Sir, Madam, are you 'lurking'?

[Giantrat]

Hello!

I don't usually lurk on forums, but Just happy reading other people's posts on here at present - maybe as I've not been an Advanced Driver for a huge length of time yet. Will saying something more in time I'm sure. Enjoying being here though

[jont]

Welcome giantrat. If the usernames match, we've already spoken elsewhere

[fungus]

Giantrat, it wasn't you in my chicken run the other day was it?

Sorry, I just couldn't resist it. Welcome to the forum. You'll find us a friendly crowd in general.

[Giantrat]

Welcome giantrat. If the usernames match, we've already spoken elsewhere

[Giantrat]

Giantrat, it wasn't you in my chicken run the other day was it?

Sorry, I just couldn't resist it. Welcome to the forum. You'll find us a friendly crowd in general.

I'm sure I'll be posting prolifically sooner or later.

[richie349]

Bit of a shame that when someone takes the time to response to a question and make constructive suggestions on this forum, the original poster (or anyone else for that matter) doesn't bother to respond. Hardly surprising that people "lurk" but don't contribute if this is what happens.

[Gareth]

Bit of a shame that when someone takes the time to response to a question and make constructive suggestions on this forum, the original poster (or anyone else for that matter) doesn't bother to respond. Hardly surprising that people "lurk" but don't contribute if this is what happens.

If you want people to engage with you then perhaps you should also be prepared to engage when they respond to your comments.

[richie349]

Bit of a shame that when someone takes the time to response to a question and make constructive suggestions on this forum, the original poster (or anyone else for that matter) doesn't bother to respond. Hardly surprising that people "lurk" but don't contribute if this is what happens.

If you want people to engage with you then perhaps you should also be prepared to engage when they respond to your comments.

First of all, nobody responded to me within this thread, so there was no opportunity to engage. I now see that you quoted me elsewhere, so perhaps a reference in the original location would have been good.

Either way, it shouldn't be about me trying to convince you to "engage" with me. You are part of a forum that is clearly struggling with active traffic, and yet it appeared like someone with a wealth of experience in this area (me) was being ignored.

Now you've pointed it out, I'll go and have a look at the "are there enough participants thread" and perhaps continue the conversation there.

[martine]

I must admit to being a regular lurker. I visit this site to have a quick glance over current forum topics. For what it's worth, I've always thought the topics seem to linger a bit and become stagnant. On any kind of forum, you'd expect to see new topics and discussions at least on a daily basis.

Based on my experience of running forums, ADUK would benefit from closing topics to new posts after a period of time. This would hopefully cause fresh content to be posted. Once an original post has a large number of responses, people are less inclined to sign in to add their bit as it will probably not get seen, and a previous conversation is likely to continue (rather liked being talked over in a face to face conversation).

It might also be worth considering adding a "guest" forum, where visitors to the site can make restricted contributions without actually registering first.

The latter is a risky strategy due to SPAM, but it could always be removed if the worst happened.

I'm now registered and logged in, so will do my best to be more active in future. Hopefully you find my suggestions worthy of consideration though.

Richie - I didn't respond as I'm not sure I agree and didn't want to taint the discussion with my own thoughts...but since no one else has responded, here goes...

Firstly, the idea of ADUK is not to get loads of traffic - we don't require funding from advertising etc...it's not that sort of forum. ADUK is a place for discussion of all things 'advanced' in hopefully a polite and considered environment. We occasionally get together face-to-face (as you know) and it's a convenient way of organising driving days.

I think if we closed topics, we'd get loads more repeat threads - which might make it disjointed. I daren't open a 'guest' forum - we get quite a few sign-ups each week from spammers but they are usually intercepted at the 'activation' stage...if we had an open forum I am sure it would quickly be overrun with spam and I am not prepared to spend the time endlessly deleting inappropriate posts and banning users.

There are 3 admins here - they may have different view of course.

[richie349]

I must admit to being a regular lurker. I visit this site to have a quick glance over current forum topics. For what it's worth, I've always thought the topics seem to linger a bit and become stagnant. On any kind of forum, you'd expect to see new topics and discussions at least on a daily basis.

Based on my experience of running forums, ADUK would benefit from closing topics to new posts after a period of time. This would hopefully cause fresh content to be posted. Once an original post has a large number of responses, people are less inclined to sign in to add their bit as it will probably not get seen, and a previous conversation is likely to continue (rather liked being talked over in a face to face conversation).

It might also be worth considering adding a "guest" forum, where visitors to the site can make restricted contributions without actually registering first.

The latter is a risky strategy due to SPAM, but it could always be removed if the worst happened.

I'm now registered and logged in, so will do my best to be more active in future. Hopefully you find my suggestions worthy of consideration though.

Richie - I didn't respond as I'm not sure I agree and didn't want to taint the discussion with my own thoughts...but since no one else has responded, here goes...

Firstly, the idea of ADUK is not to get loads of traffic - we don't require funding from advertising etc...it's not that sort of forum. ADUK is a place for discussion of all things 'advanced' in hopefully a polite and considered environment. We occasionally get together face-to-face (as you know) and it's a convenient way of organising driving days.

I think if we closed topics, we'd get loads more repeat threads - which might make it disjointed. I daren't open a 'guest' forum - we get quite a few sign-ups each week from spammers but they are usually intercepted at the 'activation' stage...if we had an open forum I am sure it would quickly be overrun with spam and I am not prepared to spend the time endlessly deleting inappropriate posts and banning users.

There are 3 admins here - they may have different view of course.

Thanks for your response. If it's your preference to keep the site relatively small, with contributions from a group of friends, contacts and people who meet up from time to time, then I don't see anything wrong with that. I only made my suggestions regarding increased traffic and response rates because the original post implied that too many people "lurking" and not joining in was a potential problem.

I would concur that a guest forum may be a step to far, and this was only tentatively suggested. However, I do think you can overly subdue a forum's potential by worrying unduly about spam. Spam posts can easily be removed and they should be considered a bi-product of a busier forum on which the quality posts will hopefully outweigh the nonsense.

[martine]

No I not convinced about spammers...every so often we get someone who gets through and within seconds has posted adverts on loads of different threads (spambot?) and it's a right pain to tidy it all up.

I'm ambivalent about the low level of posts...personally I don't see it as a bit problem although a few fresh faces are always welcome of course. Other may have a different view.

The site owner Darren, doesn't take an active part at all in running or promoting the site - he has decided to let the site run along as it does and would prefer to spend his time on his career and personal life (quite understandably)...he as no great ambitions for ADUK (as far as I know).

I think the lurking question was posted to see if anything in particular was putting people off...but there doesn't seem to be a clear trend. A recent post from a new member emphasised how friendly and welcoming every one was here in comparison to other forums.

I think it's fair to say Advanced Driving is a minority sport and even the pistonheads AD forum is remarkably quiet sometimes.

Can we get back to talking about driving and fantastic roads now?

[Horse]

I think the lurking question was posted to see if anything in particular was putting people off

Yup . . .

. . . and to give some lurkers a friendly 'prod' to join in

I think it's fair to say Advanced Driving is a minority sport and even the pistonheads AD forum is remarkably quiet sometimes.

Which is, perhaps, where we need to accept a number of things, such as: there are few people involved to start off with, and few of those have time to spare and want to spend that time hammering at a keyboard.

Can we get back to talking about driving and fantastic roads now?

Or bickering about H&T, BGOL, what the 'S's really mean (three only: Safety, Smooth, Style - you know it makes sense) . . . etc.

[waremark]

I think Darren initially set out to encourage more people to enjoy improving their driving. I don't think we achieve that particularly well. I don't know how it could be achieved.

[Horse]

I think Darren initially set out to encourage more people to enjoy improving their driving. I don't think we achieve that particularly well. I don't know how it could be achieved.

I can think of two ways:
- Driving days
- Promulgation of information/advice/techniques etc.

With the benefit of some of that promulgation is cascaded to further people via IAM/RoSPA Groups etc.

For a small contributing membership, I think it does well.