Has Your Use of the Sportsmobile Forum Changed?

[macmcintire]

Since the Sportsmobile Forum had changed hands from its founder, Jage, to the new owners and new format I have found my use of the Forum to have decreased significantly. I used to get on the Forum several times per day. Now I sometimes go more than a week without accessing the Forum and usually only get on the Forum once or twice per week, if that.

I'm interested in knowing if your use has gone up, gone down, or stayed at the same level since the change over. And, if you have changed your pattern in visits to the Forum, I'm curious as to what has caused the change.

As for me, my interest has lessened in the Forum because it feels different to me. To me, the Forum used to feel like a brotherhood and sisterhood. It felt like a place where "friends" gathered to share their experiences. It had a down homey feel to it. Now it feels more like a commercial venture.

The Forum also feels less user-friendly to me. I still haven't mastered how to use this Forum versus the old one. That makes me less inclined to add reports of my Sportsmobile adventures. I have taken several wonderful trips in my SMB over the past months and have great pictures of the experience, but, because of the non-ease of use of the Forum, I have not felt inclined to post them to the Forum.

I don't wish to offend -- I'm just sharing how I feel and wondering if others may feel just the opposite from me. I hope I am an anomaly.

[JoeH]

My use of the forum is about the same. The adds don't bother me. My 2 cents is there are lots of new members which is great but long-timer posters from the mid to late 2000s that were such a staple of knowledge, etc. have moved on.

[BroncoHauler]

My usage has gone down, but I cannot say with any certainty that it is because of the change to forum owners, change in the forum itself, or related to any of that at all.

I moved last Fall to a rental house in NM, and then moved again this Winter to a home we purchased in NM, so time has been short and I haven't been on anywhere near as much as I used to.

I will say this forum has a personality all its own, and it has changed numerous times based upon the members and the interaction between members. All in all though, it's still the best forum I have ever been a part of, and the fact that I'm still around years after selling my SMB attests to that.


Herb

[larrie]

I went through a period of not checking the for forum because my interest was in other places. Have been checking it much more frequently the past month or so. Probably because the rain has stopped and I can use my rig more.

Am still getting use to the format and how to maneuver around. Posting images is definitely not as easy as the old forum.

As Herb said "it's still the best forum I have ever been a part of..." I am on several other off road related forums and this is the best of them all.

[MKRyan]

I think I'm on the forum about the same, maybe a little more. I've gotten used to the format, though it took a while, however, posting pictures is not anywhere near as easy or as quick as it used to be. Everyone likes to see pictures of Sportsmobiles and where and how we use them so pictures are important.

I've had my SMB for 5 1/2 years and a few members have sold their rigs or stopped coming around but there are lots of new members that are contributing and sharing their experiences.

It's a great forum and once you get used to the format and how to easily negotiate the pages it's not too bad. I'm looking forward to the warmer weather, as more members will be out and about more often which means more trip reports of places I want to go explore myself and more projects that might give me ideas to copy.

We like the pictures of your travels and the places you explore Mac so keep 'em coming.

Great forum.

Mike

[Sheriffdoug]

Hi.

Initially, when Forum changed it slowed me down, ads were annoying,
and now very hard to post images.

But, now getting use to it all. Your all a great bunch of Knowledgable
guys.

It's definately an addiction, but a great addiction. Helps my sanity.

And by the way Yellow SMB ships out of LA this sunday, arriving 4th May,
in New Zealand for right hand conversion, 9 weeks, US$34k.

[gcvt]

Since the change of ownership, the forum goes down way too often. So, yes, it's changed how I use it...because, often times, I can't use it.

[1der]

About the same amount for me.

I find the new format to be less user friendly. I REALLY miss the OLD "Recent Threads" feature. I could look back through a weeks worth of Threads and find what I was looking for very easily. Now, I use "Today's Posts" but stuff falls off after 24 hrs. If I use "New Posts", it is incomplete because it only lists threads with posts I have not read yet. So a two day old thread I read without any new posts is not listed and I have to search for it again. The current "Recent Threads" box is kind of useless, imho. I have not experienced this shortcoming on any other forum.

Only way to keep the threads view-able in Today's Posts is "bumping", which is a bit obnoxious. If I use Subscribed Threads, again, it is only showing items I have posted to since I have "auto subscribe" but not any I have just read.

re: Ads - no real issue, just take up real estate.

Posting pics - no issues there, but I post from my computer not my phone or with TapaTalk, so that may be different.

The Group Buy stuff has changed significantly and I am not sure why. People use to be very prompt with responses after expressing interest. The last seat base buy had more than a third of the people who were "hot" for a base dropped out without so much as a peep. Never had that happen before. Before, if someone changed their mind, they let me know via PM or post. This time, nine people did not respond to my repeated PM's. Strange.

The awning bracket response seems to be similar right now. I wonder if the email notices re: PM's in their profiles is turned on, or maybe it is going to spam. At least the email let's them know something is waiting in their forum box. Makes managing a group buy difficult, and unfortunately now, it seems, a bit risky since I order units base on interest.

[photographix]

I agree with 1der: I miss the old Recent Threads a great deal. I could see everything posted since the last time I checked the site, which was daily, if not more often.

The current Recent Threads I still look at every day, but I know I am missing out on a lot of posts because they fall off the list so fast, particularly on weekends when the site has more active users. It seems like I have to check almost hourly if I want to see everything, which is impractical for me, and probably for others, too.

On the old site, I turned off the auto-subscribe to threads because the Recent Posts worked so well. With the new site, I have to have auto-subscribe turned on or I miss stuff. Despite that, I still miss posts to threads that I haven't responded to unless I go hunting for them, which I don't have the time to do.

We try to travel for about 5 days a month, and usually have little or no internet access. With the old site, I could come back after a trip and see all the posts made while I was on the road. Now I only get to see the most recent ones. I know I'm missing a lot.

I still think the level and quality of posts is still there, and the community is strong, friendly, and extraordinarily helpful and interesting, as it has been since I joined 3 years ago.

But the quantity of posts appears to be dropping because people don't easily see as much activity as in the past, so their perception is that people aren't posting as much as they used to. For example, I used to see daveb post a lot, but not so much nowadays. I'm not saying he is posting any less (which he may be), it's just that I don't see his posts nearly as often because of the way the site functions.

That said, I much prefer the new "look" over the old one. But with the changeover to the new software, I think some interactivity was lost.

And that's a damn shame. The people here are absolutely awesome. It would be a terrible loss to all of us if some left due to software changes.

[AndrewST]

My usage went down also with the new plateform which is not as friendly as you mention.
As I didn't work myself in the new site, I kind of force myself to look at it ever 2-3 weeks, I also have less time now.
Still interested in the forum and will get back once more time is available.

Interesting to read the others feedback.
Andrew