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I use LFGSS from time to time but it's not MTB. Never really got into pink bike, mtbr, vital as they are US focused and Dirt had about 10 users until Mpora ruined it.
Anything else or is this place best?
For fatbiking - http://www.fat-bike.co.uk/index.php
For bikepacking - http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpBB3/
Cycling UK - A different set of prejudices and a lack of fish puns.
YACF - For those who are carved from teak and sleep in bus shelters.
bikeRadar is good if you like talking to yourself, or are into history, e.g., what lights 2011-2014 is still on the front page
MoreDirt, retrobikeforum too
Any with a good classifieds forum?
Cheers guys I like the look of the trail database on moredirt
Are there any that this one used to be like?
Keen to hear feedback of other options too.
Conveniently still in my clipboard!
This thread wasn't started as a moan about this place. Just get rid of the video ads or whatever slows it down and I'm happy.
Not that have any decent flow of visitors.
I've genuinely thought of setting up my own one with the best bits of all the forums I've been part of over the years. But the issue is always getting enough visitors to make it pay for itself (small ads) and a core amount of people to create content and drive new visitors to the site. A classifieds section is the obvious answer but then you hit the GDPR issue on how to deal with email addresses etc. Haven't looked into it since GDPR hit us, think it was last April when the issues here were in full swing, so maybe there's off-the-shelf software now. Might have a look again after xmas.
Trouble is I have a curse of turning up on forums and they wither and die soon after! MTBWales did it, a few Mini forums did it and the MBR one was the latest one I killed. Oh and a few work-based ones too. If this place dies I'll just give up I think, or see if I can kill FaceBook.
Initial cost can be fairly low depending on how much work you want the web host to do and how much you are prepared to do. Talking Edmund Blackadder getting drunk on his really strong beer sort of figures.
Definite Catch-22 in getting things going. There's also the danger of it all being the founder(s) and a few mates. This place had been going for several years before I joined so I don't know how quickly it took off. Then again there wasn't the elephant in the room of Facebook back then. Different people visit forums for different reasons, even different reasons for different forums - I might have looked at the classifieds on here maybe once in however many years I've been a member but look at those on BearBones once or twice a week. I don't think I ever looked at the classifieds on UKClimbing.
jesus, just had a look at some of the others mentioned!! and people piss vinegar about this place!!?
This place is just awful, but it's the best there is.
Unfortunately it is set up as a money making venture, pure and simple. In the best Mike Ashley tradition there is minimal expenditure on infrastructure and maximum revenue withdrawal.
Sad, but until someone comes along prepared to invest either a lot of money, or a lot of unpaid time we are stuck with tthe staus quo.
blimy yacf is a blast from the past. that one (and it's predecessor) had some useful features back in the day, but always got the impression that because it was a forum setup by ex-forummers from the predecessor, that it ended up just a bunch of regulars that got on well, and allowed them to keep in touch.
but then saying that, that's pretty much how the ski forum that many of us on here use started, and that became probably the biggest in UK.
road.cc I had hopes for when it first started, kind of a road version of stw, but what happened to it? the last time I looked practically every post/thread (which you could count on the fingers cos there's so few), are all the rants from the "we are the traffic" crowd for every single cyclist - motor vehicle collision/fatality that gets reported. I can't believe for one minute that that is what the road.cc guys had in mind when they started it up.
things may have changed on those? not visited either for years (except for checking some GDPR buttons).
for me it's here (and I never visit classifieds, and never intend to), and the German mtb-news forum (although there's 7000 subforums and so much total activity that one can only lurk in a couple of the most interesting ones).
jesus, just had a look at some of the others mentioned!! and people piss vinegar about this place!!?
Rather than just moan, would you care to say specifically what's wrong with them? I use/visit three of them, they are all different.
Whatever happened to mlehworld or whatever it was called?
"or see if I can kill FaceBook."
PLEASE DO! I just recently deleted myself from it, hard as it was
T he old southerndownhill forums used to be good (before it became rideio) and I always thought the format was good in that it was categorised into sections and was much more user friendly than this forum.
However, I thinks that's part of the reason why it died: all the side categories go dead and fill with tumbleweed and you have one main forum where all the 'action' is, kind of like this one. This seems to thrive cos the demograph (30plus, reasonably affluent to filthy rich) are not as bothered about social media as a means of communication and like an old skool website.
This forum just has flash flood and whimsical topics that filter down into the ether (page 2) after about 5 minutes. That said I still log on every day, for my sins
I'm not sure what the answer is, all forums seem to die or become ad heavy, or both?
This forum just has flash flood and whimsical topics that filter down into the ether (page 2) after about 5 hours
FTFY 🙂
There's a balancing act in the number of sub-forums/categories, you need enough that topics are "in the right place" and that something you post doesn't disappear off the front page in a minute if the forum is busy but too many and you end up with people moaning that your topic should be in the blah/blah/blah subforum that you never knew existed.
Facebook killed forums. Forums are seen as old skool to those people who only discovered the internet via facebook et al. It's so much easier to post photos etc to a facebook group than the upload to some random hosting service and cut and paste image dance you have to do on most forums.
Which is a shame - a forum with active moderators means that stuff gets categorised and archived in a way that facebook doesn't allow - facebook is just a rolling wall of temporary stuff that gets quickly hidden inside a walled garden.
This is one of the most active mountain biking forums i've seen, and I often found myself lurking in here years before I joined after finding some random non-mtbing thread via google, like how to insulate a shed, camper van discussions etc 🙂
FB is an EVIL all consuming, invasive, persuasive, addictive, (AI) intelligent beast! But other than that, it's fine is suppose...:-D
The only other one I spend too much time on is retrobike.
It's become a bit focused these days but used to be a great and thriving general bike forum with loads of chat, bike rides and good times. People complain that it's outdated (LOL) these days and hasn't kept up with the times but from what I understand that's because Google pulled the rug from forums like that and maybe this. Feel free to correct me but I believe as that forum grew and became a full time job to administer so the owner John did exactly that and went full time. He also bought a related forum (fatcogs) and linked the two together. Then Google changed the rules on advertising and hits or something that basically whacked his income so he had to go back to his old job. This meant development of RB pretty much stopped. It's still got loads of ace old bikes on it though.
MTBR is pretty good for technical stuff. The downside is, response time is a lot slower than on here and due to so many different topics, traffic per topic seems lower.
When great for technical info, MTBR users are more formal and less funny than they are on here.
Maybe they just lack that British sense of humor (sic).
The design of FB is to keep you on the site so they can pester you with ads - that's their business model.
Looking round at various forums (fora?) not just biking related, there seems to be a threshold beyond which post count/hosting costs and the like mean they have to become more commercial in their approach and also need to categorise posts better otherwise the forum does become a bit FB-like with posts disappearing in to an abyss (page 2) very quickly, look at the MTBR forums as an example.
Our club had a forum on the club website but it got hacked. It got set up again but was again hacked so they went to FB. I suspect there's a lot of similar tales.
However, I thinks that’s part of the reason why it died: all the side categories go dead and fill with tumbleweed and you have one main forum where all the ‘action’ is, kind of like this one. This seems to thrive cos the demograph (30plus, reasonably affluent to filthy rich) are not as bothered about social media as a means of communication and like an old skool website.
Yup, I said many times it needed to be consolidated down to stay active since the exact same thing happened to Descent-World after the wipeout and was roundly ignored. Totally lifeless now and completely sacked the site off after the new owners just emailed shite out every day. Nothing original, it's become the buzzfeed of biking and just another content aggregator. Renaming wasn't a problem, that was just a stupid argument since you can still get redirected there by typing www.sountherndownhill.com.
Which is a shame – a forum with active moderators means that stuff gets categorised and archived in a way that facebook doesn’t allow – facebook is just a rolling wall of temporary stuff that gets quickly hidden inside a walled garden.
if, you know, it gets categorised. 😉
This is like groundhog day again.........
The forum had to be updated. Communication from Mark was terrible which led to whining and nastiness, which led to resentment, which HAS caused an us & them attitude.
I've visited the office and spoke to the Devs.
It's a very unfortunate situation which could have been handled so much better by all involved.
I've lost a little respect for Mark, but far more for some of the regulars on here who have thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.
Genuinely sad situation and I don't think it can be fixed. Too much mistrust on all sides.
Shame.
Genuinely sad situation and I don’t think it can be fixed. Too much mistrust on all sides.
I disagree, it could easily be fixed with a bit of communication. The problem as I see it is that one side sees STW as a business and the other as a forum and neither is prepared to accomodate the other.
I think rusty pretty much has it for here. A more involved approach and communication from someone a little more removed from the work might have worked wonders. As others above, FB groups have taken the place of forums for many although there are obvious limitations. I know from speaking to others who aren’t regulars here that there’s a widespread sadness that this place has essentially tossed its Crown Jewels by not taking care of the history when carrying out the port to the new servers. That said, a forum like STW can’t be a simple public service, it needs to at least be self supporting. There needs to be a balance. I suppose the test is going to be how many new active members the place picks up, any forum is the sum of its members. It should say much that this discussion is even still raging so many months on...
The big difference between this and the other forums listed is that this one is linked to - and supporting - a print magazine. The need to do so has led to many of the issues with this forum, in technical complexity, cost of operation and diversion of resources. STW isn't a hobby, it's a livelihood.
Whatever happened to mlehworld
Facebook happened.
Is the problem just that folk want what's here for free and don't want to put up with ads? How much is it to go P or whatever? As a long term mag subscriber, I rarely see adverts and exercise common sense clicking to avoid the whining/vitriol/whatever that is apparently spoiling it. I find it a really good resource, with a community sort of feel. Never found another forum that comes close. Bearbones is good in it's way, but more of an online club.
If pinkbike sorted their mess of a forum out it would have the potential to be the go to given the size if their audience. The fact that they haven't could suggest there isn't much money in it once you factor in the costs to run and moderate a forum that (potential) size.
Is the problem just that folk want what’s here for free and don’t want to put up with ads?
See my P?
I've been happy to pay for this forum for several years. I've regularly nagged other people to do the same. I now grudge paying for something that is so broken, where the folk running it have become so disconnected and downright arrogant and where my subscription is actually being used to keep afloat a dying magazine. Maybe there should an option for a reduced cost subscription aimed at the forum only but Mark has made clear that his ambitions go further than running a bike forum(and I can't blame him for that)
@boxelder - I don't think it's that, it's that the changes (which I totally understand the reasons for) introduced some quite serious problems that haven't been addressed yet new changes are being introduced. £2 a month to become a subscriber - I'm not for technical reasons: this account uses a very old email address that I had; I'd a Grit.cx account using my current email address but because of that I can't change this account's details and then subscribe. Oh, well.
STW is the only site I use that crashes the browser on my iPad. Given that it's a Wordpress site that's saying something.(Cougar - my iPad is old but perfectly usable and is running the latest version of iOS and browser that it can. I'm not buying a new iPad just because of this site)
"Is the problem just that folk want what’s here for free and don’t want to put up with ads?"
I was a print subscriber for 5+ years but decided I was no longer getting value from that subscription and cancelled 18ish months ago. Whilst STW is usually open in a tab on my browser @ work, I actually frequent it less & less. The simple fact that the forum is broken with random bits of code destroying the legibility of it with no apparent interest in fixing it makes me less inclined to renew my subscription at any point.
I must admit I've tried the PB forum and to be frank you glean more from the articles and sometimes from the comments (though the comments there can range from juvenile to asinine).
I know NSMB were trying to sort their forum out but I'm not sure if they had much success. The other forum I do visit often is the MTBR forum but that is more brand/bike specific.
STW has been great for the most part - the camaraderie, the intelligent discussions etc and then again it can transgress into chaos. Sometimes change is good, remains to be seen if this is the case in this instance.
The bikes are pretty much irrelevant to me now, I'm priced out of the market.
The demographic changed, something which was enthusiastically driven by the media.
I love cycling and can have fun on pretty much anything, so apart from the odd rant I still find the magazine and forum relevant, if much less so than previously.
I liked the sense of community and the people involved. So, when the bikes became irrelevant, that kept me here.
However, the current us and them attitude has made me question this. Without the sense of community, what else is there?
I completely understand that this place HAS to change. I understand that it just won't exist without monetising the forum. I understand Mark's reaction to those who don't get it. It's his business and he has a monumental struggle on his hands, it's bound to affect him as an employer and as a human being.
But.......the lack of communication destroys trust and erodes goodwill.
Blaming people will get us nowhere and the longer this continues the less pleasant this place will get - eventually everything that made it special will be gone.
Sadly, I can't see a solution unless we cut Mark some slack AND he realises that this place isn't 'just a bike forum'.
We either try to understand all points of view or we call it a day.
But do any of the other forums value my privacy?
BikeRadar values mine every time I log in. Here doesn’t...
Is this a 'P' thing? Honestly, I've missed the conflict some of the people here are mentioning. i just assumed the forum had slowed down a bit because it had literally slowed down and become a bit of a pain. I came less for a while, but it seems to have picked up a bit again. It's still not what it was, perhaps, but it's a lot better than most.
I think the idea of a forum being a community vs 'just a bike forum' can be stretched too far sometimes and STW gets it about right. Bikeradar and mtbr are extreme examples of this where one became pretty much just a minority gang of online friends who'd get overly defensive against new members and regurgitate the same crap ad infinitum, and the other has been organised to death based on percieved cycling niches and geographies.
Chocolate Foot was a laugh and way more non-PC ... but that wrapped up years ago. Plenty of people from this parish frequented it for a time. Very Surrey Hills focused IIRC.
Nowt I really spend time with now.
Chocolate Foot was a laugh and way more non-PC … but that wrapped up years ago. Plenty of people from this parish frequented it for a time.
I very much miss Chocolate Foot, it was a great forum, but not really for the thin skinned, most STWists would faint at the conduct on there, there was no "Trolling" as such, because you could post pretty much anything you wanted...
My favouriute random feature was when the swear filter function was adjusted to change certain innocuous phrases to something more offensive...
My favourite random feature was when the swear filter function was adjusted to change certain innocuous phrases to something more offensive…
That's easily done 🙂 Stu at Bearbones has extended the swear filter there to include "rig" => "bicycle"; "bidon" to "p*** bottle"; "Rapha" to "Expensive hipster brand" etc.
What was the kid in Viz that would blurt out random offensive sentences? It was only one drawing rather than a storyline so you'd get "Soapy t** w***!" Something like that as "Quote of the Day" perhaps?
I think the idea of a forum being a community vs ‘just a bike forum’ can be stretched too far sometimes and STW gets it about right.
All forums are communities.
STW is perhaps a pretty extreme version of this. I know lots of people from here and it's genuinely made a positive difference to my life - Hit the North and the people I've met through it have given me a sense of confidence and self belief I never knew I had.
Even though I can't make the Monday night pub rides anymore I still read the threads and raise a metaphorical glass to people I consider friends.
I've met lots of the people who work for STW - good people trying to do their best.
When depression hit, this place kept me going, along with all the people I know away from here.
There are lots of folk on here I'd love to meet. Loads. Especially those I find frustrating on line.
I'm involved in several real life clubs, cycling, mountaineering, gaming and feel the same about those too.
This is a good place.
Life is complicated.
Communities and social networks make us better people.
All forums are communities.
STW is perhaps a pretty extreme version of this. I know lots of people from here and it’s genuinely made a positive difference to my life – Hit the North and the people I’ve met through it have given me a sense of confidence and self belief I never knew I had.
Totally agree, and that's what I meant about STW having a good balance. Those threads are really just a minority of what gets posted (I've pretty much never read them), where some is straight forward 'does X work with Y?' stuff and some is community stuff. I've learned things from and shared things with people on here that I'll probably never ride with, about trails I'll never ride on bikes I'll never own, and more, but one of things I appreciate most is that it's still a relatively large and open group compared to some of the more 'insular' forums.
Whitestone, that would be Rude Kid.
Not sure what people’s problem is. Singletrack isn’t a charity - running a forum costs money. If you don’t want to pay then don’t pay; if you don’t like the ads then don’t use the forum.
I'm quite surprised how poor other bike forums are; the main forum I frequent - SELOC - which is a Lotus related forum - is way more active than any bike forums, which is weird given how niche it is.
JP
The problem is, its really hard to build a user base for a forum.. so yes I guess a lot get started by people being frustrated with the options available.
I cant believe they've made the new classified how they have - I find it as poorly decided as the other changes as of late.
I'm a web dev.... its a cringe moment from here seeing how its been executed and handled.
Maybe I'll make a coop bike forum. £1 a month and all profits after hosting and development go to charity.
www.peoplethatridebikesanddonttalkmuchaboutbikes.co.uk ?
Seriously.. what name?
If the opportunity came up to fix this place... I would! for my hourly rate of course!
What do you mean "fix" it? Everything is going according to plan.
No one's yet mentioned http://www.mtbe.co.uk/
Was the first MTB forum I joined, but left it after finding a local forum which slowly died so I came here, just as all the moaning about the forum started, by all accounts.
mtbe was great until there was a falling out between mods and users (forget why)
A bunch were banned and set up their own forum on some free platform
Postings tailed off dramatically and it's tumbleweeds there now, I don't think the alternative really took off either
If the plan appears to involve ruining it.
The only other one I use is cyclechat https://www.cyclechat.net/ I see it as more road/commuter oriented but its popular. perhaps too many sub forums but must admit I do enjoy the "your ride today" which is in the 'cycle chat' part of the 'community' forum (see what I mean?).
Have to admit though, there were days when I wasn't too keen on going out and you read some of the 'your ride today' posts and it gives you (me) the mojo back 🙂
I love it on here. It’s a great place to get advice on any subject, you can argue until you’re blue in the face, have a laugh, experience kindness, tragedy, see a bunch of relative strangers pull together to support another stranger and occasionally talk about bikes.
All that for less than two quid a month. It’s better value than Netflix.
I've added one to my site that I set up for my videos, if anyone wants to give it a go? However you'll be the only ones there so far! ... at least you can watch a few vids whilst you wait for everyone to turn up 😃
The problem is, its really hard to build a user base for a forum.
I set this up when STW was proper borked -
http://tilstwisfixed.freeforums.net/
About 4 people signed up and they've all died. 😆 Format works though!
Tempted to join DezB’s forum but scared it’ll be like The Ring
tbh its ll going to facebook isnt it. Theyve setup all the groups over there and can easily see the interactions and push things from sponsors more easily.
enjoy this while it lasts imo.
Just looking at facebooks demographics and this forums. Hmmm. Quite the Venn diagram from hell.
Sadly, I can’t see a solution unless we cut Mark some slack AND he realises that this place isn’t ‘just a bike forum’.
That's the problem, they/he do see it as just a bike forum. It's this, and the attitude that goes with it, not the changes themselves that rub people up the wrong way.
These threads are a bit like the family sat around a hospital bed discussing the imminent demise of the bed's occupant!
I don't know about it being "hard" to build a user base, I suspect it's as much "patience" and the "right people" getting on board. How long did these forums take to become a "community"? You'd be looking at a similar timescale for anything new.
@eddiebaby - that sounds like either near 100% crossover or near 0% crossover.
The problem is, its really hard to build a user base for a forum.
I set this up when STW was proper borked –
http://tilstwisfixed.freeforums.net/
/a>About 4 people signed up and they’ve all died. 😆 Format works though!
Trouble is you have to register to see what is going on. Most folk would prefer to see what the place is like before committing themselves.
Trouble is you have to register to see what is going on
I can help with that - nothing, cos no-one's registered 😆
It's just registering with "freeforums", not my one specifically btw.
Forgive me for not really understanding what everyone's complaining about. I've been a member of this forum since it was GoFar, and a subscriber to the magazine from issue 1. What's so wrong with it that everyone is upset? Except for that weird 'span' thing popping up? I got that for the first time the other day, but managed to shift it because I spotted there was something weird going on in the preview panel. Is that what everyone is annoyed about?
The forum's definitely quieter since its reboot a few months ago, but is that all so bad? I'm actually posting a wee bit more on here again because a lot of the annoying fannies seem to have packed their bags and left.
It still has a diverse content of bike and non-bike related subjects, I'm still entertained and informed both digitally and in print. What's your problem with it??
just as all the moaning about the forum started, by all accounts.
2002?