Is Our Forum Dying?

[beltguy]

Perhaps that is a "Click Bait" tile

But it is a legitimate question.  When you look at the number of posts each day, it is fairly low.  However, if you look at the "views" activity it is pretty darn good.  Lets look at a snapshot of the "General Eagle Chat" forum:

A quick glance will reveal some pretty darn decent view activity.

But the real shining star is the "Project Eagles" forum:

I think those numbers suggest that the announcement of our death is a bit premature.

Jim


 

[beltguy]

As most of you know, we have both this forum and our Eagles International website.  The website is also pretty active with an average number of "hits" in the 40 per day range.

The Eagles International Chapter continues to fund both the website and forum.  It is our belief that these sites offer the best overall support of the Eagle bus community.  They are the only dedicated Eagle website and forum. 

There are many other bus forums but none specific to Eagle Buses.  There are also many bus Facebook sites.  At least two are dedicated to Eagle buses. 

My observation about the FB sites is that they are a bit more socially oriented as opposed to technically oriented.  A further observation is that a significant number of technically related replies are questionable in their accuracy.  It troubles me that the inaccurate responses are not pier reviewed. 

I am proud that our vast technical information is reviewed by folks who have a lot of experience with Eagles.

Jim

[Eagle obsessed]

Holy cow Jim i didnt realize my project thread had 30k views i need to update that thing soo bad :(

Now is the time i suppose!:D

[DoubleEagle]

There is the possibility that many of the views are not necessarily valid Eagle enthusiasts. On my company's website we use Google Analytics to identify the source of the people that check out our website, which is for our business in Ohio. We found over the years that most of the hits were from Russia, China, and other countries by people that probably have no interest in our services. In our reports they show maps of where the hits come from. If there is a way to identify the quality of the views it should be used to see what is really happening. The level of postings by members of Eagles International who pay dues and support the forum is extremely low, and that is what I find to be disturbing. A hand full of people do the majority of postings, yet hundreds of people view those posts (maybe). Something is not right about that.

[beltguy]

Walter, I suspect a some (?) - significant (?) number of the views may be from folks who would have no interest in Eagle buses.  With our old platform, I would get 20-50 spam applications from Russia each month (I track the IP address of many of them).  Obviously they must have contributed to the view count to some degree.  Bots crawl our forum quite a bit (that is OK since it makes us appear higher when folks do an internet search).  Many of the views are folks returning to the thread as new posts are made and then viewed.

All of that said, I still think that our "read/view" numbers give us some indication that folks are looking at us.  It might be like fly fishing where it takes a hundred cast to get a strike let alone land a fish   I think some of the views are folks who have a desire to learn more about our crazy hobby (addiction?).  They may even be potential buyers when we decide to "move on".

Just for grins, I am setting up a Google Analytics for our forum.  Since I am using the free version, I suspect I will not get a lot of detail about our viewers. 

I frequently look at the metrics of our personal websites and our Eagle website.  Right now I am using the basic WordPress tools.  I take the results with a grain of salt.  However, Pat's business related blog tracks pretty well with FB postings and Constant Contact email blasts.

Jim


 

[beltguy]

The level of postings by members of Eagles International who pay dues and support the forum is extremely low, and that is what I find to be disturbing. A hand full of people do the majority of postings, yet hundreds of people view those posts (maybe). Something is not right about that.

Walter, you hit the nail on the head with those words of wisdom.  The heart and sole of our forum are the knowledgeable contributors.  I wish I could clone you (and a few others) many times over.

I think a part of the issue is that our member base has a few years under their belt (my attempt to be politically correct and not say "old") and are not all that comfortable with computer technology. 

If only we could capture the amazing discussions that take place at the Eagle rallies.

Jim

[rusty]

Again Thank you Jim for all you do. You are very generous with your time and devotion to the site. The site would be long gone without you.
some may not know that the site was set up to help the club grow and to conduct club business. At that time the older part of the club was not very comfortable with some of the things that went on in some of the conversations that took place on the forums. I can understand and sometimes agree with them. So that part didn't pan out to well as people quit going to the site. I was probably at fault as I was very adamant about not censoring any comment. Luckily calmer heads prevailed and we added different parts to the site such as the tech portions.  
I know that face book and the like are much more flashy that our site. I don't go on FB so I don't  know but I hope our site has most of what it takes to keep the eagle bus on the road. As long as I am able ( and Jim gives of his time) I will see that this site says up for that reason. With all the talented people we have on this site and there willingness to help even if we don't get a great deal of hits to me it is worth leaving the site up and I will see that it is.
Thank you Wayne

[beltguy]

Wayne, thanks for the kind words.  When you, Dale, and I created the website and forum over 13 years ago, we had a great image of what the future might hold for the sites.  As is usually the case, vision and reality do not always coincide. 

However, over the years, we have amassed a huge technical knowledge base and that alone makes it all worth it.    Between decent search engines and a few of us that have been around a long time, we can often guide new folks to great technical responses.

We are one of only two dedicated bus manufacturer specific forums that I know of (Prevost has one major forum).  The MCI forum died many years ago.

When we first started out, Facebook was not really a major platform.  Over the years, it became very popular with a part of the bus crazy population.  Member numbers of the various FB groups soared and posts were numerous.  Today the posts on the bus related FB groups have tapered off quite a bit.  A troubling trend of the some of these groups (for me) are the large number of "click bait" posts for personal YouTube channels.  Don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE YouTube viewer, but some of the FB posts are blatant advertisements with no contribution to the group.

I have begun getting some data from the Google Analytics site, and I will share that information when we get a few weeks worth of data.

Jim

[Rickyoday]

While I'm basically a newbie, I have definitely benefited for the member's knowledge, and generosity!  Walter has answered numerous questions of mine, and made me a good deal on the destination sign for my Model 10! Jim Shepard answered my Help post, and sent me an escape hatch cover for just the cost of shipping!  Great guys and assets to the site and Eagle bus community for sure!
  I am also on the Facebook Eagle bus group, and I've seen multiple posts referring those people with questions to this site.  I don't know if they visit, but they might be some of the anonymous hits.
  I do love this site and hope to post more of my work on my bus...as soon as this stinking weekend rain pattern stops!
   Thanks for all you moderators and posters do!
              Rick

[Eagle obsessed]

Occasionally I browse fb... lots of opposition there lol. Everyone has a idea. Seems very disorganized. I do not like fb lol