Facebook and the natural decline in Rover vehicles.
 

What made me put the above title was a visit to Rover. Org and messages on my computer from Facebook.---:eek:

I seem to be getting more and more messages as the number of friends seems to be growing exponentially.

On a visit to .ORG I checked the posts for July 2010, around the time I joined, to the number of posts for July 2016.

Then--------50,000. + posts

Now----------2,500. - posts.

( 95% Decrease, Yikes. )



Facebook seems like a slowly spreading virus.-----:shrug:

Trying hard not to catch it.-----:D

Anyone know how we are doing on here ???

Could be just a drop off in people owning rovers.

I guess what you are saying then is that the forum will end up as a social medium with just the odd mention of a car here and there if it is going to continue to exist.---:shrug: ( If there's only 5 out of a hundred owners from 6 years ago. )

Which is why I mentioned facebook as it seems to have enormous scope. ;)

Who knows, maybe it'll be here maybe not. But the numbers will get smaller that is for sure.

The how to guides and a vibrant social scene make this forum invaluable. Although I don't have a Rover anymore, I still contribute and post. I know of a few others who do the same! It's a great forum and I have made many friends from it! :)

I think, perhaps, then it will be the social side that keeps things afloat as .ORG has a really good technical info section as well, but the social side has almost disappeared and in keeping so have the daily posts.



Motto.---------------Keep on socialising.--:D

From a technical point of view, forums are invaluable... I hate getting the same question every other day on Facebook groups because you can't search the group very well.

I have noticed on other forums that membership is dwindling all over, we (on the hyundai coupe forums) tried to get people to move over from Facebook to the forum, but noone is interested in Forums any more, its facebook this facebook that (which is a NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD- site anyway) unless you have an App that integrates with facebook then it might be ok to use...

For my forums, I own the hosting servers and they will be there weather the forums are or not, so if the forums have no use, it doesn't cost me anything and thus they stay up... then 6 months later they pick up again (With the Hyundai forum they went from nothing to a huge membership over the last two years due to a lot of work from dedicated members). I would hope that this forum wouldn't be canned in the future for lack of use, or if it is then I would hope someone like myself would be allowed to backup the important information for prosperity!

It's not only cars, we run a support service for our TV's through our own website, a call centre (in the UK ;)) but it is by far the facebook page that gets the most hits and through which we respond to customer queries and technical support.

It is the way it is sadly and with large organisations all being a part of the Facebook era then that is how it will stay.

It must be said that Facebook do offer a brilliant service, at least for the business. To replace the forums, it may happen but it will be a sad loss to the forums format if it does.

Interestingly v5 and v6 of the forum software does integrate a lot more into facebook, almost as if VB knew what was coming... Although when I upgraded with Brit-Cars the forum itself died a death being only news articles uploaded by the owners of the site, everyone else choosing the facebook groups over the forum, so ended up being closed down. :duh:

Since .ORGs security issues I've not been able to log on and haven't really tried. Gone down the pan too much.

As for F/B v car club forums in general, F/B offers so much more; old school friends, old and existing workmates, relatives and even nice looking French ladies who have no friends but ask me to be theirs.......

Each have their plus points though and fulfill different roles for different people. Each to their own.