What's the point of this forum?

[Paul G]

Why are online motorcycle forums drying up and dying? - RevZilla

Motorcycle forums used to be a great source of information and community. Now they're withering. Here's why.

www.revzilla.com

Interesting article

 

[andyb]

 

[duc]

Every forum in that photo is owned by one company, a huge media conglomerate that owns 99% of every motorcycle, outdoor, and powersports forum online.

This community was created by Ducati enthusiasts, myself included, and hasn't changed...

The point of this forum is to be independent, free of the external influences that comes from manufacturers' pressure on media companies, to include the walled garden of social media.

 

[andyb]

Heres something... this is /was a UK based club that had a forum just as the inter web took off... at it peak it had hundreds of members...and was lauded by Ducati themselves with privileged invites to meet the teams and riders at MGP WSB events in the UK.... I even went to a special event in Bologna to celebrate stoner winning in 2007!

It eventually imploded with accusations of mismanagement, money disappearing, abuse of its connections and to this day it still stinks around certain individuals with a lot of mud slinging and mud that stuck!.....but it has been kept going with very few members.

I cant believe that Ducati still invest time into it there are very few members and more importantly bigger and better groups of their loyal customers to interact with and reward...yet I noticed this today, cant believe it still has a connection with ducati ... and worse that they would want to be still connected!

 

[Paul G]

Is that ducatiforum .co.uk?

 

[andyb]

no its ducatisportingclub

the stories about its rise and fall are legendary..

 

[Vbreeze]

ducatimonsterforum.com was an epic huge one. Worldwide, thousands of members, mostly hilarious, and several local chapters were considered an official DOC, their presidents were flown out to see the Valencia MotoGP races every year paid for by Ducati. San Francisco and Sydney were the biggest with several hundred members each. They sold it just as facebook took over the world and it died immediately.
I think facebook has killed most motorcycle forums as it went from Harvard's dating site to the shitshow clowntown propaganda machine personal AI tracking data seller it is today. The hooliganism that was so normal before became visible to insurance companies, the po po, "future employers / clients" and grandparents and whatnot.
It's certainly been a realization for me that focused groups need a certain amount of privacy and exclusivity to remain interesting and relevant.
When there's everyone all the time, interactions become 99% banal.
Experimenting, testing, the keeping & sharing of secrets etc are fundamental to innovation, growth and the progression of a thing. Beside the ability to simply sort and have exposure to a focus.
And then there's lattes.

 

[duc]

ducatimonsterforum.com was an epic huge one. Worldwide, thousands of members, mostly hilarious, and several local chapters were considered an official DOC, their presidents were flown out to see the Valencia MotoGP races every year paid for by Ducati. San Francisco and Sydney were the biggest with several hundred members each. They sold it just as facebook took over the world and it died immediately.

As I recall, the original community was ducatimonster.org and it was hugely popular. After it was sold, the new company made many changes that turned the community off. Literally overnight, everyone moved onto ducatimonsterforum.org with the exact same colors, branding, logo, etc. but the old site still lives, just with a completely different community.

 

[Vbreeze]

As I recall, the original community was ducatimonster.org and it was hugely popular. After it was sold, the new company made many changes that turned the community off. Literally overnight, everyone moved onto ducatimonsterforum.org with the exact same colors, branding, logo, etc. but the old site still lives, just with a completely different community.

Ah yes you've been more accurate.

 

[cmh210]

That article is an interesting read, kind of a brief history of the forum over the past 10-12 years. I have been on this forum for 10 years now and don't post a lot, but I have really appreciated the open nature of it. Even though some discussions get quite heated, in the end most of the members have contributed good content to the forum. And, I do think some of those disagreements end up forming stronger relationships. I am on other forums with long lists of what you can and can't post and everyone is disgustingly and fake nice to each other. Keep up the good work Duc!