Apologies for not reading the whole thread, but I'd like to mention 'Pook's pootles'.
These gatherings have brought around friendships that for me have been very special and lasted years. 'whispers', there's even a marriage. All this from STW.
It's more than the forum and magazine, the mtbers that have ridden together from all over the country and continue to do to this day.
Would I miss it?
In the short term - probably.
The forum is always an interesting read in those small moments to occupy a bit of time such as on the karzee, waiting for the ads on TV to pass, teams calls, MIL repeating the same story, etc
Long term - no not really
Hmmm...I'm a free member and happy to pay-up after reading this. I'll be honest, the financial health or accounts of an internet forum I use are never really at the forefront of my mind so its just not something I'd ever considered before. Pretty much all the issues being discussed on this page are new to me.
I don't ever view the main site and I don't buy the magazine. I only road ride now but even when I mountain biked I didn't buy it even then as personally I could never really get along with the writing style.
I'll stump up for a sub but this is 100% based on the facts that I often get really helpful advice on the forum for training and bike maintenance and that type of stuff.
I avoid a huge amount of threads as they seem to be tedious arguing or people posting graphs or pie charts at each other. Also, despite the fact that I am also a lefty northerner who works in an office and so basically fit right in, it does strike me as a little odd that the forum seems so overtly left-wing. I've found myself feeling a little sorry for random people sometimes as it does seem a bit like people get immediately jumped on if their views don't fit the narrative. Am I the only one who thinks this is a bit weird for a mountain bike forum.
Would I miss it if its gone? I think the people saying yes are likely people who have met friends here or had real-life help and whatnot whereras I don't think I'm really that invested, though I do recognise a few names every now and then. It crashes my computer and even my phone on a daily basis and now I'm going to pay a subscription for that so I guess that says a lot about the value I place on the people and the help with training, bike maintenance etc.
Cheers
Duggan
