A Members’ Forum?

So we thought we’d try and offer our full members a private forum and see how you like it. It’s a case of it’s possible to do so why not?

No one other than full members can get in here and post and our intention is to use this forum as a closer connection between you guys and the Singletrack team. So, if there’s anything you’d like to know about the magazine or anything you’d like to ask any of us then this is a place for that.

It may work or it may not, but we hope you find it useful 🙂

Cheers

Mark

You’re right! I logged out and I couldn’t even see it!

It’s funny seeing the ‘Total Posts 4.8M, 4.7M, er… 1’ totals… 🙂

Anyway, I’m here too now…

Hey guys.

Hi ya!

Hello, this is all very new.

I bet 20p this lasts about as long as the members only area with the expired discount codes and roaming tumbleweed.  I’d have thought more engagement with the existing forum would be better than a secret forum but maybe I’m wrong and I only have 20p at stake.

I fear change.

*dons tinfoil hat.

Edit – not really, don’t want to appear negative after that previous post. Why not try indeed?! Nothing lost if it doesn’t fly. 👍

Hey Rubber… Which codes have expired? Charlie will sort those.

The members area is really quite busy I’m not sure what you are referring to by tumbleweed.

This isn’t taking anything away from the main forum but we’ve had feedback that some members are intimidated by the main forum and by some of the regulars so they are put off from contributing. This is an experiment to see if we can help with that by creating a different environment just for our members. It will work if it’s of use. If it isn’t we will  try something else.

The existing forum gets 1.5 million users a month visiting it. That’s up 10% on the same period last year. Where is the tumbleweed of which you speak? 🙂

I used the Showers Pass code last month and very much appreciated it was too.

Can we start threads in the main forum, discussing the members forum or is this STW fight club?

The rules are yours to make Tom 🙂

Where is the tumbleweed of which you speak?

Certainly not in the main forums, I enjoy and spend far too much time reading those 😀 The members only area had some useful and appreciated by me discounts but appeared to have been forgotten after the initial push with several expired codes the last time I looked.  Maybe you don’t see the same as me or don’t look at them as often?

some members are intimidated by the main forum and by some of the regulars so they are put off from contributing

Why not address the issue in the main forums rather than create a subset?  I personally think there has been a big improvement over the past few years but I don’t really dip into the politics threads much so probably don’t see the worst.

Hey Rubber. Sorry you aren’t a fan of this. The main forum isn’t going anywhere so, enjoy 🙂

If this forum proves to be of use to some users then great. Like I say, it’s an experiment and we won’t know if it’s a good thing or not until we try it.

I’ve found two expired codes in the members area. I’ve alerted Charlie to those so he’s going to get them sorted for you. Thanks for the heads up there.

I do have one little idea:

Can it be done that these Member’s forum topics appear for Members in the Overview button? Possibly with a different colour background like the stickies have. Tucked away here things could be lost as unless you click through you don’t see what’s going on.

Obviously non-members would have to not see them though! Don’t know how easy that is to do but it’s an idea to help drive engagement.

We can certainly look at that idea.

*dons tinfoil hat.

What about it? Do you want one too?

And who is Don?

our intention is to use this forum as a closer connection between you guys and the Singletrack team

I think that’s a good idea, more than “here’s a place we can talk away from all those other people”.

intimidated by the main forum and by some of the regulars

I haven’t felt such. Years ago I frequented the PistonHeads forum, the regulars thing feels similar, and I have a similar imagined (possibly wrong) stereotype of the average STW member.

anything you’d like to ask any of us

What are the music videos in FGF about? I’ve not been around long and am in my early 30s, it feels like an in-crowd thing. Not that I mind, just curious.

Things I might like:
* “Over 130+ UK rides” – only a few are listed on the page, a few more can be found by clicking the Classic Rides label, the rest need delving into the back issues PDF/GPX downloads to find.
* Ask the author a few things arising from a feature or review (I see you do often respond to comments already), or ask about some early impressions of something that appeared in FGF recently.
* Submit/discuss ideas for content we’d like to see – adventures, opinions/insight, products
* Routine topic per issue for any discussion/feedback about it
* Be able to download your excellent photography in hi-res for use as desktop/phone wallpapers
* Better index or searchability of content. When I use Google with site:singletrackworld.com it’s mostly forum stuff that comes up. If I want to find all tyre reviews, I figured the way to do it is find one tyre review, then click on the “Tyres” label to go to the category.

Ooh…

I feel all special.

The music videos are generally chosen by whoever writes the words for FGF. As it’s not on a rota, it tends to either fall to whoever’s got the most things to write about, or it gets a ‘Oh, OK, I’ll write Fresh Goods this week…’ and the videos are a chance for the author to either reflect the theme of the words that week, or to ‘educate’ the rest of the team and the readers in obscure music they might not have heard. That’s certainly what I do – hence a lot of ’80s rock and oddball guitar players… 🙂

So the member’s forum is true!

Feel like I need a print subscription now to upgrade my badge 🙂

* “Over 130+ UK rides” – only a few are listed on the page, a few more can be found by clicking the Classic Rides label, the rest need delving into the back issues PDF/GPX downloads to find.
* Ask the author a few things arising from a feature or review (I see you do often respond to comments already), or ask about some early impressions of something that appeared in FGF recently.
* Submit/discuss ideas for content we’d like to see – adventures, opinions/insight, products
* Routine topic per issue for any discussion/feedback about it
* Be able to download your excellent photography in hi-res for use as desktop/phone wallpapers

All these ideas certainly have my votes for what it’s worth! Nice one @bikesandboots.

Funny you should mention that… I’ve ordered a copy of the anniversary issue for old times sake, but i rarely read the digital versions properly, maybe back to print is the way to go for me!

Once you’ve clicked on a thread there doesn’t seem to be a simple way to get back to the top level of the member’s forum, having to go back to the overview then click on the members forum again. At the moment it’s not clear if there’s going to be sufficient traffic in here to warrant that, and if these threads can be mixed in with the overview that might work anyway, but perhaps a ‘nice to have’ feature?

I’d like to see who posted the latest post on a given thread (on the forum thread list) – at the mo if you reply to a post then check back on the forum a few hours later you often see “Last post two hours ago” but have no idea if it’s your reply or someone else’s.

That’s a fair shout Mogrim

There are few issues we need to work out over the next few days so bear with us. One, as @thepurist pointed out is the ability to go back to the top of the members forum easily without having to go back to the main forum index. As a very temporary measure I’ve added another handshake icon on the left menu that will take you directly to the index of the members forum. It’s sub optimal right now but Andy and I are working behind the scenes on the UX.

Two things:

1) This is only visible from the Overview page. If I hadn’t clicked it – and I very rarely use that view so it’s a complete coincidence – I wouldn’t have known of its existence.

2) One would assume that a full member is a paying member. Therefore, an adult. Therefore, do we still need a swear filter? I’d quite like to use words like ****, ****, ****er, and Piers Morgan.

Thanks to the admin team for putting this in place.

Was going to say what Cougar has just said above, can we remove the swear filter in here please.

As said, it is a place away from the public, unless <18s can be members in which case I suppose it is a bit iffy.

If that is the case, a members members section for 18+, so we can say **** off cock face 😀

Ask the author a few things arising from a feature or review (I see you do often respond to comments already), or ask about some early impressions of something that appeared in FGF recently.

This would be nice. Extra discussion about product reviews would be interesting.

Point 3 of 2 with my Former Moderator Hat on,

We probably need a house rule that slagging off people who can’t see it and have no right of reply is bad form.

“ gets 1.5 million users a month visiting it. That’s up 10% on the same period last year.”

Wow that’s awesome….gets tear in his eye thinking about yellow and brownish forum, when Charle was just this city chap who made millions then opened up a bike shop….fell in with the wrong crowd (single speeders I heard…) then moved North….were the trousers are expensive hand made and the ground coffee is plentiful….

We probably need a house rule that slagging off people who can’t see it and have no right of reply is bad form.

We probably need a house rule that slagging off people who can’t see it and have no right of reply is bad form.

A fair and just point, ex-mods on the other hand…
RM.

Just to add, I also think it would be good if these forum topics appeared in with the chat and bike threads. I wouldn’t mind if the titles were either visible or not not to non members, but I tend to scroll bike and chat forum combined and am less likely to click to a different view to look at threads.

👍👋

A fair and just point, ex-mods on the other hand…

Yeah, screw those guys.

Are we on commission? We drop tantalising hints in the main forum of untold fun being had over here. Then Mark can rake it in with the netted newbies and we get paid handsomely.

Just to add, I also think it would be good if these forum topics appeared in with the chat and bike threads. I wouldn’t mind if the titles were either visible or not not to non members, but I tend to scroll bike and chat forum combined and am less likely to click to a different view to look at threads.

As an “Overview” user, I’d be more likely to see the members forum content if it were mixed in with the Bike and Chat threads.

If the threads titles were shown to the freeloaders, (we can fairly refer to them as that here can’t we?) I can just imagine the moaning about restricted content though, a bit like when an intrusive advert pops up. Appreciate that might be tricky to implement.

It’s worth a try.