activity in these forums

[Traum]

For me at least, social media serves a slightly different purpose than online forums, so they both have their place in my daily routine. Admittedly, however, certain things are blurring the lines.

For informational type of thing, forum postings are still vastly superior to anything social media can offer, primarily because forum software is a mature technology, and both the forum's internal search function and Google's massively capable searches can dig up nearly precisely what I am looking for from eons ago as long as I type in the correct keywords / search phrases. But social media? I'd be lucky if I can even find something I read yesterday on someone or some group's wall.

For RS to exist as a general purpose forum with a car enthusiast flavour, I am not sure what is the best way for the admins and mods to position the site/forum. However, I will mention that I think RS has done a tremendous job in promoting and growing the local motorsports scene. Especially over the last few years, I am really seeing a lot more interest, discussion, and most important of all, participation in motorsports activities. Obviously, RS is not the only contributing factor to this growth, and it wouldn't be appropriate for it to turn into a hardcore amateur motorsports hub, but it has certainly acted as one of the motivating factors to help push things along, and I appreciate that.

[Spoon]

Originally Posted by asian_XL

the Hongers I know on RS are all disappeared and many now have kids and driving a mini van

Pretty much this. Most users have grown up now. So the enthusiast forums is almost a sub forum nowadays since most people are out of the scene. RS (at least to me) is just a mish mash of Vancouver related events/news with opinions from locals that are likely in the same demographics.

[unit]

personally i think RS should just transition into a subreddit.
just RS automotive, and RS off topic as two subreddits. also maybe a classifieds for cars, and one for misc.
people can make other ones if they want but i think thats all we need.
there would be no RS hosting necessary and the whole concept of RS would just be much more light weight.

[Verdasco]

in my honest opinion, the last revscene boom was the true religion, rock and republic and louis vuitton days for LGs and LBs. The buy and sell section BOOMED like hot cakes when I was in high school.... brand new jeans were $400! I wondered myself how did I afford all these clothings when I was in high school and the resale value was fucking nuts.... and now H&M came out and shirts cost like $20

Before that I would say cars made a big impact with riced out civics but high school lots are empty :/ feels like high school kids are more poor now compared to 10 years ago

[meme405]

Originally Posted by unit

personally i think RS should just transition into a subreddit.
just RS automotive, and RS off topic as two subreddits. also maybe a classifieds for cars, and one for misc.
people can make other ones if they want but i think thats all we need.
there would be no RS hosting necessary and the whole concept of RS would just be much more light weight.

And what would happen to the years worth of content on here?

Doesn't make much sense to just shut down an established website, with this many users and open a subreddit.

Just look at the RS FB group, most of the users when you try a platform change don't end up migrating. So RS would literally have to start from the beginning once more if they transition to reddit. Not to mention they will face way more competition from other subreddits.

[Spoon]

Originally Posted by unit

personally i think RS should just transition into a subreddit.
just RS automotive, and RS off topic as two subreddits. also maybe a classifieds for cars, and one for misc.
people can make other ones if they want but i think thats all we need.
there would be no RS hosting necessary and the whole concept of RS would just be much more light weight.

Though I've never showed up for events. Pretty sure they're sponsored from revenues and what not that comes from the website. You're essentially telling the owners to give their business over to reddit for free.

[mr_chin]

OT, mobile chat, computers and games, and NSFW is where I usually browse.

RS has been lacking lately.

[Traum]

Originally Posted by meme405

Just look at the RS FB group, most of the users when you try a platform change don't end up migrating. So RS would literally have to start from the beginning once more if they transition to reddit. Not to mention they will face way more competition from other subreddits.

The Vancouver Miatas forum enjoyed quite a successful transition from being an actual forum to a FB group. But in the days (months / years?) before the transition, I'd say the VM forum is both a bit more quiet, and NA/NB were quite a bit more $$$ back then.

[way2quik]

The changing point was when users began posting EVERYTHING in the Off-Topic section, ignoring Fashion / Health / General Chat / Entertainment & Movie.

[GLOW]

i always thought that was just the 1 off. i found people seem to adhere to sports/entertainment/computers/home decently. sometimes the occasional post that should go under home is put in OT

[Tapioca]

The pull of RS 15 years ago was the import car scene. That scene is now effectively dead as car enthusiasts have either traded up and bought exotics, or have moved on with life and traded their souls for the mortgage, wife, and kids.

Let's compare RS to one of the most successful forums in Canada - RedFlagDeals. RFD had similar roots and was started by a couple of cheapskates in their basement. Even though retailers now have supply chain management which has reduced the number of truly ridiculous deals available today, people keep going back because it turns out that people who are savvy at deal hunting tend to be savvy at other things, like parenting, financial planning, and home maintenance.

RS needs a new pull to keep the forum relevant. People shit on Vancity Buzz/Daily Hive all of the time, but the site draws traffic and keeps the investors happy. What does RS want to be? A source of information and discussion for Vancouverites? Or does it want to stay niche for the dwindling number of car enthusiasts in this city? Once the owners figure out the answer, then they should re-brand.

[mr_chin]

I also suspect that the thank/fail feature kinda repel people from posting or starting new thread. People get "fail" for speaking their mind and some people will think twice before posting what they want to say, if this feature affects them.

For example, in OT, when someone start a post about something that is not important or the majority of the people don't find interesting, he/she gets a fail.

I personally don't give a rats ass about this feature but I would imagine some people do, consciously and subconsciously.

I suggest removing this feature and implementing a upvote downvote feature instead, but a thread cannot be downvote into the negatives.

[SumAznGuy]

I'm sure the thanks/fail function may have had some impact on people posting, most of it is due to the changing demographics.
RS and IC started off as part of the import car scene. But at the same time, the internet was still young and new.
There was no CL or FB chat groups.
The only thing you had was the buy & sell paper that came out every Thursday or the classified sections in the newspaper.

You came online to RS to chat with other members and to buy/sell stuff on the classifieds.
Now, all the people that would frequent RS have all grown up and have less time to surf RS as well as dedicate some of that time to other forms of social media and online games including, at one point in time, Angry birds, Candy Crush, Clash Royal, and now Pokemon Go.

As long as there is enough viewership that brings in ad revenue, RS will be around.
Once that stops, then they need to take a serious look at keeping RS alive.

[jasonturbo]

There is probably lots of activity on this board but there are too many sub forums, trim some of the sub forums back if you want more action in the Vancouver Off Topic.

Personally I love this forum, I have never, and will never frequent any other forum as I frequent this one.

I go on Rennlist occasionally (By the way, did I mention I drive a Porsche GT4, yes I'm very successful thanks for asking)

Seriously though, I love RS. Just the right amount of variety in the personalities.

DO NOT GET RID OF THANKS FAIL BUTTONS, the last time that happened it was like we were enduring some sort of bizarre social recession.

[Verdasco]

Originally Posted by way2quik

The changing point was when users began posting EVERYTHING in the Off-Topic section, ignoring Fashion / Health / General Chat / Entertainment & Movie.

u cant blame them when no one views those subsection anyways...

[CivicBlues]

Golden age of RS was definitely 2001-2004. The biggest difference, people actually were open to meeting up - friendships were forged, people dated (or "hooked up" in today's parlance), and I'm pretty sure RS members got married to each other and some had kids. There was shit being started as well, but it was all in good fun once we discovered the real person behind the username.

I started coming on less and less frequently until I pretty much stopped in 2009/10. Came back in 2014, and there's a marked difference in atmosphere. Less trolling going on - which I guess is good in some ways, but also less entertaining. People are much more articulate and less likely to "postwhore" (when was the last time you heard that term eh?), perhaps because of the aforementioned fail button and tighter moderation. People seem to crave "Thanks" the same way as "likes" on FB, so that may have something to do with it as well - everyone trying to one-up each other with another witty post. I'm guilty of that too I suppose.

Oh well, it's gone from being a cool party with lots of chicks to a sausage party with a few guys jerking each other off looking at the NSFW forum.

[Mr.HappySilp]

What the the Xmas dinner thread? I don't know I guess people are too busy? I mean old members have family/work/general stuff to do. I only post when I am work otherwise at home I rather relax at home and not use the internet.

[Expresso]

+1 to Thank/Fail system. Feels like RS Rep is much more important to people these days than quality of posts. On the opposite end, instead of providing a coherent opposing view, people will just fail you and move on to the next thread.

[Spoon]

Originally Posted by way2quik

The changing point was when users began posting EVERYTHING in the Off-Topic section, ignoring Fashion / Health / General Chat / Entertainment & Movie.

I've always used the New Posts button. People actually go to sub sections?

[SumAznGuy]

I remember a time when people actually posted in the Toronto, Seattle, and Island OT sections.
Last 3 post in the Seattle classified section was 2 in 2009 and 1 post in 2010.

[Traum]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

Golden age of RS was definitely 2001-2004. The biggest difference, people actually were open to meeting up - friendships were forged, people dated (or "hooked up" in today's parlance), and I'm pretty sure RS members got married to each other and some had kids.

What? There were chicks back then in RS? And hook ups as well?

Damn, I definitely missed out.

[smoothie.]

I like rice.

Rice with soy sauce is nice.

Sometimes hot sauce really wakes it up, but eat too much and it'll burn on the way out.

Be like rice.

[radioman]

This website needs another Clement or Anthony to rejuvenate things.

[unit]

Originally Posted by Expresso

+1 to Thank/Fail system. Feels like RS Rep is much more important to people these days than quality of posts. On the opposite end, instead of providing a coherent opposing view, people will just fail you and move on to the next thread.

i think it was the bad quality posts that were the most enjoyable, as long as it wasnt straight up spam. maybe skinny should revert it back to how it was at one point, how you could thank posts but not fail them?
although i think they tried that once and there was an uproar for taking away muh failz.

[jlo mein]

I stopped posting as much when the mods decided that one of the most popular threads in Off-Topic, The Official K-pop Thread, got killed by being moved to the slowest sub-forum on this site: Music & Clubbing. It had existed in Off-Topic for over a year without problem.

There were some mod decisions that were made for "forum organization" that seemed OCD motivated, which I think had a negative impact on the user base. Adding barriers or hurdles to a simple discussion topic will eventually turn users away.