help this forum grow.

It's good to have an alternative and backup to ADVr because who knows what the future holds for that forum.
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I am going to challenge what you say about ADVr seeing more activity. It's summer and therefore more people are active because they want to post about their new bike or trip. During fall and winter, posts and threads will go down and it's only the core members that keep the forum going.

If you go to JoMomma, it's basically the same threads that have been going on for 10-15 years. Just look at the first page: it's the same stuff over and over. CSM? Just a bunch of bitter old men who have nothing else to do but dual each other all day. May be it's an outlet that makes them forget the boredom of their lives.

As pointed elsewhere, most of the traffic is in JoMomma. What's really left of the forums? Let's face it: we all got older and no one took over from us and refreshed the content. Have you tried to show a motorcycle forum to teenagers? I have. Their reaction is hilarious! It's like showing them a rotary phone.
 
cabanza said:
I am going to challenge what you say about ADVr seeing more activity. It's summer and therefore more people are active because they want to post about their new bike or trip. During fall and winter, posts and threads will go down and it's only the core members that keep the forum going.

If you go to JoMomma, it's basically the same threads that have been going on for 10-15 years. Just look at the first page: it's the same stuff over and over. CSM? Just a bunch of bitter old men who have nothing else to do but dual each other all day. May be it's an outlet that makes them forget the boredom of their lives.

As pointed elsewhere, most of the traffic is in JoMomma. What's really left of the forums? Let's face it: we all got older and no one took over from us and refreshed the content. Have you tried to show a motorcycle forum to teenagers? I have. Their reaction is hilarious! It's like showing them a rotary phone.
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I don't know what is happening to ADVr overall, only the areas where I hang out. Those areas are as active as ever. The idea that the basement is most of the forum is just ludicrous. The basement is like facebook or other social media, lots of posts but no substance. If CSM disappeared I wouldn't miss it. If JM disappeared I would miss it but not that much. There is a lot more to ADVr than the basement.
 
klaviator said:
I don't know what is happening to ADVr overall, only the areas where I hang out. Those areas are as active as ever. The idea that the basement is most of the forum is just ludicrous. The basement is like facebook or other social media, lots of posts but no substance. If CSM disappeared I wouldn't miss it. If JM disappeared I would miss it but not that much. There is a lot more to ADVr than the basement.
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If you removed the basement from ADVr, it would lose a lot of people.
 
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