I have been monitoring this forum for several weeks and have noticed that there is very little activity in the forums. Many of the Forum topics are very old and have not been added to for some time and in some cases for years. Other rv forum sites seem to be very active, all kinds of discussions and topics, true many are the same subject over and over again. For those that have used this site for years has the forum activity always been slow?
There are times when the forum topics and discussions do taper off a tad and this last couple of weeks has indeed slowed down. Stick around a while and you'll find it goes in spurts and sometimes the "action" picks up considerably. Many who are on the road a lot don't take time to post on the forum until they get home, others do post while traveling but just not as often. We rarely if ever post when we are on the road. I'd say things are pretty typical for a forum of any type or kind and I for one picked this one to keep up with and contribute to simply because of all the neat people I've been in contact with over the years. I like to kid and joke around at times just to keep things interesting, it's just my nature I guess. I like people, especially those that share a common interest or hobby. I've noticed and commented on the growing number of new members this past few months and yet I rarely see any forum activity from those new members. You are one of them and you are contributing and I think that's great so keep it up. There is no perfect forum, and any forum needs members who contribute in order to stay alive. Glad you posted this thread as I'm sure you are going to get several responses from members who feel much as I do. And you might even get a few responses from those who haven't yet contributed to any of the topics being discussed..................... Travel safe and don't forget to "paythebill" before you leave the RV park............ Regards, BankShot.............(aka Terry)
Keep the time of year in mind. In much of the country, many of the RV's are stowed away waiting for warmer weather to arrive while the folks are busy with other pursuits. The very nature of this forum tends to attract primarily folks traveling or planning their travels, with much less activity in other areas like RV maintenance, etc. The more generalized RV forums attract folks for those discussions.
I have to agree with Dutch and Bankshot. Most users are still in hibernation mode or, like MDCamping, just itching to get our but can't because spring is late in a lot of places this year. Give it a month or so and folks will have cares and concerns that relate to RVing. And then there are those who just like to stir the S at times. Darrell
Just wanted to add one more comment to this thread. From what I've seen over the years, many who join RVPR don't get involved with the forum. Probably because they join just to read all the various reviews on the RV parks and areas they are planning to visit. They don't care to get involved on the forum as they have no interest in it, etc. Everyone uses each section of this website for their own needs and interests but just think how the forum would change overnight if every member all of a sudden started posting on it. Can you imagine waking up one morning, logging on and seeing 121,00 plus posts scattered within all the topics. Think about that, it could happen........ BankShot............(aka Terry)
I agree were in a seasonal slower time. Terry you bring up a good point, a good percentage of the members are just here to post reviews. I understand that this is a mostly review membership driven website but maybe a little more could be done on the home page to bring attention to the forum. One possible suggestion would be highlight listings of the most recent threads? I'm just throwing this out for discussion. Mike
I think that's a great idea Mike. Perhaps the Admins could find a way to put a banner on the review page to the effect "Topics of the week being discussed over in the forum section" and then list what a couple of those are. This could be done on a revolving basis so that each topic would get a mention..............??? Terry..............(aka BankShot)
A couple more cents from the peanut gallery.............. How about this for a banner heading on the RVPR main page................? "A Few Of The Popular Topics Being discussed Now On Our Forum Page" BankShot.................(aka Terry)
Mike, I really like your suggestion! Thanks to Terry for expanding on it! I can't remember when I joined RVPR but it's been at least seven or eight years. For several of those years I didn't even notice that the Forum existed. I only used the site to research parks and submit reviews and it wasn't until I had an issue submitting a review and searched for a solution that I discovered the Forum. Through the Forum that I've discovered "DocJ's" travel site (among others), our Aussie "Jason's" beautiful photos and descriptions, points of view from the ownership side of RVing from "westernrvparkowner" and, well, then there is "BankShot"... Thanks also to "paythebill" for starting the thread. Maybe the Forum could become more of a community. RickB
Oh oh, am I in trouble?.......... Some great stuff there Rick. Follows basically the same path that happened to me also. Joined to read the reviews to get us started on the road and the next think I knew I found the forum and "Katy bar the door", BankShot was let loose.......... All the best, Terry...............(aka BankShot)
I guess some of the positives that might come of this would be more members will have the chance to educate thems selfs with the issues on this forum. This in turn might produce a few or more better reviews on this site. And on the flip side this might give us/this site a better understanding of all the issues that folks face camping or Rving. On the negitive side some of the members that post the one and done rant reviews might find their way on this forum or worse visits from trolls... Speaking of new ideas, I can't take full credit for this. I've seen this done on other websites but thought it might work well here. Mike
Some very good ideas for improving the forum have been presented here, and by all means keep them coming. I cannot officially speak for the owner, but when Social Knowledge purchased this website to improve the forum was discussed, and at one point it was organized a little better and more forums and sections and topics were added. However, the first priority went to expanding and improving the Reviews section. Once that was done it seemed prudent to add a mobile app in order to keep up with our advancing technology. After this, Trip Wizard came along and again the main course of action was to work out a way to coordinate the two websites so that one database served both. While I think everyone believes that the forum is a valuable part oft the website, it has just had to take a bit of a backseat to other innovations, but I believe that at sometime in the future it will get the attention it deserves, and anything you say about it now will certainly be valuable in the future.
