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Post by Scott Baker on Jun 14, 2011 21:18:45 GMT -5
So I have a few concerns, which may be unfounded, here they are: 1) Is this message board dead? Other than the occasional airport time trial and miscellaneous posting, I don't really see it being used any more. Should we go to a Facebook page? This would eliminate anyone not on Facebook, but it may promote more usage. Maybe there just aren't many cyclists in the area any more. Which leads me to... 2) What has happened to the Tuesday evening Motion Makers ride? We had only eight riders this evening, and the weather was fine. That included Kent, Sarah, and Stephen from the bike shop, who all got started a little late. So five of us rolled out. We all enjoyed the ride, and it was a great group of folks, but the overall sense was that something is wrong. Maybe it is just me, but it felt weird. I know several of the WCU students have gone home for the summer (or graduated), but where are all the local cyclists? Has everyone just quit riding? If so, I miss you all. Maybe folks are on vacation? I don't know. Just concerned.
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Post by Vespa on Jun 15, 2011 12:15:30 GMT -5
Hi Scott,
I've had similar thoughts, although from the couch, so to speak. First, I think you're partly right. The message board served a real purpose for a long time. At its height, the discussions were hot and the topics diverse. I even miss the moderation challenges. Better some over-the-top behavior than apathy and silence.
I don't think it's dead, but a Facebook group is probably the better arena in which to discuss simple plans and rides and such. Too many people have gotten fatigued with all the options, and it seems to have won those who don't want to check twitter, linkedn, myspace (dead), and message boards like ours. Although I read that FB is seeing defections. Don't know what else is on the horizon, though.
FB would never replace the continuity and community elements of our board, when folk were using it. It offers a more robust discussion environment. I highly value the Airport thread, with four years of results, 232 posts, and 7,792 pages viewed. Not sure how such a thing would transfer to FB.
Our riding community may just be experiencing a lull, but things sure were starkly different a few short years ago when the Whittier ride and the MM Ride turned out 50-60 riders, combined at least.
Would you like to do a lunch ride on Friday?
Mike
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Post by godzulla on Jun 19, 2011 13:44:31 GMT -5
I surf this site quite a bit. I would definately miss it if it went away. It's easier to keep on topic and look at things on this site v.s. Facebook. If you went facebook I'd probably quit looking at it totally. I live in Sylva in spirit. I will retire there hopefully someday soon. For now, I come there a few times a year or so.
We have had the same thing around here as well. We have had rides of 50-80 people here for a couple years and it slowly started wanning. So have the threads and discussions. I guess people just get burned out or tired of getting dropped all the time. We started a NOLB ride that everyone loves and we get great turnouts. Gives everyone chances of winning a sprint, hill, downhill, etc...
Maybe it's the economy as well ?
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Post by Josh Whitmore on Jun 20, 2011 14:15:42 GMT -5
I'm not sure what is going on with the cycling community around here. I usually don't go to the Tuesday night ride these days because I'm on the road at races, need to do a specific workout, or have work conflicts. I guess the popularity of cycling comes in waves around here. There have been several waves over the years. It seems like we are in the slack time now. Lots of the regulars of the last wave aren't really riding much any more or have moved away.
This board used to be much more used as a communication place for people going on rides who were looking for others to join them. The problem was that once you post the ride to the public, anyone can come along and unfortunately there have been some around here that most did not want to ride with. So most people swapped to sending email invitations to the people that were on the approved list instead of posting to the public.
This board also got a lot of hits when there was controversy. For better or worse, the silly squabbles of some of the cycling community was played out on this forum. We all logged in just to watch the fireworks. People from other locations logged in to add their 2 cents. All of those folks have moved away now, so we're back to calmness on the board. As nice as it is to not deal with moderation problems, it doesn't exactly make for exciting reading. I wonder how much those squabbles killed the cycling community around here?
Personally, I would rather use a facebook page. I would interact with that more. There is also a little more synergy there with other groups like the new SORBA club that just formed in the area.
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Kent
More of a Member
Posts: 69
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Post by Kent on Jun 21, 2011 22:30:20 GMT -5
Scott and I have talked about this a little, but I'll add my 2 cents here.
I've never been a frequent user of this forum, even as important as it is to my community and business. It's just not a convenient forum to get on unless you are at a computer with time to kill (I have lot's of computer time, none to kill). I wish there was a way to get email updates like I do from some of the Yahoo groups that I follow, but even that is a bit hard to keep up with. It does seem that the Facebook page would get more usage and it could be set up to be a little restrictive if we wanted, probably not.
I logged on tonight for the main reason that I usually do, I've received an email from someone coming to the area asking about group rides and I was about to direct them here, but I decided to have a look myself to see if there was any activity. This has been a good source of information to our visitors that expect a level of organization from their much larger cycling communities about rides and such. You guys have been providing that help for a long time and I don't think you realize how great that has been for me.
There were 15ish folks tonight for the ride, but it was some new faces and some that haven't been out in a while. Last week was the smallest that I've seen in a while, barring weather, with only 5 or so like Scott said. It was the first week after school let out, so town was dead anyway.
The ride has gone through the ups and downs that seems to happen with a limited population, or at least magnified by it. Since I bought the shop 4 years ago, there have been several marriages, breakups, births, moves and career advancements that have definitely affected the group from 4-8 years ago.
One thing that I've noticed that causes these rides to wane is the ability of the riders. When there are large groups, all abilities feel welcome to come to the ride. As some of these new riders start getting faster, they start riding away from their friends and up with the fast crew. Then the slower riders stop coming out because it's not fun to be embarrassed or left behind (obviously, something that doesn't bother me!). Likewise, these new, faster riders start concerning the older, faster riders with their "new" bike handling skills, so some of that crowd stops coming out. The next thing you know, the ride is a bit erratic and fast with no new riders because they hear how fast it is.
I think that the biggest solution to ride size is to the social-ability of it. Varying groups of supporting riders, friendly competition at all levels and most importantly, food and drinks afterwards. Admittedly, this should be a role that I could add to, but the previously mentioned life growth issues, plus the second store have really put a damper on my share. I will work to change that!
I would be interested to hear any other suggestions to re-strengthening our road community. Our road bike sales are far from dead and there are lots of folks looking for groups to ride with. I would love to see a Women's group be organized, a Saturday morning ride from the shop (big request from visitors), a Sunday ride. Obviously, there would need to be some level of organization of this and folks would have to be open to the possibility of new riders on a ride.
Cheers to you guys and gals, Kent
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Post by mvi on Jun 27, 2011 20:50:43 GMT -5
Once a group decreases between a "critical mass" things just fall apart it seems. That is the case with keeping a group ride going, and maybe a message board as well. The Whittier ride is a good example, once less people showed it went to 1-2 in weeks, and then to 0 soon. If we want a ride to sustain, the best thing we can do is show up. BTW, there seem to be quite a few people riding the Burningtown area on Sundays . One problem riding in WNC is that the roads are so selective (always up or down), that it leads to further break up according to ability. Just sad so few young people are riding.
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Post by Scott Baker on Jul 5, 2011 7:27:45 GMT -5
I appreciate everyone's feedback. In the short term, I think we will keep the message board. I spoke with Mike and we may create a basic Facebook page that links to the board. We'll try to see if there is a way to feed the FB page with new posts, but it may be a manual process. For the last few rides I posted, I copied and pasted the links on the Motion Makers FB page, which did generate a lot of views, but not any more folks joining for the rides.
As a side note of hypocrisy, I have missed every MM ride since I posted my mini-rant. I doubt I will make it this evening either due to childcare constraints for the summer and possibly the weather. I'll be back to the MM ride in the coming weeks I hope!
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Post by wcuracer on Jul 11, 2011 16:29:16 GMT -5
Sad to hear that news Scott. The community was definitely booming right when I was riding so I know what it felt like; I also got the feeling of what it feels like now when I came up to ride with you guys and only dobo and david showed up. Some tips & facts about the Tuesday night ride I do now: - Around 50-80 riders show up who are competitive (probably not possible in the mountains of North Carolina) - The ride is a closed course with 2 sharp corners but great pavement...yes it is a criterium training ride (0 wrecks so far this year: KNOCK ON WOOD) yes i Go to all of them - Fast: we average ~ 26-27 but dont let that scare anyone because the great thing about fast and FLAT is that almost anyone who knows how to pedal can at least set in the peleton (Fast and Flat may be something you want to look into for the group ride) It allows us to incorporate all levels of riders because they can just set in the draft and relax if they can't keep up. The river road would be a great place to look in to. - Short and Sweet - We ride 1hr - Since we are on a closed (probably half mile course) this allows people to jump right back in if they get tired so NO ONE gets dropped and they know they only have to push hard for one easy hour (EASY HAHA) ;D Only if you set in - Prime's - Yes they have fun prime's from time to time that keep it quite interesting. Just a few ideas to help if you do any re-development of the Tuesday night ride. Granted you are in the mountains so this makes things a lot more challenging especially since people who come to the mountains you would think want to ride a mountain course Good luck with things. I hope you get it back rolling like it use to! GONE RIDING so I had to make this short!!! ~ CLINT ~
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