A quiet Forum

granger

granger

Senior Jockey
Joined
Nov 3, 2005
Messages
19,151
Location
Moscow Flyer Stables
Hello to all

The forum seems a bit of a ghost town of late. Hopefully the jumps season can bring back a few posters or tempt a few more out of semi retirement

Looking at my own avatar this morning, i'm posting here since 2005 - what a different place the world was then

Colin prob has stats around log in's and active members etc but things do seem really quiet. It would be a shame to see forums in general become a thing of the past. Twitter is great but forums greater allow for rapport and educations to be formed

Hope to see as many of you posting and new members joining soon

Let the jumps season commence

Granger aka PJ
 
Thanks for the reminder, Granger! Yes, I far prefer the jumps, and particularly our compos on the forum. I love the road to Cheltenham, which begins about now, and I love how the forum lights up to shed some cheer and light over the miserable winter months. And that one week in March basically wees all over Christmas.
 
This place is like a comfortable old local pub where you can ramble in for a pint and a chat without ever knowing who is going to be there. However, like many local's it is under pressure.

How can we find the likes of below and get them back in for a drink. Is there a 'mass message to all registered users email accounts' Colin?

Steve Miller,
Brian H
Krizon
BobbyJo
Bar the Bull

etc -
 
Cantoris looks in the odd time. get posting Oran

Someone mention Harchibald and pedigree chum and Tracky may return

Martin has been quiet of late, come back fella

Grassy will surely be tempted in by some young novice or the King George

Loads more I could mention, you all know who you are

New members, come say hello and tell us who wins a few races because we are buggered if relying on me
 
an capall said:
This place is like a comfortable old local pub where you can ramble in for a pint and a chat without ever knowing who is going to be there. However, like many local's it is under pressure.

How can we find the likes of below and get them back in for a drink. Is there a 'mass message to all registered users email accounts' Colin?

Steve Miller,
Brian H
Krizon
BobbyJo
Bar the Bull

etc -
Click to expand...

The forum has always gone quiet over the summer months, this is definitely a jump focused forum, not that there was ever a push for that, just the way it has evolved.

Unfortunately, forums are dying a death everywhere, ones that were massively popular 10-15 years ago, are now gone, or shadows of what they were.

A lot of people who joined here 20 years ago have moved on for various reasons, perhaps they were in uni, now have jobs, families, priorities have changed, no time for racing now they work 40 hours a week with 3 kids :). That has always happened, but in the past, when old members left, new ones joined. Now, everyone is on facebook, twitter (never understood why twitter is so popular), snapchat, whatsapp, telegram etc, and they don't join forums, as they think they can find everything on twitter.

The problem is replacing the old members with new, and it isn't easy. I do try from time to time, we still appear quite high in google for a lot of search results, and when I put the odd post up about bookmakers offers, it isn't actually to generate income (I think most know the forum has never been pushed to be an income stream), it's to try to appear in search results. A lot more people search for 'free bets' or 'cheap Cheltenham tickets' than 'all weather racing' for example.

If you look round at all the 'big' racing forums from 15 years ago, of which there were quite a few, I don't think you will find one that is close to 50% as busy as it was back then, most MUCh less or gone completely. Just look at TRF as an example, they were as busy as we were, if not busier, when they started 20 years ago, and despite the ownership change, a lot of money poured into advertising, sponsoring races, exclusive trainer interviews, the 4PP and the like, and they are no busier than we are. Look at the 4PP as an example, 10 years ago there would be 100+ people enter , now it seems to be under 50, and thats a completely free competition.

I even changed the main page to focus more on casino offers than racing (although all the racing blurb is still there) as casino offers get a lot of hits, and obviously people gambling on casinos are likely to gamble on other stuff, so hoped people would find the site that way.

A mass email will be sent when theres something to promote in the racing, I usually send something out around a big Saturday around now, another at Christmas, and another at Cheltenham, but regarding the older members, most have changed email addresses so they just bounce. I think last time I sent a mass email, out of 2500 mails sent, over 700 bounced (which is fun deleting them all!)

If anyone has any fresh idea's though, I'm all ears :)

If anyone has a large (or small) twitter/social media following, feel free to share any posts to them, maybe the competition thread, that would, at least, get people clicking through and hopefully joining in. Get people posting for a competition, they are more likely to post in the forum as a whole :)
 
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Maybe a forum interview (pre determined Q&A) with some kind of racing personality that they might reference on their twitter/podcast etc

Ideas

Rory D formerly of this parish
Paul Ferguson
Mark Howard
Racehour pod
 
I’d guess my postings are roughly 90/10 in favour of the winter months but IIRC even last jumps season on here was quieter than usual. Hopefully we’ll be back to normal this year, even if it looks at present like it’d require a return of the Fly to awaken Grassy.
 
dvds2000 said:
The forum has always gone quiet over the summer months, this is definitely a jump focused forum, not that there was ever a push for that, just the way it has evolved.

Unfortunately, forums are dying a death everywhere, ones that were massively popular 10-15 years ago, are now gone, or shadows of what they were.

A lot of people who joined here 20 years ago have moved on for various reasons, perhaps they were in uni, now have jobs, families, priorities have changed, no time for racing now they work 40 hours a week with 3 kids :). That has always happened, but in the past, when old members left, new ones joined. Now, everyone is on facebook, twitter (never understood why twitter is so popular), snapchat, whatsapp, telegram etc, and they don't join forums, as they think they can find everything on twitter.

The problem is replacing the old members with new, and it isn't easy. I do try from time to time, we still appear quite high in google for a lot of search results, and when I put the odd post up about bookmakers offers, it isn't actually to generate income (I think most know the forum has never been pushed to be an income stream), it's to try to appear in search results. A lot more people search for 'free bets' or 'cheap Cheltenham tickets' than 'all weather racing' for example.

If you look round at all the 'big' racing forums from 15 years ago, of which there were quite a few, I don't think you will find one that is close to 50% as busy as it was back then, most MUCh less or gone completely. Just look at TRF as an example, they were as busy as we were, if not busier, when they started 20 years ago, and despite the ownership change, a lot of money poured into advertising, sponsoring races, exclusive trainer interviews, the 4PP and the like, and they are no busier than we are. Look at the 4PP as an example, 10 years ago there would be 100+ people enter , now it seems to be under 50, and thats a completely free competition.

I even changed the main page to focus more on casino offers than racing (although all the racing blurb is still there) as casino offers get a lot of hits, and obviously people gambling on casinos are likely to gamble on other stuff, so hoped people would find the site that way.

A mass email will be sent when theres something to promote in the racing, I usually send something out around a big Saturday around now, another at Christmas, and another at Cheltenham, but regarding the older members, most have changed email addresses so they just bounce. I think last time I sent a mass email, out of 2500 mails sent, over 700 bounced (which is fun deleting them all!)

If anyone has any fresh idea's though, I'm all ears :)

If anyone has a large (or small) twitter/social media following, feel free to share any posts to them, maybe the competition thread, that would, at least, get people clicking through and hopefully joining in. Get people posting for a competition, they are more likely to post in the forum as a whole :)
Click to expand...

It's social media (primarily Twitter) that is killing forums because in it's absence 15 years or so ago, if you wanted to post an opinion online then it had to be a forum.

I'm not sure how easy the two are to integrate but a twitter account (hopefully somehow linked to the forum) is probably and sadly the way forward. Then things like in-depth race analysis could be posted up here but quick comments and links to those could be accessed via the Twitter account.

Twitter isn't something I've ever really taken to but have to admit it's becoming an increasingly common form of media.
 
In fairness to the few diehard flatties remaining, the ground's been more suitable for hippo's, rather than horses, for the past few days.
Re former posters, anyone know what happened to EC? He was often controversial, occasionally a downright twat, but he sure generated a lot of interest on this board.
Danny's return would be a boon, too.
 
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reet hard said:
In fairness to the few diehard flatties remaining, the ground's been more suitable for hippo's, rather than horses, for the past few days.
Re former posters, anyone know what happened to EC? He was often controversial, occasionally a downright twat, but he sure generated a lot of interest on this board.
Danny's return would be a boon, too.
Click to expand...

I think he managed to talk col into banning him.

Danny had plenty of good input but think his new job detracted from his ability to post.
 
Maybe Fist will get out of his Thai digs, feeling like a new man, some time soon.
 
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wilsonl said:
It's social media (primarily Twitter) that is killing forums because in it's absence 15 years or so ago, if you wanted to post an opinion online then it had to be a forum.

I'm not sure how easy the two are to integrate but a twitter account (hopefully somehow linked to the forum) is probably and sadly the way forward. Then things like in-depth race analysis could be posted up here but quick comments and links to those could be accessed via the Twitter account.

Twitter isn't something I've ever really taken to but have to admit it's becoming an increasingly common form of media.
Click to expand...

Totally agree, just set a twitter account up (@talkinghorses4) and will finish it off at some point over the next week :)
 
I think the value this place has over twatter is the long term relationships, positions and discussions. Twitter is like cocaine (or so a friend tells me.) Feel good for a few minutes - useless afterwards. I think we should forget about the speed boat and fix the oil tanker.
 
I still browse the forum from time to time, just don’t post. Literally no interest in flat racing, never have.

Could just be racing. I’m a member on a couple of other forums, and they’re really busy, but that’s boxing and football. Doesn’t actually seem that bad on here, especially when a few comps get going and we get into the cold winter months.

Some good posters do some to be dwindling off though for one reason or other.

With Twitter, you only have to post a couple of winners and you’ve suddenly got a load of followers and retweets if that’s what your after. Mainly from gamblers looking to make a few quid. A lad from work pays some WhatsApp group £10 a month for tips cause they had a couple of winners, they follow them religiously.
I’ve told them to come on here to no avail, better, educated tips and conversations, and completely free. I’ve seen some of the tips that’s posted in the WhatsApp group and that was enough for me to know it’s guesswork.

Hopefully it’ll pick up again over the next few weeks, and hopefully, myself included, start contributing to make it the best it can be.
 
Yeah agree with most of the above, I've got very little interest in Flat Racing. Not a Twitter fan either.
Although I do think in general my passion for the jumps is starting to dwindle a little now too, can't really put my finger on what it is either.
 
tiggers1972 said:
Yeah agree with most of the above, I've got very little interest in Flat Racing. Not a Twitter fan either.
Although I do think in general my passion for the jumps is starting to dwindle a little now too, can't really put my finger on what it is either.
Click to expand...

Never let the great game dwindle - Go to a smaller track and look at the horses on parade and get a better feel of raceday. I adore the quieter days at Gowran or Navan
 
Goes without saying - someone like me finds the jumps racing more appealing/entertaining than flat racing to the ratio of about 4:1.

However, racing is racing. I'd still rather there was flat racing than if there was no flat racing.

What if as some predict jumps racing is stopped in 10/15 years time, what then?

Re-forum contributions. All forums felt a bit cliquey a few years ago.

Various people had 'beef' with other people and it would often spill on to the forum(s).

I quite liked Fonz and a few other low key posters other the years.

I think the more we arrange forum meet ups the better.

From my experience meeting other posters was very interesting and worthwhile.
 
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Marb said:
Goes without saying - someone like me finds the jumps racing more appealing/entertaining than flat racing to the ratio of about 4:1.

However, racing is racing. I'd still rather there was flat racing than if there was no flat racing.

What if as some predict jumps racing is stopped in 10/15 years time, what then?

Re-forum contributions. All forums felt a bit cliquey a few years ago.

Various people had 'beef' with other people and it would often spill on to the forum(s).

I quite liked Fonz and a few other low key posters other the years.

I think the more we arrange forum meet ups the better.

From my experience meeting other posters was very interesting and worthwhile.
Click to expand...

I think the peak of my enjoyment here was fishwifing and the Hurricane Fly support group v the rest

We may never return to that pomp but the education I received on here is something i'll always be very grateful for
 
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