whats happened to online Club forums- especially this one?

[Chris_Blue]

Joined this Club a few years back, about a year after the launch of the DS3, when I had my first THP 150

It was buzzing then, so much so that at one stage there were 3 DS3 Clubs running, all with online Forums

So whats happened. Hardly anyone knocking around on the DS3 ones anymore- and other Clubs I am in never seem to reach the heights of hundreds of members online at the same time
Surely, cant just be the advent of other social media, as most of it has been around a while

Or is it just the demise of the online Clubs?

[Dangerousfish]

Social media is king nowadays.

People share pictures on Instagram or Facebook and get their quick likes and engage in communication immediately, rather than waiting a day or two to gauge the reaction to their post

Were still here, just more active on those mediums and discord =)

[Chris_Blue]

Nice to hear from you Liam- tis a shame the older type Clubs like this are not used as much

[DeeKayEcks]

It's just well, instant gratification as Fish has said. Forums are just such an old school way of doing things.

I recall Parkers used to have a forum and that was booming but even they took it down on the basis of advancement of 'social media'.

[Funky]

I'm not on Facebook either Chris_Blue , but the clubs Discord is really good. It's just a more up to date Shoutbox and there's a good handful of regulars on there and new members all the time. I still use the forum, coz it's still a good place to be and is still invaluable for info.

[SLC]

Facebook has certainly made the biggest change, however the forum software change a while ago makes it not as easy to browse through anymore - I basically stopped using the forum when it went to its current look. It was much easier before.

I used to visit every week, but now only once a month or so. It's really hard to see what's happening. I'm not keen on "shout box" or whatever it's called this week, sorry.

[Dangerousfish]

Facebook has certainly made the biggest change, however the forum software change a while ago makes it not as easy to browse through anymore - I basically stopped using the forum when it went to its current look. It was much easier before.

I used to visit every week, but now only once a month or so. It's really hard to see what's happening. I'm not keen on "shout box" or whatever it's called this week, sorry.

The forum software we were previously using hasn't had any serious support in years, not to mention the heaps of vulnerabilities that are constantly being found requiring frequent updates and the lack of support for modern technologies.

The straw that broke the camels back came with an update to PHP that broke functionality of some integral parts of the site. At that point we were left with the option of finding someone to replace those broken tools at a cost to us or carrying out an upgrade to the most recent version of vBulletin (not the best, but better than a broken site).

Sorry you don't like the changes.

If you're looking to see which posts have recently been made then I'd encourage you to checkout the #forum-feed channel on Discord which is updated whenever a new post is made.

Evolve or die.

[Chris_Blue]

well there are a few owners/ forum members who get on here pretty much daily- so that's nice to see. I drop in every day now as am DS3 owner

[Funky]

I still come on almost every day, just to see what's happening and if I can help anyone really. Got to keep the forum alive!

[Chris_Blue]

I still come on almost every day, just to see what's happening and if I can help anyone really. Got to keep the forum alive!

Quite right. We'll have to think of some car things to chat about :-)