[Closed] Recommend an alternative forum to STW?

So where is everybody going now for bloke banter?

Buy a subscription ?

Too many slow loading and intrusive ads on newspaper websites caused me to purchase a certain type of cheap application and view those primarily on my phone/tablet

[i]Typing is difficult thanks to the couple of seconds of delay between the keystroke and the letter actually appearing.[/i]

is that down to stw - surely it's all local until you hit post?

Been a subscriber for many years - but repeated injuries have made me less adventurous and the Mags just made me feel sad and still sit unopened - so now I am a "freeloader" again. I might have paid the smaller amount for a digital sub, but I am not feeling like the top brass (not the mods - heroes the lot of them) think of us more than sheep-to-be-shorn. And the user experience without a P or a blocker is just awful.

If those in ST towers don't want us to use the software/extensions which must not be named, and do want us to visit their site more, they really need to look at this and find a compromise position. Their very own ads down the sides of the page are some of the worst offenders.

Much better on the iPAd where I can zoom in and crop the sides 😉

Alternative forums? There are other forums?

is that down to stw - surely it's all local until you hit post?

If the ads or faults with ads are processor intensive then the whole computer slows down. STW is the most processor intensive application my laptop is used for seemingly

I ended up going P just because its cheaper than a new laptop 🙂

[url= http://www.mumsnet.com/ ]AIBU?[/url]

general bollox - pistonheads
leftie bollox - dunno, guardian or socialist worker forum?
bike stuff - pinkbike

or use advert blocker ?

leftie bollox - [url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/forum/off-topic ]try here. [/url]

 

Typing is difficult thanks to the couple of seconds of delay between the keystroke and the letter actually appearing.

Just updated chrome to v54 which is now automatically blocking flash player. It seems to have made a vast improvement to the above.

[i]So where is everybody going now for bloke banter?[/i]

How would we know? we're all here.. With a non-glitchy, non-advert ridden, perfectly useable forum, I might add.

Takes about a minute minimum to load a page here.

People can moan bout non-P folk, but without us the forum would die. Look at the front page where only P folk can post, how many posts are there, hardly any is the answer.

Sadly it seems that over the last year or tow STW seem to be taking their user base for granted and unwilling to put time and money into a forum update.

I also use 606v2 forums for rugby talk. Some very knowledgeable folk on there but the level of trolling / numpties is much higher than here as a % and I did get banned for arguing 😉

Having said that I have no issues with usability on here and have never seen another forum with such depth of knowledge and good moderation

[i]People can moan bout non-P folk, but without us the forum would die. [/i]

I think you'll find it's the non-Ps doing the moaning...

[i]Look at the front page where only P folk can post, how many posts are there[/i]

That's the secret P forum, yeah? lolz

Jeez- £1.49 a month for no ads - worth it for me.

Other forums - no other one I have found has a such diversity and depth of knowledge/ignorance. It is useful and entertaining.

BikeRadar.. Nope
Pink Bike.. Nope
Mumsnet.. maybe...

[i] Look at the front page where only P folk can post, how many posts are there, hardly any is the answer.[/i]

There never was. People rarely post on the news stories if they're critical/want a discussion - they start a thread in the forums.

I'm not going to get into a discussion on the subject that musn't be discussed but if you don't get £1.50's worth of value out of stw a month you're doing it wrong.

The adds managed to blow enough data on my phone a couple of months back to make me end up with a huge bill. P looks very cheap after that!

I don't know how anybody can use the internet these days with an adblocker, the advertising game have killed there own revenue stream.

That said with that realisation I am quite willing to pay a reasonable subscription to sites I find interesting, STW's monthly subscription really is very good value.

I am open to suggestions for other good outdoor activity sites.

I've never paid to use a forum as it is the people who post there that make it worthwhile and that keeps the traffic count up along with advertising revenues. Charging people to use the forum advert free whilst relying on them to generate the content that brings in the people and advertising revenues is just plain greedy.
I've tried the Premier membership but wasn't interested in anything else other than the forum so it was wasted. If the adverts get too intrusive I just leave the forum alone for a few weeks which no doubt many others do too. In the end these periods will get longer as the forum owners allow more adverts to recoup their lost revenue and it becomes a viscous circle until the forum dies. No doubt it is in these stages already as MTB isn't as popular as it used to be and other forums have sprung and the interesting content is appearing on them now.

I have a premier subscription but find little benefit on the forum. I still have to log in every time I visit the forum as it never remembers me. The log in button is always the last piece of the page to load after all the ads. This is the same on every device, on every browser. It has been raised for years and never fixed.

I do not think seeing the forum ad free should be sold as a benefit of premier status as this is misleading. I still have to load all the ads before I am able to log in. In that respect the paid for functionality is worse then a (free) ad blocker.

People can moan bout non-P folk, but without us the forum would die.

I think you'll find it's the non-Ps doing the moaning...

See

too much K4 pron i reckon. Get malwarebytes and/or a virus scanner running.

SnowHeads is/was always entertaining. But it's not a patch on here.

However, the £1.49 I spend to be a P on here is the best money I spend all month I reckon.

[i] The log in button us always the last piece of the page to load after all the ads. This is the same on every device, on every browser. It has been raised for years and never fixed.[/i]

and for years, every time it's raised someone posts this link and suggests the complainer bookmarks it so they get an ad free login page...

[url= http://singletrackmag.com/wp-login.php ]http://singletrackmag.com/wp-login.php[/url]

that is a workaround, not a solution.

I know it is not that big a deal, but STW is the only web content that I pay for, so it is reasonable to expect that it works.

No complaints here, its money well spent. For reference I am using a tediously slow offshore internet connection and STW is by far and away the most useable website going. It remembers my details, no ads. Its great! 8)

Maybe posts on the front page isn't a great data set, so I just looked at the forum front page and a couple of threads and a quick analysis would have it at around 55-60% of posts by non-P folk. Obviously STW world would have better data, but based on those numbers without non-P folk the forum would wither pretty quickly.

I find it bizarre that STW USP is being run into the ground. The loss of vids and decent race reporting means I spend more time on PinkBike and else where and surely they don't want to end up with forum dying and ending up like Grit.cx?

[i]the only web content that I pay for[/i]

you pay for it all one way or another.

I won;t comment on the alternatives to P except to quote the rules;
[i]
In addition you agree not to promote the use of ad blocking on our site in either story comments or forum posts[/i]

I got a 3 day ban last time I mentioned them and Mark spotted it.

I didn't ban you.

that is a workaround, not a solution.

It is, but any "solution" is beyond my pay grade.

and for years, every time it's raised someone posts this link and suggests the complainer bookmarks it so they get an ad free login page...

http://singletrackmag.com/wp-login.php

As I've just posted on the sister thread to this one,

Bookmark http://singletrackmag.com/wp-login.php?redirect_to=forum/ as your landing page. It'll take you to the forum front page if logged in and to an ad-free login page if you're not.

The price of a subscription always seems sickening when I drive past Singletrack Towers and see all their gold-plated helicopters outside. And I'm amazed they get anything done at all got those Arabian Polo Ponies delivered. You should see them all strutting around in their white jodhpurs waving their mallets about. Its like a bloody Jackie Collins novel over there, I tell you!

[i]I didn't ban you. [/i]

you're right, I got a warning, apologies. The bans were for other stuff.

I still have to log in every time I visit the forum as it never remembers me.

It is bad at remembering logins but there is (also) something wrong at your end if you have to log in [i]every[/i] time.
By comparison, I have to log in maybe once or twice a month and I'm on here pretty much every day.

Are you deleting cookies, using some horrible "Internet Protector" software, or using Incognito mode?

Top Tip: if you are deleting your browser history to hide your [s]frot[/s] [i]"suprise present buying"[/i] sessions then that deletes your STW login cookie too.

And for the sake of reference, I am a P user, but I have occassionally strayed here whilst not logged in and I agree the ad overkill makes it painful to the point of unusable, especially on mobile devices.

It is bad at remembering logins but there is (also) something wrong at your end if you have to log in every time.

I am on the forum most days.

This happens on windows PC at work using chrome and/or explorer, safari on iPad, chrome on android phone and firefox and/or chrome on home PC.I really don't think the problem is at this end.

My android devices 'forget' me more regularly than my Windows ones.

Only time it's a real issue is when there's full page ad campaigns running and you can't get to the login button very easily.

"leftie bollox - try here."

Interesting viewpoint, because this forum has a fairly right-of-centre majority demographic, if actually analysed properly. You'd have to be really very right wing indeed, practically BNP/Britain First, to think the 'chat' forum is 'leftie bollocks'...

nteresting viewpoint, because this forum has a fairly right-of-centre majority demographic

Is that a joke Clod? This is a renowned Leftie forum and has been for years!

Interesting viewpoint, because this forum has a fairly right-of-centre majority demographic, if actually analysed properly. You'd have to be really very right wing indeed, practically BNP/Britain First, to think the 'chat' forum is 'leftie bollocks'...

Proper LOL funniest thing I have ever seen on here.

I wouldn't mind the ads if they didn't slow the whole thing down, or cover the whole screen or start some music etc.

On a variety of computers in a variety of locations I always find I'm waiting for them to load or whatever it is they have to do before I can view the site.

So because they get in the way we are forced to either go somewhere else or ad block them or pay for a premium.

Seems daft that the ads themselves put people off viewing the site.

Stick with STW, it's wonderful. In fact if anything it could probably do with a few more ads, I love ads and in no way condone any kind of evil ad blocking software. Ever.

The 'remember me' that has amnesia is particularly annoying. Have wondered though if this is due to usage from multiple devices and/or host addresses.

And for the sake of reference, I am a P user, but I have occassionally strayed here whilst not logged in and I agree the ad overkill makes it painful to the point of unusable, especially on mobile devices.

+1 - it's pretty much as bad as a clickbait site when not logged in, which I agree is an issue. Personally I don't mind ads at all - what I mind is when they use too much BW or processing power. Though apparently from when I discussed this many years ago with Mark (I'd had to resort to other measures as Flash was killing my PC), the animated ads get a far higher hit rate (personally I vowed to never click through on anything other than a static ad again in order to try and encourage the ad providers).

I also agree the login is an issue - handy link, but as mentioned it's a work around not a fix. It's only an issue for me once a month or so, so I can't be bothered bookmarking the link given I tend to have a tab already open and by the time I've refreshed it's already too late.

I can't be bothered bookmarking the link given I tend to have a tab already open and by the time I've refreshed it's already too late.

Yeah the "Remember Me" thing is so amnesiac that I've often had it forget me while I am writing a reply to a post.

i.e. I can sometimes be in the middle of a session, logged in, happily browsing, then I submit a reply to a thread only for it to tell me I need to login first.

To me that suggests that whatever is supposed to be doing the remembering only sets the expiry when your first log in and doesn't reset it when you show up again later.

Any suggestions for an alternative to pinkbike ? I.e one that isn't so Whistler/Red Bull Rambage focused

Have wondered though if this is due to usage from multiple devices and/or host addresses.

I've been wondering that also, but with the equipment I have readily available to me (two laptops and an Android phone) I've not been able to replicate it.

If I was a gambling man, at this juncture I'd be questioning whether Safari was doing something fruity for some folks.

What I don't understand is why anyone would want to pay money to have their ad **** up the internet experience of their potential punters. Not just here but the countless other portal free websites that are royally screwed by the stuff. I can't be alone in having my feelings towards the brand destroyed by it. The sad thing is can be done reasonably - look at the mumsnet experience for smooth ad addition that does not nause the whole thing up. I'm sure the margins are tight and people need every penny they can from the adverts but too much just drives people away.

Is that a joke Clod? This is a renowned Leftie forum and has been for years!

What, like the BBC is 🙄

And as for usability, I have no real problems apart from my iPhone, which has got worse since iOS10 turned up as the post formatting buttons almost never appear, and the text window no longer automatically scrolls as I type.

The fact that I'm apparently "still not a customer" has become a fairly self-fulfilling prophecy with regard my absence of [img] [/img].

Interesting viewpoint, because this forum has a fairly right-of-centre majority demographic, if actually analysed properly. You'd have to be really very right wing indeed, practically BNP/Britain First, to think the 'chat' forum is 'leftie bollocks'...

I agree, thee seems to have been an increase in conservatism with small Cs and some big Cs and little challenge to some of the views being expressed

Is the forum lefties or righties? My viewpoint is there is a very suprising amount of rightwingers on here. I think the issue is that this is probably one of the few places we discuss things with folk that we have not chosen to be our friends and we tend to have friends with similar [political outlook to ourselves - so for lefties like me it appears very rightwing in general as I see more right wing opinions than I am used to but the righties on here will have the opposite view.

Is there a forum for nice people, one where nice people hang out, chat about nice interesting and intelligent stuff ??

bikebouy - Member
Is there a forum for nice people, one where nice people hang out, chat about nice interesting and intelligent stuff ??

"it appears very right-wing in general" this.

scotroutes - Member
You'll be wanting mlehworld. No ads either.

Nothing coming up on google for that, got a link? 😆

I see nutters on both sides of me politically, which must put me on the moderate centre ground 8)

UKClimbing isn't too bad, a little bit 'spikey'* perhaps, but lots of knowledgeable people on there too.

*These things are always subjective..

I see nutters on both sides of me politically, which must put me on the moderate centre ground

You and Gerry Rafferty

I just double tap the screen on my iPhone and hey presto! Don't see the side banners. All I get is wall to wall Stanton adverts from spending too long staring at pictures of the ti Sherpa frame.

Apologies if this has been covered, I'm eating tea and catching up with GBBO.

Anyone who thinks that STW has 'slowed down' or is less usable nowadays because of adverts...do you not remember the nights we went refreshing the page to see if the hamsters had woken up? It's loads better now.

I pay my cheap as chips subs solely for the forum. I never navigate anywhere else on the site.

I stay here because despite the mad log in button loading last, the laughable 'remember me' button...and the constant whining about the ads...there is nowhere else like it. A place where the minute you actually open up...you are pretty much immediately offered support, rides, empathy, experiences...you're simply never alone here.

It is precisely the mix of posters, the P's and the non P's that make this place great.

Oh. And there's not 20 sub forums which seem to stifle proper cross posting.

For something like 5p a day, you get reduced ads. 5p.

And for the sake of reference, I am a P user, but I have occassionally strayed here whilst not logged in and I agree the ad overkill makes it painful to the point of unusable, especially on mobile devices.

[quote=5thElefant ]I only provide content for freeWhat makes you think it's worth that much?

Cycle Chat is good on pure cycling

Forgot all about that, I was moderator on there when it first started. We had all debunked from another forum the name of which eludes me. Anyway I turned out to be not very moderate and banned everyone during some minor breakdown.

Ah those where thhe days!

What makes you think it's worth that much?

I paid for P when I realised how much cheaper it is than just about any other kind of entertainment.

I paid for P when I realised how much cheaper it is than just about any other kind of entertainment.

This +1

Any suggestions for an alternative to pinkbike ? I.e one that isn't so Whistler/Red Bull Rambage focused

I occasionally have to log in again, I have a tab open all the time, but having to log in every time I want to post?
Nah, once every couple of weeks or so.
I also get the lag when tapping in type, but again, not all the time, and it's not doing it now.
The ads have bugger-all to do with it, because I'm pretty sure there isn't a single one using Flash; if there was, I'd just see blank spaces, as iOS has never rendered Flash, nor has any mobile OS, Adobe could never make a mobile version work properly.
I do all my browsing on an iPad 3, which I bought on release in March 2012; it's now over four and a half years old, and I'm just not getting all of the issues others describe, apart from the text lag, and that's not unique to STW, I'm sure it's pure memory allocation and processor capability, it's a 1Ghz dual-core processor with 1Gb of RAM, yet it still manages to let me spend far more time than I spend in any other place on't'tinterwebz.
Go, as they say, figure.

Stooped logging on to here on anything other than iPad (hence all the autocorrect typos) as immediately messes up mac and laptops for some reason.

- Member 
leftie bollox - try here.
POSTED 19 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

Brilliant Captain !! 😉

The "Remember me" function is very odd indeed. Here I am using accessing STW through a rather unusual series of hops and it's behaving exactly as well as it used-to when I just had a regular connection - IE it occasionally logs me out unexpectedly for no reason on Bob's green earth, but just not that often.

Did STW succeed in hiring a new techie? Maybe they can fix* it? I tried to lure one but he's bloody weird and wasn't willing to trade a hill-side [s]floodage[/s] view for a pay-cut** apparently. His loss!

*maybe it's a form of sanctioned trollage like some of the Facebook posts from 't Towers 😉

**I am not commenting on the pay, just repeating his comments.

Paying for a 'P' might be cheep, but it would also be a vote for the ceaseless tiresome dross that passes for ST 'content'. I can't advocate that sorry. It frustrates me that a media channel that could be so good, is actually so bad, because so little regard is apparently given to the quality of its content.

The stuff I use here is user generated. I happily click on a few forum ads from time to time. There's a sort of smug sanctimonious righteousness to the P subscribers on here at times though, as if no other outlook could ever be valid, other than £1.49 is 'great value'.

pretty sure there isn't a single one using Flash; if there was, I'd just see blank spaces, as iOS has never rendered Flash, nor has any mobile OS, Adobe could never make a [s]mobile[/s] version work properly.

Fixed. The one thing I really appreciated about Steve Jobs was his attitude to Flash, the sooner it dies the better, doubtless the reason for the absence is that most people wouldn't see them.

[i]There's a sort of smug sanctimonious righteousness to the P subscribers on here at times[/i]

LolZ
the only time I've seen it mentioned is in response to a non subscriber whinging about ads.

Paying for a 'P' might be cheep, but it would also be a vote for the ceaseless tiresome dross that passes for ST 'content'. I can't advocate that sorry. It frustrates me that a media channel that could be so good, is actually so bad, because so little regard is apparently given to the quality of its content.

By content are you just talking about what is on the site, or are you including the magazine as well?

as if no other outlook could ever be valid, other than £1.49 is 'great value'.

No ads, digital magazine, access to full archive of back issues, discount card, shop discounts, and smug sanctimony all for just £1.25 a month if you pay annually.

Qualifies as 'great value' for me.

The content on the website is pretty poor which reflects badly on the mag IMO. Quality not quantity should be the by word, and keep key articles on the front page longer, at present things just fall off and it looks a mess. Compare and contrast with the cleaner lines of say Pinkbike or Road.cc

Discounts is useless for most, hardly any shops in many areas of the country. The STW shop looks more like a closing down sale.

STW have a great forum its their USP, but it needs investment and the will power to do it. It's a real shame that they instead spunked all that on Grit.cx, but I'm sure all is not lost if the right decisions are made soon.

Bluemoon is a fantastic forum however it helps of you’re a Manchester city fan!

Surely the P price is worth it just for the forum ? If you take the information, knowledge, PSA's, not to mention the free sale forum, the wanted section which must save people money all the time. I've saved £100's over the years on here in servicing costs, even recently the Tubeless setup i may not have tackled on my own, or a rear wheel i needed and got cheaper than i could have.

I have only opened about 2-3 of the magazines in the times i've been a P, but that's completely irrelevant as the P is worth the price on it's own from being on the forum without adverts.

I thought this was a dating website.

What is all this bike stuff about?