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Forums, a thing of the past?

6K views 36 replies 22 participants last post by  mr.sand 
#1 ·
Yet another forum I followed died a miserable death at the end of last year. The last few people just disappeared. There are a dozen-ish people that regularly post on this one. Facebook groups seem to be falling off as quick as they appear.

Thoughts?
 
#2 · (Edited)
I have to agree. I've been part of forums for well over a decade, but I've been a member here for only two months. There isn't a whole lot of activity here and often wonder if there is another forum that has activity.
But, I have to say that the regular posters here seem to have a great deal of knowledge of the bike.
 
#3 ·
Is anything replacing the forums? People are still talking over common interests, someplace?

Remember those e mail lists that were popular in the 90's?
 
#8 ·
My thoughts as well, but wonder where they are going. There is too much competition on FB with everyone opening their own group. Meetup came and went, at least around here. I know interest in motorcycles is down, people showing up less at all the motorcycle dealers.
 
#4 ·
It’s interesting to me too why some forums die and others stay active. I am a forum junkie. I look at 8-10 on a daily basis, and a few several times a day. The logical answer would be when a bike has been arounf for several years with little to no changes. But that is not the case. I’m on the FJR and BMW 1600 forums and they stay active and have had very few changes.

The KTM forums are nearly dead also.
 
#5 ·
I was a member of a sport bike forum specifically located in Orange County, California (SoCal). It was called "OCmoto".

I've never met so many dickheads in my life. Online, and in person. I was surprised that they rode the same as they posted online. No group riding etiquette. No manners. Every rider to himself. There were a few good people and I've kept that friendship alive and we still ride together. But the rest of them characters I dumped like a bad habit. I honestly cannot ride nor spend as much time with such selfish, negative energy. I did one long, multi-day ride with them...never again. The website is still around but the same dickheads are still lingering around, which scared off all the newbies, and the good folks. Maybe it had to do with the attitude of SoCal folks in general...I don't know. I hope not.
 
#6 ·
I'm not a terribly social person and mostly come to the forums for technical ideas. I'm here because the previous Ninja forum I was on simply died and Roland was nice enough to point me here. Having been around these things since email groups you start to see that it's a circle of life kind of cycle. The lifespans differ but as surely as the seasons, nothing lasts forever. Bike specific forums tend to follow the lifespan of the bike model. Hence the longevity of some FJR & BMW forums and the shortness of others. The VFR forums lasted quite well until Honda did what Honda did. Forum longevity also seems to have a lot to do with a fairly small number of people. Sometimes a few folks enthusiasm carries a forum. I've seen it in local forums where one person (or a few) put a lot of effort into organizing events keeping everyone pumped up and excited to be a part of the group. They stop and it all goes away quickly.

I don't participate in giving all my personal information to everyone and every company in the world so I'm not a facebook user and try to keep as low an on-line profile as possible. I assumed that's where all the groups were going.
As for this forum, there seems to be some hope. I've seen several new folks recently and we seem to have a fairly solid core. Let's hope the 2020 Ninja is a big hit!
 
#7 ·
Kenors, in my corner of the country, I see way more, MORE, adventure riders, and dual sport riders than sportbike riders. I see about as much ADV/DS riders as I do H-D/cruiser/Sons Of Anarchy type riders. Sport bike riders I see less and less. And as I ride further away from population centers, I see even LESS if no sport bike riders at all. Yet I still encounter Cruiser, and ADV/DS riders.

I think this shift to adventure riding is just hitting its second wind. I just went to a local to me desert state park and visited the nearby town/watering hole. Mind you this park is surrounded by epic twisty roads. I saw what seemed like a ton of bikers stopping, having a drink, eating lunch, in a period of about 2 hours. Most of them were ADV/DS riders and cruisers. A handful were sportbikes. 10 years ago (I've been going there for that long), I remember seeing tons of sport-tourers and sportbikers stopping there. VFR's, CBR's, GSXR's, and Ducati's were everywhere. Now these have been replaced by Africa Twins, Suzuki DR650's, KTM's, and BMW GS's. I saw maybe one FJR1300. Meanwhile KTM 990's, 1190's, and 1290's were a dime a dozen!
 
#9 ·
Well I'm 45 years old and I feel like one of the youngest guys here and most other forums I'm on. My group of riding buddies is all older than I am and they are getting old on me and don't ride as much. So I think it's a generational thing with motorcycling and I am just riding bikes younger people aren't interested and/or can't afford. I'm sure the Yamaha MT-07 crowd is much more lively.
 
#10 · (Edited)
This is a very good board by comparison in my experience,,.

Folks here are usually tripping over one another to help on this board where as the BMW board I participate on once and a while doesn't offer nearly the same experience while at the same time there are concerns over there of lack of participation,,. They seem very be defensive of the Brand and some members can be quite egocentric with there knowledge and experience, like telling you what something isn't, or recommending you invest in a repair manual,,.

The other thing we don't get here that many forums get is the **** disturbers,,. Ive participating on all kinds of forums from Photography Gear & Photo Rating sites, to Equity trading sites and they invariable attract one or two absolute **** disturbers that ultimately turn a lot of the threads into ridiculous debates and name calling,,. I don't know that Ive ever seen that here in 5 years of participation!!

Im pretty sure I wouldn't have done half the mods and work Ive been able to do on the N1K were it not for the valued advice and generous participation of the members here!!
 
#27 ·
Currently, my other bike is a K1600GT, so I am very familiar with the snooty attitude a lot of BMW forum "long-timers" seem to hold. I change bikes fairly often over the years and so tend drift from forum to forum, depending on the brand/model I happen to ride at the time. I've wrenched on bikes for many moons and always tried to share what I know and help out when I can. Some of the guys don't seem to take kindly to being "corrected". I just focus on the matter - not the person - and try not to take it personal.

Here, local forums vary. Some remain very active. Others used to be but seem to be quieting down. Moderating is a dedicate balancing act. I have left forums that were wayyyy too wild wild west, to the point of folks spewing venom unchecked. I get the desire to keep the post count high, but there has to some moderation.
 
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#11 · (Edited)
I've only been here about a year. But when I joined in December 2018, I've had nothing but good, mature advice. RCannon helped me with my 2012 front brake pulsing (he already knew what was up while I was clueless and started spending money chasing dead end solutions). Others chimed on on the 190/55 rear tire and that also immediately solved my other issue on my N1k's. Justin Long's video helped me put a 12 volt power solution on my '18 that costs a fraction of the OEM one, he even made a video on how to remove the front fairing, which I needed because I didn't have a service manual at the time. Not once have a gotten a **** response. Ok Rock got all pissy at me but that's just Rock being Rock (must be a New York thing, right Rock?)

I believe the members on his forum are just mature and well mannered. All the dickheads are in the ZX and Z650/Z400 forums. As usual these damn progressives! LOL! Sometimes it's good to have high insurance rates to keep the riff-raff away. I keed about the high insurance rates.

I did join a local Ducati forum because at the time I knew someone who had a Duc and I was considering getting a Ducati. OMFG! The shallow, elitism, and condescending attitudes of the Ducati owners on that site drove me nuts. And I just lurked, didn't even post. They even roasted their own noob owners or wannabe's wanting to buy the entry level Ducati's because that was what they could afford! Nope. Not for me.
 
#20 ·
I've only been here about a year. But when I joined in December 2018, I've had nothing but good, mature advice. RCannon helped me with my 2012 front brake pulsing (he already knew what was up while I was clueless and started spending money chasing dead end solutions). Others chimed on on the 190/55 rear tire and that also immediately solved my other issue on my N1k's. Justin Long's video helped me put a 12 volt power solution on my '18 that costs a fraction of the OEM one, he even made a video on how to remove the front fairing, which I needed because I didn't have a service manual at the time. Not once have a gotten a **** response. Ok Rock got all pissy at me but that's just Rock being Rock (must be a New York thing, right Rock?)
Yu tawkin tuh me?! eh? :mad:


There has been occasional fights here but they were very tasteful. RC calling good 'ol Tim a pathetic cuckold a few years back comes to mind :grin:
 
#13 ·
I'm not much on forums either, but this one has been a welcome change. I had just gotten back into sportbikes after years on Harleys. My sport bike experience came from back in the late 80's, and none of my friends have one. So, I searched and found this group. I have gained a lot of good information, how to's, and general advice. I now find myself checking for new posts each day, which I've never done. Appreciate all the help from everyone! And that there haven't been any douches, as there's enough of them in every day real life.
 
#14 ·
One of my local forums is dying a slow death and I am not sure why. It was a sport bike riders forum not tied to any specific model and it brought a lot of local riders together. I have made a few very good friends there and still do the occasional local ride with them. I have owned a couple super sports and it seems the forums dedicated to those specific bikes have always had a couple of knuckleheads who are rude or ignorant.

This forum has been excellent with a lot of great folks and valuable help and information. I plan on keeping my 2013 for a very long time so I hope this one lives on for a good while.
 
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#19 ·
One of my local forums is dying a slow death and I am not sure why.
We had a local forum that did die and I know exactly why. Well actually we have 2 local forums. One survived.

But the one that died basically ended up being track day riders and racers vs street riders. At one point a majority of members switched to racing and never went on street rides anymore. And the rest got sick of it. "All you guys talk about is racing" is what we would hear sometimes. So basically all the street riders left, (and they didn't go anywhere else, they just left forum life) then we all went to a different local forum where there were even more racers and track day riders just to have more people to talk to. The end result is one completely dead forum that used to be super active.

People say "oh this forum has both street and track riders" but no, it pretty much leans one way or the other.
 
#15 ·
Meetup was a great way to meet riders, many who have become friends. The problem is nobody wants to lead the rides, including me. It's a lot of work to herd cats of all bike types and riding capabilities and keep them together. I've led many rides with a couple of the groups and I'm done. Sport bikes, adventure, cruisers, heck occasionally a KLR. I was just there for others to ***** about how they could do it better, but won't, and I get no help to make sure nobody gets lost. We went from a half dozen good groups to one. The last one is a bunch of sketchy talented squids that only want to try to impress others. It's flat dangerous.

The local forum out here is still full and busy, but it has many of the same jerks/squids as the last existing meetup group. No thanks.

As most know, I no longer have a N1K, but my gf does. Even if she didn't I'd still hang around until I get run off. Good group here.
 
#16 ·
Meetup was a great way to meet riders, many who have become friends. The problem is nobody wants to lead the rides, including me. It's a lot of work to herd cats of all bike types and riding capabilities and keep them together. I've led many rides with a couple of the groups and I'm done. Sport bikes, adventure, cruisers, heck occasionally a KLR. I was just there for others to ***** about how they could do it better, but won't, and I get no help to make sure nobody gets lost. We went from a half dozen good groups to one. The last one is a bunch of sketchy talented squids that only want to try to impress others. It's flat dangerous.

The local forum out here is still full and busy, but it has many of the same jerks/squids as the last existing meetup group. No thanks.

Thanks 57x, you just saved me from posting my EXACT thoughts. I think we've been living parallel lives......:smile_big:
 
#17 ·
If you want to know why people leave motorcycle forums, I'd point you to our recent gun control thread. Politics and religion have no place in a forum for motorcycles. Whether you agree or not, reading post after post about why this person is wrong and an idiot, and this other person has all the answers gets old fast! There are plenty of groups out there where you can tell me I'm stupid for voting one way or another, but please, can this motorcycle forum not be one of them?
I don't go on the sport touring forum at all anymore because of one guy that wanted to talk politics and that's it. He found a way to drag every bike related topic back to hating on one politician or another. BORING ****! Motorcycles, now that's interesting!
My two cents.
 
#26 ·
If you want to know why people leave motorcycle forums, I'd point you to our recent gun control thread. Politics and religion have no place in a forum for motorcycles. Whether you agree or not, reading post after post about why this person is wrong and an idiot, and this other person has all the answers gets old fast! There are plenty of groups out there where you can tell me I'm stupid for voting one way or another, but please, can this motorcycle forum not be one of them?
I don't go on the sport touring forum at all anymore because of one guy that wanted to talk politics and that's it. He found a way to drag every bike related topic back to hating on one politician or another. BORING ****! Motorcycles, now that's interesting!
My two cents.

Yes, we all love our bikes. We form opinions about the world we ride them in and have a natural tendency to want to share those with our fellow riders. BeginnerBikers.org (which seems to be dying as well) has the LEPR Colony: Law, Ethics, Politics, Religion. It's password-protected, so it's a definite choice to view and participate in its content. Admins, maybe that's something we should consider here.
 
#18 ·
While non-motorcycle discussions may not be boring, there are always places on the internet where they can be discussed. Still, some folks seek other audiences. The problem is easily solved. Simply ignore the thread and don't respond. If they can't get an audience, the topic soon goes away. It costs nothing NOT to read a thread and as long as the number of non-topic threads isn't too great.

On this board, for me at least, that number remains acceptably small.

The Ninja is a "do it all" bike and this forum seems to have a pretty good mix of of folks who ride fast, to not so fast, twistys to turnpikes and can express their joy at what they do without having to denigrate those who ride differently. I know, for me personally, it's because I am a bit older and no longer know "everything" or think my way is the only way. (Not that when I was younger I was EVER that way. :) )
 
#21 ·
I know there's that one company in canada (iterscope?) that owns most of the forums. I think they control allot of the content. Or did control. I remember getting banned for complaining about my bike on that particular forum so I think it might has something to do with that. Don't hurt the brand, etc. The triumph forum I was on was so heavily moderated it was like the Kremlin was controlling every word. You got threatened for saying fart. They literally banned all the fun people and the place became a bore. so there's a bit of sef-destruction involved in this,



Things were definitely more lively ten years ago. The old Kawi site many of us were on before this was mod happy too and died. Numerous dick heads from the non ninja forums were on that site though.



The whole motorcycle thing in general is starting to fade around here. Meetup is all but dead around here and it used to be great. I find it disturbing.
 
#23 ·
I just joined this forum a few months ago because the 2020 N1K is almost certainly the bike I’m buying in the Spring to replace my FJR1300. There’s little doubt that the FJR forum I frequent is more active than this one, but hopefully I’ll just be one of a good number of new N1K owners who are joining the fold with the new ‘20 model. I hope so...I’ve always enjoyed forum interaction with each different bike I’ve owned. It’s part of both the early education and the ongoing fun...I’m tepid on group rides, but I do enjoy talking about bikes.
 
#24 ·
I've seen a lot come and go. (Going to show my age).

Dial-up Bulletin Board (BBS)
CompuServe
NNTP Newsgroups
Forums
Facebook

What's next? I have no idea.

Personally - I found the best of all these was NNTP Newsgroups. Simple - and more importantly threaded. You could follow a discussion/branch/tree - and ignore others. If two people wanted to have a peeing contest over who's got the bigger ego - they could go at it on their own branch and it wouldn't derail the rest of the topic/discussion. I've seen the occasional forum attempt to do this (such as dpreview) but for some reason this linear approach seems to be more widely adopted.

NNTP had it's issues - but they could have been overcome with a newer release/protocol.

I don't "do" facebook and I know I'm not alone so I think forums will remain. I like independent forums because it let's me talk about different things without everyone else having to know every aspect of my life. (Again, showing my age but I prefer not to advertise to everyone what I'm eating tonight (instagram) or where I am (facebook) or what my latest bowel movement has been like (twitter), etc. Forums give a bit of separation between church and state, and other hobbies and interests, etc which I think it should stay that way.

I am a forum junkie still myself. Most days I visit numerous forums.

I think forums will live on for some time to come, but I suspect that some will die and make others more popular:

ie: Instead of having a N1000 forum, and a N300 forum, and a KTM forum, and a dedicated Honda VFR forum, etc - I think when they die, people will gravitate to a more centralised/general motorcycle one that has all these as sub-sections on it instead. That way you can get your Jokes/Meme fix for people with common interests, find out more about helmets, intercoms, etc and still visit specific subsections like sections for the bikes that you own.

So personally - I can't see them disappearing - but I can see many dying and others growing stronger.
 
#35 ·
Personally - I found the best of all these was NNTP Newsgroups. Simple - and more importantly threaded. You could follow a discussion/branch/tree - and ignore others. If two people wanted to have a peeing contest over who's got the bigger ego - they could go at it on their own branch and it wouldn't derail the rest of the topic/discussion. I've seen the occasional forum attempt to do this (such as dpreview) but for some reason this linear approach seems to be more widely adopted.
Hey I loved newsgroups too, and yeah you're right on about branched discussions. A few people want to branch off and start talking about politics? Click and you don't see them anymore.

One thing that's popular that hasn't been brought up is Reddit. And Reddit is a weird beast. Reddit is a decent place for discussion of current topics, questions about software, but there isn't much there for technical back and forth discussion unfortunately.

The thing that truly makes Reddit a weird beast is the downvote button. Certain people hate Reddit because they can't "be themselves". There are zero trolls or dicks on reddit. Even someone showing a slight hint of trollishness is immediately downvoted into nonexistence and poof their contribution is gone. So if you hear someone say they hate Reddit, chances are they are dickheads who are pissed off for being stomped out. I've gotten and given some good answers on Reddit, but if you have something like a motorcycle fuel injection problem, forget it.
 
#29 ·
Rock apologized, I’m appalled lol he must of been drunk
 
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#32 ·
Rocky bazzina will have that nuns kicked butt on her hands ha ha
 
#34 ·
I love motorcycles and don't much like Facebook at all. I think sport-touring bikes are genius on wheels and am zero percent tempted by the current infatuation with adventure bikes that will never stray from the pavement. I understand that all of this marks me as an "old guy". That's okay. There are worse things than being an old guy. Not many things. But a couple.

This is a good forum. I have learned a lot. I am grateful for the continued existence of this site and for the quality of the members, especially those high-volume veteran contributors who have shared so much knowledge.
 
#36 ·
I am going to mysteriously appear here after a long silence to post a huge wall of text!

I do check-in on the forum occasionally (today is one of those days) mostly to clean up a bit. I'd prefer to be a little more active but I have a lot of other stuff going on.

Here's my take on the forums dying thing:
I think people are leaning more and more toward platforms like Facebook because they're more conducive to "live" conversation, and connect with what's going on around them in one place. I get notifications in the same feed for my AutoX group, the Ninja 1000 group (which is constantly growing, and you're encouraged to join!), and all my other FB groups in one place. It's a one-stop shop for current events in all of my circles. Obviously, forums don't do that. I have to manually go to the AutoX forum, the V-Strom forum, this forum, the aviation forum, the MR-2 forum... It gets tiring bouncing around a lot, and I can see why most people don't have the energy/patience for that when a much more frequented, more connected platform exists.

Now, all of that being said, I think Facebook is terrible. It's primarily meant to be a newsfeed, with constantly refreshed content. Discussion doesn't happen for long, because older posts get aggressively pushed down and buried quickly. This causes oodles of people to ask the same questions over and over and over again, and it just turns into a check-in type space consisting mostly of "check out this cool place I visited" or "does anyone have <part> for sale" rather than real, fruitful discussion on any given topic. Because of the format I think it also encourages people to just yell their opinion as quickly and loudly as possible at each passing post so that people hear their say before its inevitable descent into the void.

Verticalscope does own most of the forums these days, it seems, including this one. I have had to work with them on a couple of occasions to figure out stuff with this forum. I don't love it, but it also helps keep the forum "free" without having one member or a small group of members burdened with the infrastructure. As someone who hosts my own stuff from home, this is not a small undertaking and while many will complain about ads/etc, this is the price we pay in order to get something out of nothing. This is literally why Facebook is used by the vast majority of people. It's free. Yeah, you have to put up with ads, but you're not paying for a membership and you're not dealing with the logistics of running a site.

On the topic of the people/audience/etc... I think this is where there might be some misconceptions.

As far as people getting political/pushing views on others, I think this is something that you'll encounter no matter where you go, it will just affect you more/less depending on how much that community's general vibe aligns with yours. The more general you get, the more of a mixed bag you get, and the more restrictive things typically get because they're trying to cater to a larger audience. In here, I've seen a lot of things (mostly casual sexism/racism/condescension) that I have chosen not to act upon because of the size of the crowd, my position on the forums (as an admin and as someone who isn't actually all that active) and because I'm not the thought police. I certainly don't appreciate being lumped in with all the other millenials (I'm 30, probably one of the youngest if not the youngest forums member), and have seen people say some shitty stuff about my generation. I could of course spout a bunch of BS about boomers but none of that is productive.

I think it's important to have an off-topic discussion area. I think if people get frustrated about things getting political, it's with those who drag it into everything (like @Northern Ninja said), and can't let it go when others just want to agree to disagree. So, while I understand the frustration and have it often myself, I think it's important to let people have a little freedom, as long as it contributes something worthwhile to the discussion, IN the appropriate subforum.

The "Zero dicks or trolls on Reddit" thing had me in stitches. I'm on Reddit a pretty good amount, and my GF pretty much lives there. There are tons of assholes on Reddit. Thankfully yes, most get downvoted into oblivion but due to miscommunication, people taking things at face value, people will often go along with the crowd and downvote good content/posts because they saw it had a bunch of downvotes already. I've found myself guilty att times even of reaching for the downvote button before thinking about what someone actually said. Also, going back to an earlier point, you're far more likely to agree with people who think similarly to you, so, if you're liberal, you're far more likely to enjoy Reddit than if you're super conservative, because, let's face it, MOST of Reddit is quite liberal. I don't think there's anything wrong with that but I can definitely see why some of my conservative friends strongly dislike it. All of these different forms of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, even forums) eventually segregate themselves into echo chambers over time. People naturally gravitate towards the social groups that are compatible with their worldview, so much like someone said earlier, when a forum/group starts to split, for example ,into track riders, street riders, and hard-parkers, they're going to naturally boil down to one of those groups that remains, while the other people with diverging views find someplace else. The only good thing about forums (and other types of groups like this) dying slowly is that it forces people out of their comfort zone into a new space where they have to interact with other people who are different from them. Sort of, refreshes things a little.

My only regret with forums dying is the reference side of things. I've said this before and I'll say it again. Forums are FAR better for actually working through issues/builds/advice/etc than other social media, just because the structure is much better for it and it's not a spazzy in-the-moment newsfeed that won't ever look the same twice. This permanence I think is what helps forums like this one retain their value, along with you vets who stick it out to help maintain them.
 
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