The "Classic Audi Forum".

[missfire]

I suppose things change and move, not necessarily forwards, but they move with time, nothing can be done about it really.

The main thing that separates a forum from farcebook to me is the characters that keep it going, in the past here it was photographers, diplomats, anarchists, idiots, and generally audi drivers (many original members have moved brands now), all being themselves and the pot bubbled away nicely and the mix made it like a real community, sometimes fiery, sometimes sad, but generally very funny. The cars were more numerous, more accessible to us average earners and now with prices up and hoards of the good cars now in collections or exported there are maybe less new owners, you can get better cars for the money now, too.

On facebook, I notice it farrrrr more with younger people, everyone is... nice.. dumbed down, everyone is in 'facebook mode', most seem vain and most seem to have missed the community aspect of online gatherings and only picked up on using it as an advertisement for their life, their latest possessions/holidays, their successes, etc. etc. Fake as phook basically.

It's like everything else, I avoided smart phones for about fifteen years in favour of a wee brick sony erricson, until they invalidated my sim for being so defiant! Got a smart phone now, and it won't even send a text through our local tower because it's looking to send an MMS not SMS and it can't even get a stable data connection, so now I don't use it at all. Shot yourself in the foot there vodaphone!

[David Small]

Originally Posted by cjp0349

Nothing to do with FB Bruce. As far as I'm aware all that attended were forum users. Its just that non of what had previously been promised happened and I'd taken a day off work especially to attend

Ill do anything for a free breakfast!

With reference to attendance on this all were forum members and long established ones as well. I didn't push it on Facebook for this one as it was the 10th birthday of the forum not the facebook page. There were 2 or 3 old school members there who no longer have Audi's so all in all we were only 3 or 4 away from the anticipated line up.

[theschmallfella]

All... judging from the response to this post I'd say the forum is in no danger of dying out. It's true that a lot of us look and don't respond, but we're here, day and night, week in and week out. This site is much more valuable to the members on it that the facebook page, and while the facebook page is convenient, this forum is where the real knowledge is. I'll certainly be staying here.

[David Small]

Originally Posted by theschmallfella

All... judging from the response to this post I'd say the forum is in no danger of dying out. It's true that a lot of us look and don't respond, but we're here, day and night, week in and week out. This site is much more valuable to the members on it that the facebook page, and while the facebook page is convenient, this forum is where the real knowledge is. I'll certainly be staying here.

Well said and I totally agree, the FB folk don't know what they are missing if they choose not to register on here and it's something both I & Sally push on a regular basis. You can take a horse to water.......you can see where I'm going with that one !

[cjp0349]

Originally Posted by missfire

On facebook, I notice it farrrrr more with younger people, everyone is... nice.. dumbed down, everyone is in 'facebook mode', most seem vain and most seem to have missed the community aspect of online gatherings and only picked up on using it as an advertisement for their life, their latest possessions/holidays, their successes, etc. etc. Fake as phook basically.

Yes that just about sums FB up for me, well said

Then of course there's the clips of other peoples kids eating a ridiculously over priced ice cream whilst on their eye wateringly expensive trip to Disney Land or at the other extreme some half wit posting a picture of a 'pebbledashed' toilet as a result of the previous nights 15 pints of designer lager, numerous shots and a chicken vindaloo!

[Jake Blight]

Facebook is basically the McDonald's fast food outlet of the internet. Easy, quick, satisfies for 10 minutes and full of glutinous waste lapped up by those that don't know any better..... I'd like to think that this place is more full on pub grub with a crowd of 'character's that enjoy the company.

Alas given that the South West is so far away from anywhere and the bulk of the .CA crowd and shows etching, methinks this will end up as a fractured site... by that I mean 'regional .CA groups that realistically will never join up as one.

From here it takes an hour and a half to even get out of Cornwall. Four hours to Bristol... So a grand day out at a show is an expensive expedition. Hotel, food, fuel, entry fee, fun whilst there, it all adds up.

[sinbin5t]

Originally Posted by Jake Blight

Facebook is basically the McDonald's fast food outlet of the internet. Easy, quick, satisfies for 10 minutes and full of glutinous waste lapped up by those that don't know any better..... I'd like to think that this place is more full on pub grub with a crowd of 'character's that enjoy the company.

Alas given that the South West is so far away from anywhere and the bulk of the .CA crowd and shows etching, methinks this will end up as a fractured site... by that I mean 'regional .CA groups that realistically will never join up as one.

From here it takes an hour and a half to even get out of Cornwall. Four hours to Bristol... So a grand day out at a show is an expensive expedition. Hotel, food, fuel, entry fee, fun whilst there, it all adds up.

I think it would be a great shame if it ended up a fractured site, as in the real world not everyone can get on with everybody, having said that we seem to have a close community on here and tolerence is given even to loonies like me .
Were i able to i would have been up to Scotland and down south too, then i could have met a lot of people i talk to on here !

I get what you are saying Jake, maybe a meet could be organised nearer to you next year, logistics is and always will be a problem for some as you have found out, perhaps if you had a chat with davallew it may help, he is good at organizing meets and if he got the bit between his teeth it could possibly happen.
A camping weekend could maybe do it if thought was put into it who knows

What we need first though is for admin to block the spammers and annoying people who push a business at every opportunity, or for admin to give the remaining mods the power to do so and recruit more mods from the people left on here.

[Jake Blight]

Originally Posted by sinbin5t

I get what you are saying Jake, maybe a meet could be organised nearer to you next year, logistics is and always will be a problem for some as you have found out, perhaps if you had a chat with davallew it may help, he is good at organizing meets and if he got the bit between his teeth it could possibly happen.
A camping weekend could maybe do it if thought was put into it who knows

What we need first though is for admin to block the spammers and annoying people who push a business at every opportunity, or for admin to give the remaining mods the power to do so and recruit more mods from the people left on here.

I have no problems at all with the distances and meets could be and have been done before, so that's not a problem. It's purely the fact that members are so far apart and realistically there are far more folk as you head north of say Birmingham.. Just so long as the forum users stick together than all is well. More would be nice lol... and quite rightly, if the spammer folk with odd usernames that never post were disposed of, it might give us a realistic idea on how many folk use this site. If I said 'realistically' it's about 30 I may be closer to the real figure.

It's hard being a Moderator or Admin, I've done it in the past elsewhere, and it's not something I would choose to do again. But apart from that it just seems that people ebb and flow like the tide. On the first day 'God' created the CA forum..and it was good, busy as you like. Then it started to slow down as folk worshipped the all new FB CA page, and now, not only that but DriveTribe CA is up and running (or so I'm told). Maybe its just that people like to organise and do new things, but at the end of the day if you water down the beer then sooner or later you loose your customers.

Back to meet ups, and probably next year once the car 'niggles' have been ironed out I may well start heading North just to see these fabled foreigners with strange accents.

[sinbin5t]

Originally Posted by Jake Blight

I have no problems at all with the distances and meets could be and have been done before, so that's not a problem. It's purely the fact that members are so far apart and realistically there are far more folk as you head north of say Birmingham.. Just so long as the forum users stick together than all is well. More would be nice lol... and quite rightly, if the spammer folk with odd usernames that never post were disposed of, it might give us a realistic idea on how many folk use this site. If I said 'realistically' it's about 30 I may be closer to the real figure.

It's hard being a Moderator or Admin, I've done it in the past elsewhere, and it's not something I would choose to do again. But apart from that it just seems that people ebb and flow like the tide. Fist it was here.. busy as you like. Then it started to go out as folk worshipped the all new FB CA page, and now, not only that but DriveTribe CA is up and running (or so I'm told). Maybe its just that people like to organise and do new things, but at the end of the day if you water down the beer then sooner or later you loose your customers.

Back to meet ups, and probably next year once the car 'niggles' have been ironed out I may well start heading North just to see these fabled foreigners with strange accents.

I agree with you Jake, on all points , as for watered down beer i just wish something could be done to breath a bit more life into the forum rather than a lot of us worrying about what the future for the forum holds. There is a hardcore element of us voicing concern and that should be noted by admin. I myself am not very good at organizing things, but maybe competitions and a return of the calender would help.

our accents are not that strange , but i know a Cornishman and you say a lot of things differently, i can only see it ending up as a bloody good laugh all round !

[Ben]

Originally Posted by Jake Blight

it might give us a realistic idea on how many folk use this site. If I said 'realistically' it's about 30 I may be closer to the real figure.

97 members have visited the site so far today: http://www.classic-audi.co.uk/forum/...astvisit&pp=30

If we all paid a £10 sub each year......