[Closed] Singletrack forum question

"Bike Forum" & "Chat Forum" are your two streams... you can cross them by viewing the "Overview", which mixes the two.

I love this format personally.

I've visited other forums that have a category for every conceivable section and sub-section of a sub-section and it's horrible.

This way encourages more interaction, and folk posting into threads they know nothing about. But that's good too 😊👍

There's bikes, and there's everything else. What else is there?

Okay, at least I know it's not me doing something wrong. Just never seen a forum formatted like this. Not saying it's bad or good. Just need to get used to it.

Thanks for the replies.

We barely even need the bike forum.

This forum format is great - you get dragged into topics and conversations you would never normally seek out - this also leads to the purchase of middle-class kitchen gadgetry you never knew you needed! 🙂

what the-muffin-man says is absolutely correct! I'll add DE razors to that list too 🙂

The format is a throwback to the early days of message boards and early forum software where the old computers running them struggled to cope with multiple sections and fancy graphics. I actually prefer it as you can scan it all in a few seconds rather than the continuous scrolling you get on some places, try negotiating MTBR or Pinkbike's forums!!

Is there a way to be notified when somebody responds to your own thread or any other threads you're interested in?

Nope.

You will get a notification if soneone tags you though. @stumpymark

Ah yes, I get an e-mail for that... thanks, lol

There’s bikes, and there’s everything else.

True wisdom.

The MBR forums are a bit different (and bigger) than here - having regional/state sub-forums makes sense when asking about conditions for example, a bit of difference between Alaska and Arkansas. They are also very busy, even the rather niche sub-forums get lots of posts per day so threads would "disappear" rather quickly.

All a bit of a balancing act - too many sub-forums/topics and people get confused about where to post: "Why have you posted this in the 29er HT forum? It should be in the "HT, 29er sub-forum"; vs threads dropping off the first couple of pages in a few hours.

At one point this forum had a setting whereby you got an email for every response to a thread you'd started - god help whoever started the brexit and donald! Trump! threads.

I use forums a lot for other hobbies and usually posts will be broken into categories such as by region, riding discipline, etc.

This has been discussed a lot over the years and it's a deliberate decision not to do it on here.

When I go on other forums people just stick to a few categories, so most end up dry, dead, and the threads are often limited to that topic. And 50% of the forum traffic is people complaining about threads being in the wrong section or mods admonishing you for posting in the wrong place.

If you want to see the whole forum then you have to click through every section manually which is time consuming and annoying.

I'm on a couple of forums with various sub-forums. They all have a "view unread posts" option which amalgamates them all.

'Keep it simple' format works for me - just not the Classifieds

I like this style, very similar to when I used to use BMXBoard.com back in the day, that was Bike Stuff and The Other Stuff (TOS).

I do occasionally visit the MTBR or Pinkbike forums and there is def too many sub forums on each.

How do I quote somebody in my reply? I would have thought clicking "reply" at the bottom of somebody's post would make it appear in the text box and then I can type my message below it but this doesn't work. I see the "B-Quote" option above the text box but not sure what that's doing. It just puts the word "

" in my message.

Sorry if these are stupid questions and obvious but I have tried to find out before asking but no avail. I'm not IT illiterate either. Heeeelp!!

How do I quote somebody in my reply?

Copy the text you want to quote. Click b-quote. Paste in your copied text and b-quote again.

Then make some sarcastic comment or tell them they bought the wrong bike,house,wife etc......oh and the grass needs cutting, fence needs painting!!!

Copy the text you want to quote. Click b-quote. Paste in your copied text and b-quote again.

Then make some sarcastic comment or tell them they bought the wrong bike,house,wife etc……oh and the grass needs cutting, fence needs painting!!!

@teamslug you bought the wrong wife and your grass needs cutting!

Then male some sarcastic comment

Mansplaining?

Could maybe be renamed "Bikes" and 'AIBU"?

I’m on a couple of forums with various sub-forums. They all have a “view unread posts” option which amalgamates them all.

I love this format personally.

I’ve visited other forums that have a category for every conceivable section and sub-section of a sub-section and it’s horrible.

This way encourages more interaction, and folk posting into threads they know nothing about. But that’s good too 😊👍

There’s bikes, and there’s everything else. What else is there?

I could not agree more. I think the format used here makes STW both unique and extremely lively. I would never have got involved with or learned half the things I have from this place if some obscure question was buried in a special sub-forum!

@teamslug you bought the wrong wife and your grass needs cutting!

Same here but also just trying this box quote thing. I've been on this forum for years and only just getting to grips with it.😁

At one point where this was really different was that threads didn't get bumped tot he top when you responded. So every new thread went to the top and then only went down. That was really unique and special. You could really miss a whole conversation

Is there a way to be notified when somebody responds to your own thread or any other threads you’re interested in?

If it's your own thread you should get a message shown at the top of the screen (unless it's changed since I last started a thread...).

And I'm another fan of the simple format. Just wish they'd bring back the "last post by" column they used to show. Or add an "unread msgs" marker to threads with new posts.

Try this then - Retrobike

We have more sub forums that the internet in general. And thats where its all gone wrong.

@teamslug you bought the wrong wife and your grass needs cutting!

Congratulations you've passed the premier forum is over there ->

Not enough traffic on either forum now to justify splitting into sub catergories, very quite compared to a few years back.

My grass really does need cutting.

My grass really does need cutting.

Its November, leave it be.

TBH, I hated the format at first. Now I love the simplicity of it

I even like how, it seems like I never use the same method of linking/posting a photo twice. Makes it feel like more of an achievement 😀

I find I read a lot more stuff than I otherwise would, if it were more segmented.

A "first unread post" button, for topics, would be nice though.

Its November, leave it be.

It was 15c up here today and 16c yesterday.

[quote="stumpymark"]How do I quote somebody in my reply?

Or if you want to show who the quote is from you have to type it all out in full ( if I got it right and it still works)

[ quote = " stumpymark " ] How do I quote somebody in my reply? [ / quote ]
without all the spaces

Edit : It worked!

Tsk. 35 replies, and no one's complained about this post being in the wrong place ...

Standards ...

I'm out!

I think the format works better than any other, odd isn't it.
Categorising just limits things,it is much more like a real social place because of the freedom to discuss anything.

My grass really does need cutting.

Be grateful, I really got the wrong wife...

Categorising just limits things,it is much more like a real social place because of the freedom to discuss anything.

Yeah. They want it to be like a pub. Imagine if you went to a pub, sat down and were told "Sorry, this is the XC race table, if you want to talk about trail bikes you'll need that table over there".

Popularity does change over time. "Xc, enduro and all mountain" is a single category on pinkbike, but now gets much more use than the "downhill" forum.
MTBR has (amoung other bizzare categories) a '29er' category. (or 2, if you include the bits and tyres one). I'm guessing that started when 29er was prety much synonomous with rigid XC machine. Now 29er wheels can be used for almost every application apart from DJ/tricks it seems like an oddly broad brushstroke. Where would you go for 29er enduro bikes for example.

If STW did this a few years back there'd be a 5" fatbike forum, 4" fatbike, 29x3.0 (Im told these things are all different), full suspension fatbike and so on. Somebody has a fatbike question in 2020 (i think theres one currently from a curious would-be owner), where do they put it, and who actually reads it?

Yeah. They want it to be like a pub. Imagine if you went to a pub, sat down and were told “Sorry, this is the XC race table, if you want to talk about trail bikes you’ll need that table over there”.

Exactly, I think thats why its so good.