Johnny Utah
Well-Known Member
The anticipation is killing me!
Not really - since I have been on here (10 years or so) the participation has been down from my observation.
People that participated regularly with solid cycling context were banned/blocked/or ridiculed for not falling in line.
Like who? Looking at the admin panel, there is a single discouraged user from the former "regulars" on the site. I kicked Max out maybe 2 years ago for being an asshole but otherwise, I don't think I've banned anyone else in like 2-3 years.
To your overall point, yes the content is watered down. IMO it is a natural progression of any message board. I have been on the internet since the beginning of time and it's how they all end up. How many times can you talk tires? You generally trend towards "a collection of people who like the same thing talking about not the thing you all like" - I have never seen a message board go any other way.
Exception is the college sports board. During the season(s), you have games. We as a collection of riders have drifted away from events, so we have lost that aspect. The races that used to get 500 people (LMC) now struggle to get half that. Cross is dead. And road racing is not something that was ever popular. Pro racing is very rarely talked about, though sure you get the TdF thread every year but I personally cannot follow it.
I get that we/Team MTBNJ used to drive a lot of that content. But my kids are all teenagers now and frankly the people on this message board DGAF about my kids as a general statement. Ushering 2 of them into college is my priority now. Racing and holding events is pretty low on my priority list. Truth be told, weeding my garden is more important to me.
When MTBNJ started, MTBR was the primary. We took that over because a lot of us were new. Now you have YDKS which is a FB-based group. The people I know on that group are just fine & dandy and good people. They would all fit well here IMO. But personally, I do not like the FB format so I don't do any of that. If they started a message board, I am sure I would join it. They may take over, or have taken over for us already. It's ok. My identity is not tied to this message board or anything.
OK long post short - I agree with you. In a way it makes me sad that the content sucks. I login every day and maybe 1 thread per day is of interest. I suppose I could help that. I have been thinking about this out of state wiki material for a while now. For me, the most interesting thing is learning more about stuff within 6 hours or so. Then trying to ride it. And remember it. Adding content to that would at least help. Aside from that, IDK what else I would personally post that would generate interest. Sure I blog now & again. But it's sort of like an on-again-off-again hobby.
Anyway, I appreciate the kick in the nuts trying to make the internet a better place.
I do feel somewhat out of line for posting this.
The Central NJ debate is a fun one, and maybe there are internal conversations between Team MTBNJ members I am missing - but that fact that Patrick thinks he can solve the problem and make that decision highlights some of these issues - for outsiders of the team maybe this was something best left unchanged given the current climate of the site.
I feel that the like button showing up cut down on a lot of posts, people 'react' to the post and then neglect (or forget maybe?) to add to the discussion, now i can certainly see how this could be double edged sword as more posting does not mean more quality content, and crap (shit?) posts are just more to wade through to get to the good stuff.
Maybe telling us to get off your biking lawn is scaring all the 20-40s away.
3. To the point above, we have not seen this 20-40 demographic that you talk about. Like none, zero. Once in a blue moon we get someone in that age group and they disappear in a week.
2. The succession plan is a problem everywhere. As a pretty active JORBA rep, we have this conversation all the time. Kirt and I are dumping a lot of time & effort into CR/Cromwell. We both know that in 5 years we may both be gone and who is going to pick that up? There is a very real chance it goes back to an eroded set of trails that struggle to be maintained. The same goes for the biking scene. Where is this 20-40 year old demographic that's going to take any of this over? It's a rhetorical question to me.
6. I miss Norm's MTBNJ but I also consider that Team MTBNJ's MTBNJ - it feels like the days are past. This is true of both the team and the site. Why is that? IDK. We have a similar disconnect with the team now in that we do not have a central focus to drive us like we used to in the past (races, events, etc).
This is pretty amusing. I poked the bear both in the Essex county legalization efforts
just to keep
<sigh> I won’t change the topic here, but there are many here with Essex county scars on this board. Most of them like to poke at the wound than help heal it.
I guess I need more of an explanation on this. But when you explain it, can you do so from the street and not stand on my lawn?
K, thanks.
possibly getting involved at Stephens
If we're getting told we can't discuss other interests in the forum - then you can't be sad when we're not on the forum. And if we're not on the forum, we're not going to show up to your trail maintenance days or group rides. Or take ownership of MTBNJ or JORBA.