Decline of the internet forum

[NJ Torque]

With the slow decline of this board, and others I've seen... does anyone else see a trend?

It seems that forums (car related) are only live for the current model years that they are produced, and a few years shortly after. IE: Fbodys not made since 2002, the peak of this forum ~2004-2007 (Am I wrong?) LS1 GTO seems to have been a decline as well, not much activity, where it used to be really busy back in the day.

The only place that I'm pretty much an active member that's really busy, is CTS-V owners since they are newer production cars.

Thoughts? Ideas?

[sweetbmxrider]

Agreed, which makes sense. The masses move with the latest and greatest. Some die hards hang in there and some forums like nastyz28 break that trend. jeepforum.com and wranglerforum.com seem busy in most sections but the jk probably helps.

[LTb1ow]

Tough to compete with social media sites, instant response etc.

[BonzoHansen]

And Facebook groups are so full of stupid it makes my head hurt.

And it's too bad. Some forums are such great resources for information. The info available to people on both old and new cars is amazing. But people are too lazy to look, and the FB answers are not searchable nor organized.

[LTb1ow]

And Facebook groups are so full of stupid it makes my head hurt.

And it's too bad. Some forums are such great resources for information. The info available to people on both old and new cars is amazing. But people are too lazy to look, and the FB answers are not searchable nor organized.

The amount of stupid makes it amazing cars still even run or drive.

:bertstare:

[V]

And Facebook groups are so full of stupid it makes my head hurt.

I was thinking the same thing. They really allow anyone in, open or closed groups even. So of course you get the spam/fake users. But I often see someone ask a simple question and then get all irrelevant responses. The one NJFBOA group that exists, when i get a new member request, I look into who they are. If they don't list living in or right near nj or don't have any pictures of a camaro/firebird, I then look at what other groups they are in and if they have like 5000 groups, they get blocked. You can tell who's legit and not with a little work. But also most often, no one truly knows anyone on some of those groups and you can't really know who to trust. And with many questions, people don't read previous responses. So you end up getting the same answer multiple times. At least on an established forum like this, users can usually tell who to believe if they have a question, or other users can point them in the right direction such as "ask so and so...".

Thirdgen.org seems to be decently active but thats also due to the large amount of archived info available on that site too. Ive also noticed thirdgen is a lot more friendly than a site like camaro5. And that goes back to the whole "latest and greatest" thing. The 5th gen owners are, for the majority, not normal. I'll leave it at that. The typical thirdgen.org user has a longtime history with their cars and will always own/want to own one. A 5th gen owner will have no problem trading it in for a new model.

One big thing that I think helps online forums is the occasional meeting up. Our monthly meets are good but not always "big" enough to draw newer members. thirdgen fest and camarofest or whatever are huge and get talked about year round. I know those are too large of a scale for a site like this but when we had the nationals, It would attract new members just because of it. If njfboa wants to stay active, I think we need to promote our tech forums and the knowledge of our members as well as try to get a yearly, larger meet set up to kinda make members strive to get projects done so they can attend it and show their work.

That's just my opinion lol.

[unstable bob gable]

I'm not on Facebook, and don't plan on being there any time soon. And don't feel like I'm missing a dayum thing.

[sweetbmxrider]

Monthly meets shouldn't be getting food. We're car guys, do something around that. Go karts was a blast imo and I'd do it again in a heartbeat! Always fun going to race wars too.

[TaKid455]

^^ this or incorporate both. Yes it can be a challenge and often times cost prohibitive. If it is a food destination run, pick a neat distance location with a fun drive/ run in the middle. Somewhere on the road(s) less traveled.

Also notice that Fbody and some other groups are afraid to drive their cars if there has been inclement weather in the surrounding 6 days within a 1500 mile radius while the sun is between a 45-30 deg angle with the horizon. New car peeps , mustang and import owners dont seem to give $h!t. Understandably if its crappy out, but some take it to the extreme.

Also as Scott mentioned, the fly by trenders/ bandwagoners. That's a given in anything. Sports especially.

[BonzoHansen]

Monthly meets shouldn't be getting food. We're car guys, do something around that. Go karts was a blast imo and I'd do it again in a heartbeat! Always fun going to race wars too.

So you are signing up to coordinate meets?

[ThoR294]

So you are signing up to coordinate meets?

I think he did :bertstare:

Also, I blame facebook. There's plenty of fbody groups in there with bafoons as mentioned lol

[sweetbmxrider]

So you are signing up to coordinate meets?

Maybe. They all seem to follow on my rotation week though....

[BonzoHansen]

Maybe. They all seem to follow on my rotation week though....

Well, if you coordinate one, you set the date....

[sweetbmxrider]

Fair enough, I'll text half the guys that post regularly what works with them :lol:

[BonzoHansen]

Ok, I'm dragging you in full boat.

when you text don't forget to text the guys that say they are coming and then no show. :)

[LTb1ow]

I have yet to receive a text, da faq?!

[ThoR294]

me neither wtf.

[wrong generation]

thank god no one knows my cell #. its to nice outside to play with my phone or sit on a forum lol.

that being said i still lurk on a ton of car forums. the problem is i lurk do way to much reading and very little posting.

[Frosty]

I'll occasionally post, I lurk but kinda got burnt out on the whole message board thing. Plus for a while the immaturity here was a bit much lol. Plus working 60-65hrs a week my time is limited to lurk or post let alone even think about attending a meet.

[Blackbirdws6]

I prefer the less hectic format of forums versus social media. Sure you get some instant gratification with multiple notifications and comments on social media. Forums still provide useful info if you know how to search. I usually post only when I feel I can actual contribute to the conversation.

[SS Performance]

A possible reason for decline is so many issues have been discussed that you only need to do a search rather than a post.

Also many new car purchasers wait several years before they start modding their cars.

So with the 8 year gap you have older cars that have been modded and the owners are experienced needing less input and new car owners not modding yet, No middle cars being modded.

[NJ Torque]

A possible reason for decline is so many issues have been discussed that you only need to do a search rather than a post.

Also many new car purchasers wait several years before they start modding their cars.

So with the 8 year gap you have older cars that have been modded and the owners are experienced needing less input and new car owners not modding yet, No middle cars being modded.


I disagree with this.

Many companies (now defunct) used to make products when the Fbodies were new, just like the GTOs, TBSS, G8(just talking GM/LSx platform here) when they were new/just a couple years old.

[NastyEllEssWon]

I find forums that grow to find daily users tend to devolve into cliques of the everyday daily members, turning the forum into a tight knit group of friends...which is a great thing, however usually leaves new members feeling on the fringe or not part of the ''inner circle'' which leaves them to seek other means of connecting. Facebook works for the fact that you already have friends on your timeline in conjunction with your groups timeline, making you feel less left out of the group since they usually contain your IRL friends more often than a forum would.

[elle]

I sometimes feel like it's a Jeep forum here. Otherwise I like to pop in and check out the for sale section and would like to threads that get interesting not get locked

[Paul Huryk]

I haven't been on this board long enough to do anything but assume, but other boards (TGO for example), have declined slowly over time - but are not DOA.

But the new car specific forums (5th gens as an example) are overloaded with tens of thousands of posts a day and heavy sponsorship of said forums. When online forum companies contact us to advertise, they give us monthly postings and member data - some forums have well over 50k members - even though there aren't a fraction that many cars of those types on the road...

[MDSheds_SS]

Less posting more Racing!!! Build...Race...Break...Repeat!!!!

[97Formula]

With the slow decline of this board, and others I've seen... does anyone else see a trend?

It seems that forums (car related) are only live for the current model years that they are produced, and a few years shortly after. IE: Fbodys not made since 2002, the peak of this forum ~2004-2007 (Am I wrong?) LS1 GTO seems to have been a decline as well, not much activity, where it used to be really busy back in the day.

The only place that I'm pretty much an active member that's really busy, is CTS-V owners since they are newer production cars.

Thoughts? Ideas?

I have noticed this too with the F-Body message boards.....very sad.

LS1 GTO on the other hand still seems to be very active (I have an 06 GTO in addition to my 97 Formula, keeping it in the "Pontiac Family").

[Blacdout96]

Also, many of the members develop a life beyond their hobby. I believe I was 19-20 when I began on this site. Now I'm 30, no longer live rent free, plenty of bills to keep me from doing anything to my Camaro. Many on here are older then me, and their once beloved project was sold/wrecked/parted or neglected ( with me being the latter). Almost anything built or tips and tricks for these cars have been done, so sticking around for the latest/greatest trick is not necessary. Maybe once a few months I'll frequent, but with no motivation to repair my car, my urgency to come on here isn't as important as it once was.

[Punkmaster 98]

I like the forums but facebook IMO has accelerated the process for getting the information you need. Im a member of several fbody groups. One of them is Tech help and information ONLY. If you give bad info you get banned and in order to join someone from within the group has to vouch for you. I still go to the forums for information though as im sure someone else has had the same problem im having. Also some very knowledgable people who have been around since thirdgens were new are on there as well.

[unstable bob gable]

I don't do Faceless Book, and I haven't owned an F body in many years. But I've been here a long time because I liked the group and it was more of a friendship thing then car thing. But there is def a don't give an F attitude any more. Like no meets since February, and that meet only had 4 members show up. And I seemed to be the only one who cared what was going on car wise. I spent a few hours detailing my Spirit R/T, and my buddy showed up in his stroked big block LeMans, and nobody made an effort to go check them out. And I've spent more time in drive throughs then we spent in the restaurant. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted and RIP.

[Punkmaster 98]

One of the groups im in gets together every third sunday down in deptford. What started as 4 members from TGO has grown to 300 via word of mouth and facebook and is still growing.

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13001230_10153682868337545_7904404956005392183_n.j pg?oh=567486a5fc4b4faa026e37e7171b8e06&oe=57A68EF7

[sweetbmxrider]

That looks cool, cars guys hanging out around cars. I've never been a fan of going out to eat. We're car guys, not foodies.

[BonzoHansen]

Someone just needs to take the reigns and organize things.

[MDSheds_SS]

Car guys, doing Car guy things at the track. Drinkin beer and watching/racing American cars this Friday at Etown. Not trying to beat a dead horse but if they don't turn out a good crowd they probably won't run it again.

[CrAsH]

As someone else on here stated Being an adult has definitely re-arranged what was first on my to do list. When I was a teenager and I bought my first car, which I had wanted as long as I could remember, I was excited I & was active on here, even after I lost it. Once I graduated HS I started moving around a lot, didn't always have access to the internet, and it didn't seem as fun when I was on here. Though I do pop in and look around every now and then.

[Dudbird113]

That looks cool, cars guys hanging out around cars. I've never been a fan of going out to eat. We're car guys, not foodies.

Sure they pop something off on a desolate road