Our Forum...

Topic: Our Forum... (Read 3072 times) previous topic - next topic

Our Forum...

July 08, 2021, 01:20:39 PM

I think the time's come that we need to address the elephant in the room!

Eddypeck touched on it recently, but it's likely something we've all realised - there's less and less input on the forum, other than from a handful of hardcore members.

Be a genuine shame if it all just fizzled out from a lack of interest so maybe throwing about a few ideas might lead to something?

Re: Our Forum...

Reply #1 – July 08, 2021, 01:47:40 PM

I'd love to someway bring back the traffic that there used to be on the forum.
I used to come on every day and there'd be two pages of new topic posts to search through.

Re: Our Forum...

Reply #2 – July 08, 2021, 02:01:49 PM

I look most days,
The speech bubble icons in menu show new/updated posts don't they?

Re: Our Forum...

Reply #3 – July 08, 2021, 07:56:51 PM

Ban facebook! I try to direct people back to the forum in posts. The problem is people on fb are bothered when a forum dies, yet they dont use it for the knowledge, much rather ask the same question as a few days previous.

Re: Our Forum...

Reply #4 – July 08, 2021, 08:23:39 PM

I check in whenever I log in to my computer but I am not one for posting unless I need advice or I am confident in giving advice on a problem someone else experiencing.
scs

Re: Our Forum...

Reply #5 – July 08, 2021, 08:27:51 PM

I much prefer the forum, all the info doesn't get lost in the ether and it's non toxic ;-)

Re: Our Forum...

Reply #6 – July 08, 2021, 10:46:44 PM

I log in 3-4 times a week, (should be more), but never answer technical questions!

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Reply #7 – July 08, 2021, 11:22:05 PM

Would adding the ability to let users attach images directly be costly?

Re: Our Forum...

Reply #8 – July 08, 2021, 11:29:00 PM

My activity on the Forum is variable and think it's a more constructive atmosphere. I've had some really useful help from people on this forum and also Club GTI.....did I swear?
I do login to that FB thing and think it could catch on and be something quite big.......but usually it is for Marketplace. I don't get the tagging/banter and I dislike some of the content that is posted in response to people's queries. I'm quite a private person so you won't find too much on their aside from car/caravan posts and a my very basic profile.
I do wonder if some of the items advertised on Marketplace exist since I don't always get a response to my enquiries; but I like the fact that it isn't an auction forcing the price up.
Maybe I'm just an old fart!

Re: Our Forum...

Reply #9 – July 09, 2021, 10:40:28 AM

Problem is, Facebook can grant instant gratification with the likes/follows, it's also extremely convenient.
It's all very immediate, not in there for the long haul, hence the 4 million identical posts about E10 fuel recently.

I tend to try and log in every weekday a couple of times, just to see what happening.

Re: Our Forum...

Reply #10 – July 09, 2021, 11:26:50 AM

I've no in-depth access to the traffic stats. other than the very basic ones given via the link at the bottom of the homepage.

Are we getting a reasonable number of visits, it's just that few of them are contributing?

Visitors are going to have a whole range of reasons for visiting, if we can make it easier for them regardless of what that is to get involved - such as being able to easily add an image - may help encourage contributions?

I realise there may be cost or technical reasons but may be worth weighing it up - we've all seen the posts asking how to, I think nowadays there's an assumption the facility exists on a forum. Plus we're all a shallow lot and the least work involved getting our MK2 fix the better.

Small steps first and this one's a well worn path, but even so, what about featuring a members car each month for example?

Just ideas.

Re: Our Forum...

Reply #11 – July 09, 2021, 02:42:39 PM

Quote from: L90E on July 08, 2021, 11:22:05 PM

Would adding the ability to let users attach images directly be costly?

On this idea, I use another way which make it easy to post pictures, not sure if you guys are PC/laptop users but I mainly use PC, can't stand phones, there is an app called Discord, while this is usually for gamers and it works well you can also create your own Discord channel and copy as many pictures to it as you want, you then just copy the links, it's always free and they will never vanish, (I'm looking at you photophucket).

That's how I did the build thread in order, check it out, I would also suggest it would be a great place to have a VWgolfmk2 channel as it's a chat and voice client so can have channels for all the stuff on the forum on one Discord https://discord.com/

I have no problem setting one up for the club if you would like to test it out, I have one for my sim racing club I run and we have 2500 members.

Re: Our Forum...

Reply #12 – July 10, 2021, 09:33:06 AM

If it's OK with admin., not going to cost you or take up to much of your time definitely worth a punt to see if it works for users... can't do any harm and sounds like it's maybe a solution?

Re: Our Forum...

Reply #13 – July 10, 2021, 03:57:58 PM

If admin want to try it out then I'm fine with setting it up as ownership can be transferred to anyone later on.

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Reply #14 – July 11, 2021, 11:29:06 AM

I miss the amount of traffic in the old forum , it’s not the new sites fault, it’s just so easy to jump from group to group on Face ache , people hopefully will realise the forum offers far more and a greater depth , there is i belief that forums are dead/dying which is sad .. I look most days but fail to post as much as I should