New club Facebook page

[paul.wirdnam]

I've used FB for years but it has only really become useful to me when I've joined specialist Groups like the "Ariel Motorcycles", "Slovenský Arielklub" etc.

These are the places to go to get quick answers to my questions....sadly, if I post the same question on here, I could wait weeks before someone replies. I have sold a Black Ariel via FB...to a well known AOMCC member. I guess this is partly about scale; the membership of the FB Groups is huge compared to this Forum and always will be. But FB feeds are largely here today, gone tomorrow...so great for getting a question answered quickly and showing a selfie but useless as an archive of knowledge or for in-depth discussions. So I firmly believe there is a place for this Forum...if only we could get more people contributing to it.

And maybe our new FB Group will encourage people to join the AOMCC and start using this Forum.

[Ian.Taylor]

Years ago i refused to use the internet, now my kids laugh at me for using it.
FB has opened new doors for me, met new people and became friends , even finding other Vintage nuts locally
FB can get political at times but it does allow advertising of events many may never know about.
The old days it was to put a poster in your local bike shop ,today everyone uses Facebook to promote ones event.

There are now 3 Ariel groups and I doubt they will have an effect on this forum.
All Clubs are in decline even the HUGE AMCA in the USA. They revamped what is called vintage just to keep growing
The Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group is in the same boat.

Times are a changing

To me it's like having a business but one does not have E mail or a web page..To me that is more frustrating !!

Just my 2 cents

[roger.fellows]

I'm a reluctant user of faceache, I have one 'accidental' friend, but otherwise neither 'friend' nor 'unfriend'. I find it has great usefulness in the moth identification sub-world and probably absorbs more time than it should. I'm a member of other Ariel FB groups and I don't see them taking the place of this forum for me. I could just do with getting out riding instead of having bits in the garage.

[brenton.roy]

" ... I'll be thinking long and hard about continuing in my role, I've been doing it for fair few years now and it's become routine as opposed to dynamic ( I actually have less time now than I had when I started it).
That's a concern John. I hope you stay on. Yours is a valuable and specialist role.
We set up the forum in part to capture as much knowledge as possible from the generations who grew up with Ariels as new bikes, and to provide that to those rebuilding them. I think it's (still) doing a pretty good job of that. I haven't posted this info recently, but used to regularly. We are up to "Total posts 67842 • Total topics 9696 • Total members 2433 • - A huge volume of searchable information.
I joined Facebook a few months ago because I left public service, started a vapour blasting business and needed to advertise. The focus is more social - but anything older than a few days is lost. The context is different.
When we started the forum, some members only wanted to read the magazine - but I see both mediums have coexisted nicely since.
Times do change. When our forum is no longer sustainable, we can archive it to the website as a long term resource - but I'm not sure that time is here yet?

[david.anderson]

Well I thought that facebook was just a stage where losers and people who will never amount to anything, can bignote themselves to an audience of similar no bodies. As you can see I don’t have anything to do with facebook. And I also admit that I do not have a personal mobile phone. Does that make me a soon to be extinct dinosaur.
David

[brenton.roy]

Ha Ha - possibly
I've noticed the change to dinosaur comes on much faster than is reasonable..

[nevhunter]

Riding motorbikes can be dangerous, but facebook is really dangerous. I've decided to not do it. Is it replacing the confessional? Who cares about your tinea and whether you're using Grecian 2000? Nev

[paul.wirdnam]

Lee, Dave, Robert...if you're reading this, it's a great shame that you've introduced moderator Approval for new Posts on the Group? It wasn't like that for the first few hours.

Why have you done this? It sort of defeats one of the benefits of FB Groups in my opinion: posting a question to get an answer. If the question (or photo) has to be approved....<sigh>

I understand the downside...more potential spam / abuse = more moderation. But having to get one's post Approved is a real turn off for me....

[tony.barnett]

Lee - well done for setting up the FB page.

[Leejm]

Paul, bear with us it's all new and we all are tiring to get our heads round it all. And thank you Tony, I think alot of people are missing the point here with the group.
Alot of people wanted the group to be members only! But that doesn't get new people into the club! Yes there is alot of members that are not club members. But they are all ariel owner's! And most importantly all of theses non members could be members! I was kind of hoping the members we do have on the group would help in getting these to become members! Post your runs with the club post the stands with the club post all your activities with the club! Make them think I want a piece of that and sign up! There is a huge potential here let's not waste it!