Haymarket agrees sale of PistonHeads to CarGurus
Discussion
I just looked at alfaowner forums (prompted by the GTA byers guide article) and it seems that they updated their forums at some point I the last few years.
It looks like a standard forum layout without too many sigs images etc.
This thread is easy on the eye (on mobile, not looked on a pc) informative and pix look good:
https://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/#/topics/1172719
It looks like a standard forum layout without too many sigs images etc.
This thread is easy on the eye (on mobile, not looked on a pc) informative and pix look good:
https://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/#/topics/1172719
rovermorris999 said:
Lemming Train said:
Lots of good stuff.
Bang on the money. The irony is that the older demographic segments are the ones with serious disposable income yet 'yoof' is the perceived holy grail of selling. Edited by Lemming Train on Friday 14th December 02:32
the only thing I would add to that is that the pursuit of commercial value through clickbait is a short term view of life - there are some very clear signs that the longer term value on the internet will be data / intelligence / richness / depth etc. - and that sits within forums far more than in the ever changing superficiality of the social media based world... Because companies look now for an instant uplift in value, the perception is that the 'old-fashioned' PH style discussions are not commercially worth-while - however, long term, there is value in this style of forum... There are ways of building that value (let us call it curated discussion forums) which allow the value to be more focused, and for areas of expertise to build - but ultimately, there is a huge commercial value in the ownership of a community - of a place people enjoy meeting others for discussion - in essence, ownership of the people who make up that community... to lose sight of that is to be very short-sighted...
I will continue to own forums, and to realise that their value is a long term prospect, but the value is there never-the-less...
Lemming Train said:
OK. A slightly more serious reply now. I thought that the dislike button was wholly appropriate given your claims that forums are dead and it's all about clicks and 'likes'. Also noting that you're clearly part of the younger generation demographic who have the attention span of a goldfish I thought that the TL;DR was pretty good too, especially seeing as "your lot" like to spam them everywhere there's more than 2 lines of text to read. 
(remainder snipped for brevity)Ah, with you now.
All good stuff and I broadly agree.
I think that the superficial similarities between Social Media and forums cause many people to believe they are one and the same, whereas I think they serve different purposes. And, as such, forums still very much have a place and have worth.
Of course, CarGurus may not agree which is the more pressing concern here with regards to whether or not we are able to continue to enjoy the Gassing Station.
The biggest problem with forums is traction. The reason why I didn't engage with CTF and Blatters is that they were too small. I readily concede that it is a Chicken & Egg situation there - it's like setting up your own auction site in competition with eBay. Technologically it is fairly easy, but you'd have no sellers and no buyers, and therefore no reason for people to use it.
CTF was essentially a breakaway Gassing Station created by PHers who felt that the PH moderators were too heavy-handed, and wanted a place where they could continue to dick around and post stupid stuff (and continue to be obnoxious, misogynistic, and homophobic. Which is another reason I didn't stay there long).
Anyway, I rather ramblingly digressed there. Apologies.
TL;DR - forums still have a place.
Lots of good stuff in the last few pages.
I don't have a crystal ball but ultimately I just think the volume of people on PH will prove the deciding factor.
There are just too many of us to slink away and stop bothering if CG or anybody else burns off the atmosphere here, somebody, somewhere will cater for it.
I don't think this particular corner of the Internet will be easy to kill.
I don't have a crystal ball but ultimately I just think the volume of people on PH will prove the deciding factor.
There are just too many of us to slink away and stop bothering if CG or anybody else burns off the atmosphere here, somebody, somewhere will cater for it.
I don't think this particular corner of the Internet will be easy to kill.
Chimune said:
I just looked at alfaowner forums (prompted by the GTA byers guide article) and it seems that they updated their forums at some point I the last few years.
It looks like a standard forum layout without too many sigs images etc.
This thread is easy on the eye (on mobile, not looked on a pc) informative and pix look good:
https://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/#/topics/1172719
It's owned and run by VerticalScope - another huge internet media company just like HayMarket and many others that are only in it for the money. They bought out the biggest aviation photo site and forums airliners.net around a year ago and the site has been deteriorating ever since.It looks like a standard forum layout without too many sigs images etc.
This thread is easy on the eye (on mobile, not looked on a pc) informative and pix look good:
https://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/#/topics/1172719
I would have to disagree with you about that site being easy on the eye. Red text on a dark grey background and white text on a black background are two of the biggest website design fails you can do. The contrast is very unhealthy for your eyes.
If this forum were to split off under new ownership it would have to retain the current look, layout and forum structure as much as possible as this holds the key to your chances of success. People like a familiar setting as they feel comfortable and content knowing where everything is and how it all works without having to relearn it again from scratch. It's why many forum moves fail within a few months because what tends to happen is they completely change the colour palette to something bearing no resemblance to the previous site and the new owner gives all his mates moderator powers which they instantly abuse and results in the membership leaving in droves. Done right there's a good chance of success but it would be a tough uphill battle without being able to migrate the post database as it's unlikely that members would be willing to spend hours reposting their 'build' threads, for example. I'm not a techie - maybe there's a way of "scraping" the forum posts when you don't have access to the back-end database?
It's all a bit of a moot point right now because we're still here, but one day we might wake up to find our forums have disappeared and been replaced with "25 car hacks that will change your life" or some BS.
Lemming Train said:
It's all a bit of a moot point right now because we're still here, but one day we might wake up to find our forums have disappeared and been replaced with "25 car hacks that will change your life" or some BS.
Indeed. And it's a very real concern. All conjecture at this point, of course.
Clockwork Cupcake said:
CTF was essentially a breakaway Gassing Station created by PHers who felt that the PH moderators were too heavy-handed, and wanted a place where they could continue to dick around and post stupid stuff (and continue to be obnoxious, misogynistic, and homophobic. Which is another reason I didn't stay there long).
Not true. The specifics were that there were a number of PHers who were playing a multiplayer online game, Inselkampf, and there was a need for a secure means of communication between team members. PH were asked if a closed subforum could be created, and PH unsurprisingly refused.Therefore a forum was created for the players of that game , the site owner decided that moderation on the forum generally should be variable. I was a mod, we discussed it. For example the equivalent of S,P&L was to be very strict, essentially to discourage the sort of obnoxious anti police trolls who drove sensible posters away from PH, and still do by the way. There was one sub forum where pretty much anything went, so it's a complete misrepresentation by you to allege it was just a place to dick around and be obnoxious.
I left CTF when real life meant I had to give up playing the online game so left them to their own devices. You may not agree with the facts from someone actualky involved from the outset.
Great news. Now can you please update this forum to vBulletin?
I mean, uploading images is still in beta and how hard is that to code? (it can't be hard, I wrote an upload script for one of my servers about a decade ago and it took me about 20 minutes and I don't even work or study in the computing field).
What remains to be seen is if this company is less strict on commerical advertising. I couldn't even sign up with my blogs email address because that could, somehow, be seen as advertising according to staff...the blog has nothing on it...why be difficult?
I mean, uploading images is still in beta and how hard is that to code? (it can't be hard, I wrote an upload script for one of my servers about a decade ago and it took me about 20 minutes and I don't even work or study in the computing field).
What remains to be seen is if this company is less strict on commerical advertising. I couldn't even sign up with my blogs email address because that could, somehow, be seen as advertising according to staff...the blog has nothing on it...why be difficult?
Clockwork Cupcake said:
FiF said:
You may not agree with the facts from someone actually involved from the outset.
I have no reason to challenge your facts. I should perhaps have preceded what I wrote with "My experience as a visitor was that..." and your facts don't alter what I experienced when I visited.
Just as a point of order though, wasn't it someone from CTF who called out PH when one particular N P & E thread went seriously racist and PH moderation appeared to completely ignore it.
From my casual reading of the various topics on here, there is a large number of members who scream "racist!" the very moment the 'M' or 'I' words are mentioned and apparently have absolutely no clue what was a racist or racism even is. It's become the default response to get any discussion shut down that they don't like.
Lemming Train said:
From my casual reading of the various topics on here, there is a large number of members who scream "racist!" the very moment the 'M' or 'I' words are mentioned and apparently have absolutely no clue what was a racist or racism even is. It's become the default response to get any discussion shut down that they don't like.
Sadly, that's the way of the world now. Free speech but only if you have certain views. Thoughtcrime anyone?
mehmehmeh said:
Great news. Now can you please update this forum to vBulletin?
The trouble with changing to any other software is that URLs will change and they will lose all search engine rankings overnight.With any luck they'll instead invest some resources to developing what we've got.
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