seypat

People have also become really thin skinned these days and get offended over practically anything. What would have been a statement that spurred some good conversation years ago can get you banned now. I'm talking about discussion boards in general. For instance:

In my opinion, one of the dumber trends that has came about in recent years are these quotes and signature lines that people have at the bottom of their post. What is that all about? Is that supposed to make that person appear more intelligent and important? If anything should be banned it's that stuff. It is just a waste of time and space.

Machka 

That's not recent!!

I've been here for 13 years, and sig lines have been a thing that whole time.

However, if you don't like them, you know you can turn them off ... right?

WhyFi

Lol. Guy complains that people are easily offended and then says that sig lines need to get off his lawn.

noodle soup

Yep.

It's all the mods fault.

FullGas

just tried to use this as my sig line, but it's too many characters...

Heathpack 

I think forums are a different thing substantially from social media sites like FB.

FB is more of general population, it's all kinds of your friends only some them are interested in bikes and few have really in-depth knowledge of any sub-category of cycling, or equipment, or the technical aspects of training. FB is where I go with the big picture stuff, like mentioning a goal or posting a race result. Also a great place to set up rides.

Forums are typically populated by people with a really in-depth knowledge of a subject. For example, I need some parts milled for my aerobars on my TT bike. My husband was trying to figure out total cost to compare that to what a machinist would charge us. So he found a vertical mill forum (really!) and learned what was the least-expensive vertical mill we could buy to do what we needed to do and what other equipment was necessary. That forum is invaluable for that kind of information. Made it easy to compare the cost of buying our own mill to hiring a machinist. In two days, we were able to make a well-informed decision.

So I guess I see forums as here to stay because for people who really get into the minutia of a subject, a forum seems to be a far better outlet for discussion than most social media sites. Maybe a lot of the more social types get siphoned off to FB, and maybe Matchka has some ideas for retaining them.

The biggest thing that's tedious about the BF culture is the level of the conversation- mostly it seems to me that people cannot see beyond themselves and respect what the other guy is doing on a bike. So you get an older guy waxing nostalgic about steel bikes who can't recognize that despite all the benefits of a steel bike, a carbon bike which is 4 pounds lighter might indeed be a better choice for a 25 year old kid training for a hill climbing race. I could go on ad-nausem with examples, but this kind of thing is hugely prevalent here on BF. No idea how to change it, and once you've been here long enough you start to know who to listen to. But I'm sure for newbies it can be a complete turn-off, getting widely conflicting advice & no way to sort through it.

Some areas of BF are amazingly supportive places- Clydesdale forum because everyone is trying to accomplish the same difficult thing (losing weight). And the racing forums, because you know there's a chance you're going to meet some of those posters IRL. But the road forum- whew, the level of conversation is often petty and rude (and sadly ill-informed). I think that could be fixed by knowledgable posters recognizing each other. "As RoadForumPoster pointed out up thread, aero wheels will make you faster but they are more susceptible to handling issues in crosswinds. So if you're not riding competitively, the speed benefit may not outweigh the handling penalty. You mentioned you ride in a lot of canyon winds, and aero wheels can be nerve-racking in those conditions. Quite honestly, you might find non-aero wheels more enjoyable to ride. Listen to RoadForumPoster, she knows what she's talking about."

I hope BF doesn't die. I've met tons of great people here, some of my favorite people in life actually. I'll be sad if it dies.

doctor j

The search-function police and the let-me-google-that-for-you crowd haven't helped participation.

Ask a question, get pilloried. That really encourages participation. Lighten up, Francis!

K.Katso

Yes that is a problem. One other thing I have noticed is that people are especially hard on "foreigners" (i.e. anyone living outside of the US). A while back, a guy from France posted in a thread and used the wrong word for sidewalk (a result of a bad translation from French to English) and he was hammered for it, never mind the point he was making in the thread. A Canadian user jumped in to his defense, trying to explain the error, and he was attacked too. That French guy hasn't been seen since. Nice way to grow a user base there, let me tell you. Believe me, I'm not a fan of bad grammar or poor spelling either, but when it may be someone's second or even third language maybe you could give them a break. Just harassing people because of it while contributing nothing to the discussion doesn't help.

BillyD

Good, thoughtful post.

Doge

when I started I did not know "the rules" and got a few riled up. then noone knew who I was or who I was posting about. Now they do, so I am milders and don't post about my favorite subjects . the couple times I did I had the thread moved, closed. I got banned.

So while I'm much better behaved, there is also less interaction.
Also I've found the website often not working with my browser or running scripts that slows things down - like now. It is frustrating to use.

Phil_gretz

How about the 50+ are dying?

BillyD

BF is not going to die.* Various elements of an active, successful forum are bound to change over time. Nothing stays the same. People change. Generations of people change. Society changes. World politics and world events change. Technology changes. All these things, and more, affect people and their behavior, and get reflected here on this forum, sometimes in noticeable ways and sometimes not.

Look at it as a party. A really successful party has to have a perfect blend of all the essential ingredients: food, music, and people. If any one of them is significantly off the mark, the party is off. It's just not what it could have been.

The forum is the same. A couple of ingredients are not the same as they once were. Somewhere down the road they may line up perfectly again. Or maybe they won't. We can make the best of it or we can move on to what looks like greener pastures. Someone else will fill our shoes here.



* If it dies it will be because the plug got pulled for financial reasons. This one forum cannot be expected to support an entire corporation.

Lazyass

It looks like only the road section is dying, I don't know I don't hang out in all the sections. The vintage section at least seems to be going as normal. It has more activity than here, more down to earth people and if there's drama it's usually self policed pretty well. New members are treated better. Most of the locked threads involve someone turning it political.

And most importantly you don't have to walk on eggshells there.

I'll leave it at that.

Campag4life

In bold. Quite right. Not just bikeforums...but our country. Outrageous political correctness and people get offended at the drop of a hat when poking fun used to be the norm...kidding others for their differences without people taking offense.

. . . Of course there are countless good people as well and this forum being a microcosm of society...many great and fair minded people here as well although the back ground noise can be pretty awful...ignorance, intolerance and bias.


I don't believe many understand the banning thing and I admit it does test credulity at times. I have stated before that far and away, the people that get banned on this forum are my favorites. They are typically the most truthful and the most knowledgeable and generally have the best sense of humor. Translation? They threaten too many here.


So how does the dynamic work? Some may not understand. Billy and I have had some good conversations about this because I ruffle some feathers once in a while. When somebody rubs the mindless mainstream too much, Bill gets a rash of complaints. This becomes burdensome to any moderator and Billy has a high threshold of tolerance. But this isn't his only job and he doesn't get paid. He does it out of his love for cycling and this forum. So when a moderator like Billy gets overrun with too many complaints. he has to penalize the poster behind it...whether the poster is right or wrong. A numbers game. I will say that most people banned I have found to the be the best members of the forum in terms of their value and even their comedy. In other words, they speak the truth and the thin skinned idiots that can't take that have to complain. So the meek shall inherit the earth isn't a close portrayal of the truth...rather a bit inaccurate all said. Rather, the clueless will inherent the earth is the current trend which is sad....American educational level continuing to slip in the world not helping.


On a lighter note...speaking of entertaining and wacky if not narcissistic and knowledgeable about cycling....where's Pcad? The 41 doesn't see much of Pcad anymore. Is he still around on the web? Anybody know?

seypat

That got some discussion going!

Doge

I'm not sure that is bad. I'm not sure.
Some random forum thoughts.

There are a lot of cycling related forums. In the -33 racing sub forums seems 50% of the posters are from 3-4 areas. There is a familiarity and these folks race together and see each other. I've met a few who say entirely different things to me personally than what I read about my posts. So I think familiar is good.

There is a soccer forum that is quite busy. It is called SoCalSoccer. Of course there are more soccer players in SoCal than cyclists in the USA, but there 99% parents get on to post about their kids. In the mean time they also post about other stuff - a bit.

The thing I have noticed about BikeForums.net as compared to other forums is most people post about themselves riding. It is not so much a fan forum. I'm in the latter category now. I don't know the significance of that to membership/activity, but I think you have a lot more material when you post about others. You can also get into debates that aren't so personal. Of course someone will always drop the ... "when I was". I just noticed on the soccer forum nobody cares (well they do, just not in the post context) dad played for ManU when talking about the referee at the 12 year old kids game. But they can get 100 posts over one game. On BF it would be "I did this", a couple responses and then we're done.

shafter

You are welcome! Hopefully I don't get banned for it- that would really "discourage conversation" and "shrink the user base".

Campag4life

You post too much about your kid....lol.
You have a kid fettish
Cool you love your kid...was just joking with you but none the less a notable dynamic.

BillyD

meh, who would even notice you were gone?

BillyD

Kidding, Kidding!

seypat

It a "me" world we live in now. For some reason, being ordinary is not acceptable anymore either.

Campag4life

why be ordinary if you can 'photoshop' your life on social media and create a more flattering virtual life?

shafter

Ouch! Who would be left to sing the praises of the late 90s Trek?

Apologies accepted though.

seypat

What's gets me is how people dismiss good, informative posts because they don't agree with them for some reason. Campag4life recently posted a thread about riding/reviewing a new bike that he had access to. I'm a C & V guy, but that is the kind of thread that forums need. But as soon as he puts it up someone is finding a problem with it.

If someone wants to know about grass roots/amateur racing, Doge is the one to talk to. He is in it deep as we speak. But if he gives someone an honest answer they don't like, they just blow smoke.

rmparker or whatever his handle is always has informative and controversial threads. You might not agree with the content, but the discussion they create is always relevant to cycling and aging in general.

All of these are so much better than the "wave or not wave" threads.

Ratzinger

I imagine there will be an ongoing use base here for quite some time, but I think that a board like this does not have much to it that will attract newer, younger users. Young people are already on the other website whose name is censored, and they'll just migrate to the sub there for bicycling, fixed-gear, vintage etc...