Gone very quiet

[Franky]

Now down to 2 posts a week in the WW and Touring forum... Where's everybody gone since the start of the summer?

[John K]

Facebook most likely. That’s where most forum traffic in general has moved to over the last few years.

[stonercanoe]

I don't do Facebook!
Jason

[Franky]

I figured it was largely Facebook, but FB's been going for decades and yet there seemed to be a sudden drop-off of UKRGB usage about 3 or 4 months ago. Problem with FB is it's difficult if not impossible to search archives or find something you posted, say, last week. Oh well, times change I guess.

[jmmoxon]

Maybe they're all paddling - there were no new topics between 13th & 19th May for example, so not that much different. But when compared to a few years ago it's massively down (we still have an average of 141 posts per day across all forums - yesterday there were 5 (& most of those were this thread!)

Mike

[Mark Gawler]

Without a doubt Facebook has taken a significant proportion of traffic from specialist forums like this one. The strength of Facebook is it makes it simple for a group of paddles to start a Group and live in there own isolated paddling bubble. Facebook Groups are great for exchanging banter and controlling the audience, but not so good for sharing information beyound group members.

With the decline of UKRGB usage we now have numerous paddling groups across the country which are probably more accessible to the Social Media generation than UKRGB, but no definitive go to place for sharing UK paddling information.


The sad truth is unless we encourage discussions and reports from paddles across the UK, UKRGB will slowly die. Any ideas to improve UKRGB are always welcome, but I have limited time to make significant changes to the site.

[lakesboy]

this is exactly what the paddling whitewater community is for sure......fractioned groups across the country, county....and even on a local level....its never been any different and never will be...paddlers like to stick with mates, friends etc and not attract others too much in my experience.....

alongside this its about the grade of paddler/river, personality, transport, when available, committment to turning up when its raining! and trust also always will play a part from a safety angle....and then the size of rivers too - mostly narrow etc so noone wants a massive group following.......plus parking at get ins/get outs....

what FB offers more is the chance to keep things local, easier and more streamlined....especially with modern phones etc....i dont even have numbers for anyone anymore....there is no need

UKRGB offers information centrally, yes, but thats all, it will be seen as with other easier ways to go paddling via social media

[banzer]

I think (hope) people have been out paddling in this recent rain... I certainly have!

Nothing comes close to ukrgb for tracking down and sharing information. FB groups are very ephemeral.

[O2b]

While I prefer not to use FB, it might be worth considering a UKRGB page. Links to here could be made easily. At least that would give a foot in both media forms. I find this site so very useful and informative, I would not like to see it become defunct.

[Mark Gawler]

Something like this
https://www.facebook.com/ukrgb/

[John K]

I think it needs to be a group rather than a page.

[Mark Gawler]

I think it needs to be a group rather than a page.

I deliberately did not set up a group to avoid creating yet another place to post thus splitting the content. I automatically post from the forum to the page to give visibility of the UKRGB on FB. I do not encourage commenting on the automatic posts at the moment as this split the discussion between FB and the forum. I have seen this where a post on the forum gets an answer on the FB page, the original poster probably didn't see the answer.

[Chris Bolton]

I do not encourage commenting on the automatic posts at the moment as this split the discussion between FB and the forum.

Thanks Mark. I agree.

[Poke]

Completely agree that most of the chat has moved to Facebook over the last 5 years. However, Facebook is only partly to blame. The move has also coincided with the ubiquity and ease of use of mobile phones to comment online. Since an increasing majority get their online fix via smartphone, rather than laptop/desktop, replies tend to be shorter and less thought through. This is backed up by the more reactive nature of Facebooks user interface.

UKRGB’s strength (that posting generally requires a bit of thought and more than a single sentence) has been its downfall, as peoples interaction with the site is more likely to be via phone, and therefore they less likely to want to type long replies via the phone keyboard (and are more likely to be distracted).

[RichA]

Since an increasing majority get their online fix via smartphone, rather than laptop/desktop, replies tend to be shorter and less thought through. This is backed up by the more reactive nature of Facebooks user interface.

Completely agree. I use a couple of facebook groups for information, and the replies to questions are often completely nonsensical. I've given up with most of them to be honest. For me, I prefer the UKRGB style of considered responses, rather than the majority of incoherent rubbish on facebook. I wonder whether at some point in the future it will go full circle, and forums will become a 'thing' again?

[Chalky723]

FB groups are OK & easy to get into, but the content is pretty lightweight.

I come on here (WW Forum only) a couple of times a day, just to see what's going on - but only "speak" if I've got something to contribute, unlike on FB where people just spurt out reams of words......

Also, I prefer a nice forum as I can maintain a bit of anonymity!

D

[Adrian Cooper]

Completely agree. I use a couple of facebook groups for information, and the replies to questions are often completely nonsensical. I've given up with most of them to be honest. For me, I prefer the UKRGB style of considered responses, rather than the majority of incoherent rubbish on facebook. I wonder whether at some point in the future it will go full circle, and forums will become a 'thing' again?

Like!

[Franky]

I am a member of a couple of Facebook kayaking groups, but I don't often use them, as I find FB a pig to navigate, and it always seems harder than it should be to find a comment that I want to re-read.

Plus, when it comes to finding past recommendations for kit and opinions on boats etc. - you can't start with Facebook, unless I'm missing something.

I like the way forums are organised into topics and threads - with titles! - and have some sense of "solidity" about them.

Answering my own question... Quite a lot of long-standing regulars haven't been posting for several months, and it tended to be them that kicked off new threads. Without new "bait", it's natural to sit in the sidelines. It only takes a handful of "initiators" to leave for an exponential reduction in contributions to occur.

I thought twice about starting this thread.

[Chalky723]

Facebook is hard to beat for creating a network & getting out paddling though.

If we meet someone on the water or paddle with someone new, invariably we all add each other on FB & then it's dead easy to knock up a trip/weekend etc. in the future...

D

[jmmoxon]

Looks like even the biggies are giving in to FB:

Understand what's changing in Yahoo Groups
Yahoo has made the decision to no longer allow users to upload content to the Yahoo Groups site. Beginning October 21, you won't be able to upload any more content to the site, and as of December 14 all previously posted content on the site will be permanently removed. You'll have until that date to save anything you've uploaded.

[G7AFM]

Another forum i use not water related was on yahoo for years but have migrated to groups.io much better not sure
if it would facilitate all that is on here.

[Mark Gawler]

Another forum i use not water related was on yahoo for years but have migrated to groups.io much better not sure
if it would facilitate all that is on here.

I've not come across groups.io before, It probably would do all we need if we chose for the Enterprise version at $2200/year!
I have no plans to move away from our current hosting solution which is a little cheaper.

[G7AFM]

No idea what the costs would be i suppose it depends on what facilities you want

[jmmoxon]

I don't know about G7AFM's forum, but our caving club has an email newsgroup on yahoo, rather than anything like this...

[boater rich]

Bring back usenet...

revisits memories of uk.rec.boat.paddle

or maybe not, there was a reason Mark setup ukrgb!

[Terryg]

Bring back usenet...

revisits memories of uk.rec.boat.paddle

or maybe not, there was a reason Mark setup ukrgb!

Sponson Man would liven it up a bit ;-)

[StillNewish]

I must admit I tend to straddle the fence on this one (owww!). UKRGB strikes me as the place for more considered discussion on subjects such as access issues, long-term tree hazards on runs, and also the buying and selling (or finding and loosing!) of kit.

Facebook comes into its own when used as a means to plan out trips, communicate with groups of people, get an (all be it maybe vague) idea of someone's paddling experience level, or just brag about the tasty levels last weekend(!)

Personally I'd hate to loose UKRGB, as I see it as a more permanent record of stuff that will be useful in, say, a years time, where-as Facebook is more of a communication tool, where the content needs to be accessible immediately, but may well not be so much use a day or a week or so later.

To each their own, vive le difference :)

Cheers,
Colin