I feel like car forums are dying off since facebook has taken over! I'm no longer on facebook but still enjoy trailing online car forums, but unfortunately every site I go onto seems like a ghost town.. most with the 'latest' posts made by members dating back years! Pistonheads is still an active forum site that I enjoy, just wondered what you all use?
Some are very active - Volvoforums.org.uk is extremely active. SpeakEV is reasonably so (some of the sub forums are very quiet, where it's for a car that 10 people own). Lexusownersclub.co.uk is pretty quiet
Thanks for the reply, I have a project Volvo so maybe I’ll join the Volvo forums!! Many are so quiet, I guess some cars aren’t as popular as they use to be. Aren’t many VR4’s around now which I guess reflects in the smaller amount of users on here now.
Facebook is part of it too. I stopped using Facebook pages for the VR4 though because the same questions get asked all the time and you can't link to a thread with a good reply.
Most of the previously really active forums I have been on are like ghost towns nowadays, as you say it's almost entirely due to Facebook Groups.
People are on Facebook all day long, it's pre-installed on many phones etc, it's the convenience of it just being there, as opposed to having to explicitly visit a forum.
People also want to be spoon-fed nowadays, which Facebook can provide (because you can't actually search and find anything...) as opposed to doing a quick search on a forum.
I think it's a case too of fewer cars on the road than there was, so there's less discussion. "Off Topic" stuff doesn't seem to get posted here any more either.
forums.overclockers.co.uk used to be pretty lively in the motors section, i gave up on the second cycle of "you have 3 days to change your email address because were banning (insert major email source like hotmail)" so i now have 2 banned accounts at ~2K posts and a active lurker account wth 0.
Yes people really do expect to be hand fed, I much prefer too trail through forums looking for the information rather than just posting a message on facebook and waiting for answers, much more rewarding. I was looking through a database of links to uk car clubs & forums, so many dead links or no activity for years (heres the list: https://www.opieoils.co.uk/t-carclubs-list.aspx ).
On a separate note I wanted to join a local car club to meet up, go for drives etc.. but there's not much about in my area! 'Sussex modified car club' has been shut down, its all just classic car clubs. Local classic car club says they'll take any car enthusiasts.. but they only go to events for cars over 30 years old.. so I'll have to walk!
I've got a very local active classic car club, who meet every Wednesday night at the local football ground, and often do runs out for breakfast/lunch at weekends, to the seaside during the summer etc.
Although they say they're for 1995 and older, many members do have newer cars and often turn up in those - especially when there's salt on the roads! ;)
Ironically, I found this through Facebook and they don't have a forum... so whilst some traditional forums are suffering with Facebook... others like this benefit greatly from it - but as a multi-marque club, it's not often used for technical support, which is where the forums are a huge advantage, as already mentioned.
Sounds like a nice club, maybe I'll have to meet up with my local classic car club to see if they'll have me in with the vr4! As like you say, they wont always want their classics out in winter! I like the car side to facebook, and as you've said some forums are really doing well, I guess because its what most people use instead now.. but I refuse to go back to facebook now, even though so many clubs are on the platform.. I will continue to revolt! :D
I am a member of a VW Passat forum, which is still fairly active and evolves to incorporate new models. It also helps that plenty people have problems with their cars to necessitate a thriving forum :D
Given that the cars relevant to CVR4 ceased production 15 years ago, the resources available are pretty good.