Where is everyone?

[Hippie459MN]

What happened to everyone? Sadly, thanks to the likes of Facebook, this place is dead as s**t now days.

This place is coming up on 8 years old and the last two years, despite all my efforts, has gone in the crapper cause of social media. A good majority of the long time very active members have just stopped coming here all together and have been doing the social media thing instead. Its frustrating to think all the time and work a person puts into something just cause he wants to for the love of something and one day, everyone just splits. As much as I dont want too and dont worry, im not going to, but its moments and times like this that make me want to pull the plug cause babysitting a place with next to no "active" traffic could be time spent else where.

Sorry for the rant, just depressing to see that this place is becoming a ghost town from what it once was. Night all...



P.S. Pretty sure im going to be pulling the plug on the HydrostreamForums group(s) and fan page on Facebook soon. I dont want Facebook to be used for what the web site is in place for and that is exactly what has happened. When this will happen, no idea but im sure I will give a heads up.

[HST4ME]

Winter sucks. I've been busing working and pretty low on energy. I don't do Base Fook so I have no issues with pulling the plug . I've been doing motors and can put up some build threads, one in particular is pretty neat and sneaky, and a gearcase rebuild project.

[RussF]

I'm still here with my AOL

[Hippie459MN]

Russ's daily struggle... haha

[AdamDK]

The problem is that most people are f***ing lazy. They spend all their time on Facebook on their phones and dont bother looking for information on the internet.

Example, someone posted on Facebook awhile ago that they're looking for a boat. "looking for a ....... Let's see what ya got!"
Sorry, but I just want to reply with "have you tried searching on various websites for the boat you want....You know like Boat Trader or some other website dedicated to buying and selling boats, instead of f***ing Facebook???"

Or random posts like "hey how do I check the core..."...."what kind of glass should I use"....."balsa or composite?".....

Lazy.
I think I've read every WIP thread on here twice....I don't know how many hours I've spent searching and reading threads on S&F about how to restore my Viper.
IMO Facebook is simply not a reliable source of information.
Lazy.




Get off my porch!

[ Post made via Android ]

[Hippie459MN]

I totally agree with you 100%. Heck, I have a ton of info here that would answer 75% of the questions that people are asking, if not more. lol

And if they dont know about the web site, just go to google and type Hydrostream. HydrostreamForums and Scream & Fly are the top two sites that will come back a ton of results. lol

[AdamDK]

Have you tried sending out a mass email inviting everyone back to the forum?
I'm not that familiar with phpBB forum software. I remember back in the day when I used vBulletin there was an option to create a message and it would send to every email registered by members in the database. (How many of those email addresses are still active and/or accessible by members is another matter)

[ Post made via Android ]

[AdamDK]

Another option....Maybe change the Facebook group page settings so that facebook members can't post. Keep it up simply to advertise the forum.

[ Post made via Android ]

[transomstand]

I feel bad for you Hip. Lots of trouble and expense to keep the site going so I can't fault you in any decision you make for how it continues.

Like Lynn, I don't do Buttbook and feel a forum like this is far superior. Try looking up something you saw on Buttbook a few weeks ago......completely impossible. Even simply trying to sort out a thread and inserting comments in the appropriate spot can be ridiculous. It's a screwed up mess.

What it provides is easy, instant gratification for our "LOOK AT ME" society. Push a button, take a photo and another button to post with a stupid comment. Maybe that's all that's left. No wonder people who actually have something to say post very little, or not at all.

[Hippie459MN]

I agree with you 100%. I still check in from time to time on Facebook but its pretty much to manage 2 groups and 3 fan pages now. While I could lock down or get rid of the web site group page on FB, there is also at least 2 others people will continue to use. Im not throwing in the towel here just yet and dont plan to anytime soon. Its just frustrating sometimes to come here and see a week go by and not one single post when at one time we were getting 10+ new posts a day.

Even stuff on YouTube has dropped off for people with the whole, take a video, hit one button and its on Facebook. No need to upload to another web site then share a link, etc... I personally still favor forums and YouTube WAY over facebook all day everyday. I cant wait until Facebook become the next MySpace. Nothing lasts forever. LoL