Do we need more users?

[riceburner]

It's occurred to me that this forum is pretty slow moving at the moment (I use the 'new posts' page whenever I visit and we're currently getting about 1 new post per day). So - would it be advantageous to promote the forum to new users?

My enthusiasm for this is tempered however by the fact that I KNOW Doug (our esteemed host) having some difficulties keeping the forum going, due to costs and moderation issues (it takes a lot of time to mod a forum). More users is obviously going to increase those costs and time requirements: more users equals a lot more bandwidth being used (one of the things that hosting companies charge for).

So - what do we, the current users feel about this?

Personally, I'd hate to see the knowledge and community spirit in this forum die, simply because it gets so quiet in here that 'regulars' stop bothering (it's happened to other forums I've been on, and is always a great shame).

Mods - if this post ought to be elsewhere, then please feel free to move it, 'Off-Topik' didn't seem relevant, and I can't access the member section (although I have paid for membership). The reason I put the post here is that I was considering promoting the forum on the Facebook 'Rockster' group page because there's a lot of new owners buying 3rd or 4th hand bikes and it would be good to have some of their questions easily answerable because the information is all here!

[Boxer]

It's a two-edged sword. This forum would not exist without users, period. However, with new users comes increased costs and responsibilities. This is true with any venture. I don't think Doug would mind at all promoting the R1150R.net forum anywhere online, but I may be wrong. The upside to a renewed vigor at this forum means greater potential for financial support. The more users, the less each user would need to "give" to keep it going. I "left the building" for a long time but managed to find my way back on a limited basis just because of the old friends who occasionally hang out here...like I do.
I'd be interested to hear from Doug, or the mods, as to the current viability of staying up and running.
That's my 2 cents worth.

Boxer aka Phil

[swamper]

Hard to find new people with a motorcycle aging out. Like parts no longer being offered it's just evolution of the hobby/sport/enthusiast. Even on Adventure rider you only see the same users on the 1150r thread. I watch other threads also like the R1100S and not much is posted anymore, the occasional new to me owner with old questions rehashed. I try to always post a picture when I post but on this site it has been most difficult, I finally gave up posting pictures here.

[AZBMWRIDER]

I'm a moderator on an airhead site, just R65's, not a common bike and they stopped production in the mid '80's .
Seems like the membership comes and goes, right now we're in a decreasing membership direction .
Motorcycles don't seem to have the the same following like they did 20-30 years ago .
Look at Harley, baby boomers kept them going for decades, now that generation is literally dying off !!!!
Let's face it a vast majority of people don't possess the skills to keep a motorcycle on the road these days, let alone how to ride one .
Oh, by the way, I'm a member of dying off boomer generation myself !!!

[Bogdan]

R riders are a specific breed. Personally speaking, I wouldn't have a RT or GS. ( Nothing against adventure bikes, I had a klr for years and rode it all over the US, Mexico and a bit of Canada - just don't like the Beemer variety. ) However...most issues are with what Rs share with RTs and GSs. I gave up on the MOA forums. Don't they have a specific oil head site ? The most active forum I was part of was for klrs. Those bikes hardly changed for decades. Also that forum - managed out of Moab, Utah, allowed for a lot of banter. Sometimes things got out of hand, but it was fun.

[Hyja1]

I still have my R (bought new in 02) and this forum and its users helped me to ween off years of dealer maintenance that were not always done right or done at all... I was even afraid of taking off the gas tank by myself until I saw Sweatmark's tank removal video. Now I can change and bleed all my fluids, adjust my valves, replace pads and next week, I'm taking on my first fuel filter replacement job.

The folks on this site are so knowledgeable and helpful. I'm grateful and hope the site stays up.

[riceburner]

For all of you who think that it'll be hard to find new R1150 owners: I'm on a couple of R1150 owners groups on Facebook. There are people posting up about their new (to them) R-R (or RS/RT) EVERY DAY.

All of them commenting about looking forward to learning how to look after their bikes.

I keep wanting to point them at this forum, because it's an absolute treasure trove of information and assistance, however I'm not sure how many more users the forum bandwidth and server resources can take, which is why I posted up this question in the hope that Doug, or a Moderator would see it and comment.

[racurley]

It's interesting how many people are using groups on Facebook for similar discussions. Maybe message board forums were the original social media? I just don't find them nearly as useful and helpful. Mainly lack of threaded conversations and hard to search. I like reading and occasionally posting on ADV Rider but for RxxxxR, it's fun to follow but really just one long conversation.

[riceburner]

It's interesting how many people are using groups on Facebook for similar discussions. Maybe message board forums were the original social media? I just don't find them nearly as useful and helpful. Mainly lack of threaded conversations and hard to search. I like reading and occasionally posting on ADV Rider but for RxxxxR, it's fun to follow but really just one long conversation.

Yes - Bulletin Boards (which developed into forums like this one) were indeed the original 'digital social media' (unless you include the IRC network).

The main issue with FaceBook is that while the messages and comments are permanent, they are almost impossible to parse/search if you're looking for specific help. That's where a forum like this can be invaluable.

[riceburner]

New Year, but the forum is still pretty quiet.

Don't be afraid to post a new thread or two about your bike, your plans, your stories and experiences.

[kirby]

I try to visit this site often to see how goes it. I'm not a social media type but since I've had my Rock I have tried to participate here for any events or problems I can help with. I also donate each year.

It would be a shame to see the forum fold as there are a lot of oilheads out there. So lately I have been trying to add a story about my travels (at least 25K miles a year).

I'll try to post more.

The oilhead is going to be the new airhead.

:-)

[riceburner]

I try to visit this site often to see how goes it. I'm not a social media type but since I've had my Rock I have tried to participate here for any events or problems I can help with. I also donate each year.

It would be a shame to see the forum fold as there are a lot of oilheads out there. So lately I have been trying to add a story about my travels (at least 25K miles a year).

I'll try to post more.

The oilhead is going to be the new airhead.

:-)

I'm still working full time as a software engineer (kinda), so I have those 5 or 10 minutes intervals between thinking that happen during the work day, I tend to check forums during those times, so I'm here every day (more or less), and compared with the heyday of the early noughties, this place is extremely quiet.

I did think that with the pandemic and most people being less outdoors, there might be more people online?

[swamper]

I always check this site daily, seems to me just a hand full of viewers these days.
It's not a user friendly site so I don't see a lot of new uses coming onboard.

[Biff's R]

I check about once a week. Don't post too much since I get logged out when posting.

[Soliton]

I have experienced issues when attempting to post as well. I can be logged in, I draft a reply to something, then when I try to post I am asked to log in again. Do that and all the draft text is lost. I have taken to drafting everything offline or saving to my the desktop first. That’s a separate issue though.

Users:

Might there be consideration to combining some of the different discussions e.g R1150r and Rockster. These two models share enormous amounts of mechanical similarity. This might reduce some work for the administrator as well.

There is a demographic for new users that is currently untapped. Builders of custom bikes based on BMW platforms. When I started, the R1150r was not popular for this use (it’s challenging to work with) but that is changing. Do a search R1150r cafe racer or R1150r custom. The people building bikes like this are a whole different crew and they may not have the specialist skills and knowledge of the people on this board.

I have a foot in both camps and the resources here have been amazingly valuable in the custom build process. Explicitly targeting this group could yield new members.

My opinion only.

[riceburner]

I have experienced issues when attempting to post as well. I can be logged in, I draft a reply to something, then when I try to post I am asked to log in again. Do that and all the draft text is lost. I have taken to drafting everything offline or saving to my the desktop first. That’s a separate issue though.

I've not had this issue, but I can certainly see why it would highly aggravating.
I'd suggest logging out of the forum deliberately, clearing the cookies from your browser, then logging in again.
Next step would be to try using a different browser.

Users:

Might there be consideration to combining some of the different discussions e.g R1150r and Rockster. These two models share enormous amounts of mechanical similarity. This might reduce some work for the administrator as well.

There is a demographic for new users that is currently untapped. Builders of custom bikes based on BMW platforms. When I started, the R1150r was not popular for this use (it’s challenging to work with) but that is changing. Do a search R1150r cafe racer or R1150r custom. The people building bikes like this are a whole different crew and they may not have the specialist skills and knowledge of the people on this board.

I have a foot in both camps and the resources here have been amazingly valuable in the custom build process. Explicitly targeting this group could yield new members.

My opinion only.

There's also a large number of people buying 1150s on the used market, who are all asking for advice on Facebook - the problem there is that comments are fleeting and disappear into the aether very quickly. This forum is a hugely important repository of easily searchable information.

[UberZogster]

Riceburner, I have a feeling you type much faster than most of us as you are a software engineer. I have to relog in every time I click The reply button to get to this area and start a reply. Then I usually take too long typing and when I hit submit get the "You have to be logged in to reply bla bla bla..." I click remember me every time I log in but it doesn't do anything. The user experience is extremely aggravating....

If that wasn't enough it just took me two days (actually much longer it was just 2 days this time, I gave up the last few times I've tried to get on) to log in because the forum decided I needed to reset my password and wouldn't send me an e-mail to do so. When I tried to contact Doug using the "contact us" form clicking submit returned an "invalid form" error and didn't do anything.

I assume it's impossible for a new user to join as the site doesn't seem to be sending emails and they would have to respond to a verify your email deal. Also Doug has a requirement for new users to email him where their first post is to get it approved so they wouldn't be able to post until the contact us form was working.

See, I took too long writing this and had to log in again. Luckily I copy anything I write here to word before trying to submit...

[swamper]

I think the ship is sinking. What can we do to save it?????????????

[riceburner]

Riceburner, I have a feeling you type much faster than most of us as you are a software engineer. I have to relog in every time I click The reply button to get to this area and start a reply. Then I usually take too long typing and when I hit submit get the "You have to be logged in to reply bla bla bla..." I click remember me every time I log in but it doesn't do anything. The user experience is extremely aggravating....

If that wasn't enough it just took me two days (actually much longer it was just 2 days this time, I gave up the last few times I've tried to get on) to log in because the forum decided I needed to reset my password and wouldn't send me an e-mail to do so. When I tried to contact Doug using the "contact us" form clicking submit returned an "invalid form" error and didn't do anything.

I assume it's impossible for a new user to join as the site doesn't seem to be sending emails and they would have to respond to a verify your email deal. Also Doug has a requirement for new users to email him where their first post is to get it approved so they wouldn't be able to post until the contact us form was working.

See, I took too long writing this and had to log in again. Luckily I copy anything I write here to word before trying to submit...

I'm not a forum expert, so my comments here are partially "experienced guesswork", and I'm on a mobile right now, so typing is limited.

Re the logging off issue: I don't "know" what is causing this specifically, but there could be several reasons. I'll type more when I'm on a proper keyboard, so please be patient and I'll fill in more detail later. This issue could be alleviated by trying different web browsers, or clearing out your cache (if you know how to do that).

Re the emails. Doug informed me that due to a hack a few years ago (since tidied up), any emails sent from "r1150r.org" is being viewed as spam by Microsoft email services, so, if you are using Outlook or Hotmail, then that is why you are not receiving any emails from here. Unfortunately Microsoft are very paranoid about spam and it's very hard to get them to "safelist" emails. You could try adding "r1150r.org" to your personal safelist in the email program you use.

I'm not sure that it is impossible to join (I've seen a few new users in the last 6 months), but it is not as easy as it should be.

[riceburner]

I think the ship is sinking. What can we do to save it?????????????

Keep trying, keep talking, keep the faith.