Molten, Thanks for starting a very relevant thread, about a topic that is near the heart for me.
I hope it's not dying, but merely evolving, but it feels as if it is dying.
There are several reasons for this, one of which Noneking mentions above.
It was the ride report section that introduced me to this forum. In September 2009 a regular riding buddy had a bad crash in southern Namibia. His friends dealt with the trauma and finished the trip and later wrote about it. It was the only post that guy ever made. My beaten up friend sent me the link and I joined the forum because of that report.
I think one of the biggest reasons for the decline is the fact that there are too many social media platforms in existence. It makes sharing things too easy, too quick, too convenient to make you care about what you share. 10-12 years ago we didn't have a WD Facebook page, we didn't have Tapatalk, we didn't have Instagram, we didn't do our ride planning merely by means of watsapp groups, we actually planned & invited fellow riders along on the planning a ride section. We didn't have GoPros to simply take a video, so we stop for less photographs. Few of us had GPS & mapsource, we asked each other for routes. Almost none of us had our own blogs as well. These days it's simply too easy to just not care.
All of these extra social media platforms creates noise in our lives. Several of my friends are deleting watsapp, deleting their facebook accounts simply because it makes friendship cheap and creates just another irritating notification noise on our phones.
This then creates a chain of events. Several of the ride report pioneers like Metaljockey, Dorsland and many others leave the forum for several personal reasons, due to this "noise"
I am just as guilty. I love writing and I still do the stuff that makes me want to write about it. But to put my name on a quality intellectual product, readable by a few Afrikaans & English okes takes time. It's not time I don't have, it simply is time I don't spoil myself with. I used to ride 40kms on a Friday afternoon around Durbanville and write about it.These days it's just too easy to share that one pic on Facebook. But then when I have difficult days in the office and I need time out I then go back to some of my old reports and then realise the joy it gave me in doing the trip & writing about it.
Another reason I can think of is how the biking hobby evolves for every one of us. For instance many started out on big tourers, did trips, wrote about them but due to kids & life happening they now enjoy Enduro for instance. And nobody is gonna write about their saturday at Zone7. Another example is going from riding bikes & touring on them to buiding, reparing, restoring & customising bikes. These guys are still bike mad, they just don't ride as often anymore and enjoy the fiddling more. Less riding = less ride reports.
Then there is the fact that many of us enjoy certain routes. One can never grow tired of riding to Cederberg Oasis for instance. But all of us has been there now, so when we go again we don't even tell anyone anymore.
But ja, as Noneking touched upon...opening the forum each day in anticipation of something biking related...you get to a place that it littered with negativity & a shitload of R&P threads by the same 10 people merely ticking the board over like the flight boards at an airport.
I think everyone needs to go ride again, stop for photographs & share them with us again on a ride report. Doesn't have to be long, or Deon Meyer literature approved, just share them here. I will read, enjoy & comment that I did
Speaking of which...I'm pulling out the 1200 in the next hour to go to Paarl. Will gooi a pic in the "where has your bike taken you today" thread
Topic: Is the Ride Reports section dying? (Read 12152 times)
