I’m guessing most of you will be members on other forums – bike related or not.

I’ve notice STWers have by far the biggest response rate of any forum by a country mile.
You can see on some forums that there could be eg 200 views but only 6 actual responses – miserable gits!

This will now probably prove to be the exception to the rule and have zero uptake now I’ve posted this! 😆

Ah – but you’re not seeing the 30,000 views from lurkers 😀

How do you know how many views this thread has had?

wallop – Member
How do you know how many views this thread has had?

Spyware – put your trousers back on

Good point wallop, but typically this would have had 60 views elsewhere before I got 2 responses…I doubt that many people have looked at it in the last 5 minutes. I knew someone would pick up on that!

put your trousers back on

no, take them back off, I’m not finished

Spyware – put your trousers back on

Keep your knickers on – it was a genuine question!

rascal – one of the reasons is the “free form” nature of the STW forum. Excepting the Classifieds, it only has two sub-forums and even then I’ll be that most folk view it in “Overview” mode so it appears as one. Most other forums are split into many sub-forums so topics get missed for longer or are overlooked completely because they are in too specific a section.

wallop – Member
Spyware – put your trousers back on
Keep your knickers on – it was a genuine question!

How do you know it wasn’t a genuine answer!! Can you clean the lens on the webcam please

The first forum I joined, an obscure prog rock band called Frost*, is populated by complete nutters.

Thread de-railment was actively encouraged by the moderators, which were only appointed after about 5 years of the forum running. It took me a while to understand, after quite a few tellings off, that “other” forums aren’t like that.

I’ve met a lot of people from that forum, some of which have become good friends. It’s more like a social club rather than the bicker-fest STW used to become. It’s rather quiet here of late.

Sounds a bit like mlehworld. If someone asks a serious question you’ll be told off for giving a serious answer before it’s reached the second page 🙂

druidh – Member

Sounds a bit like mlehworld. If someone asks a serious question you’ll be told off for giving a serious answer before it’s reached the second page

The thread de-railment was so actively encouraged that the fewer posts the better award scheme was introduced on the orignal board. Something like…..

Never mind that, did you know?

And then post something really obscure from the darkest corners of the ‘tinernet.

The Biscuit Appreciation Society

rascal – one of the reasons is the “free form” nature of the STW forum. Excepting the Classifieds, it only has two sub-forums and even then I’ll be that most folk view it in “Overview” mode so it appears as one. Most other forums are split into many sub-forums so topics get missed for longer or are overlooked completely because they are in too specific a section.

I think you are kidding yourself that this forum software from last century actually aids the forum. Plenty of other forums (based on ‘industry standard’ software) will allow you to view ‘all todays’ posts or ‘all new posts’. So you still get the “overview effect” with various possible advantage on top. Possibly there is more nonsense on here as there is no PM system.

I guess the forum software may have something to do with it. Certainly the forum I moderate counts search engine spiders amongst its “views”, if the forum doesn’t it would skew the views:posts ratio a lot. But I certainly wouldn’t use that as an argument for retaining this old tech approach.

I’ll be[t] that most folk view it in “Overview” mode

That’s an interesting question in itself. The only time I ever see the Overview page is when a thread gets deleted mid-post.

I think you are kidding yourself that this forum software from last century actually aids the forum.

Cods. I come from Mono and that’s still going strong.

Cougar – Cods. I come from Mono and that’s still going strong.

just because ‘it works’ doesn’t mean it couldn’t be better. It may be naive to assume that any modern forum software would undermine the community.

others I have seen with sub forums etc just seem pants in comparison. I thought that was the dated system. PM’s waste of time just another box to check.

just because ‘it works’ doesn’t mean it couldn’t be better. It may be naive to assume that any modern forum software would undermine the community.

I don’t disagree. I just reject the concept that it’s not an asset because it’s old / simple.

I think the forum has a massive amount of room for improvement. But it would be foolish to dismiss out of hand what’s very clearly already working.

One forum I dip into occasionally has 50 sub sections, most haven’t had a post in months, some a year or more. It’s certainly not as active as STW, it takes longer to scroll through the sections than it does to read any new posts. A lot of other forums that I used to frequent (and occasionally still do) are no where near as active as they used to be, everyone blames facebook.

I think Mark tweeted the other day that they get 30 million page views a month now.

Taking out the 2 million that I do this is still a fair number per thread and certainly puts posters in the minority.

Quantity doesn’t necessarily mean quality. 😉
I quite like the email alerts I receive from another forum, you only deal with stuff that’s relevant.

Yeah, but what have they ever done on grit?