Is it now time for a more user friendly forum ?

[AnthonyEssington8982]

I come on here now and then to see what happening in the Bentley world.
However of late I have noticed very low numbers ( considering club membership) getting involved in the subjects, it’s usually just the same people.
I noticed a new member announced he had joined with just 1 welcome (me)
Uploading pictures is a nightmare.
I think Laurie did a fantastic job with this forum when he set it up but if we’re to get new members involved I think it needs restructuring or even setting up on a different platform.
Am I wrong?
I’ve noticed over this quiet period with rubbish on the TV that there just isn’t the footfall.

[Nicholas Simons]

The problem with this forum is that very few members use it. To see how a forum should work, just look at that run by another well known RR/B club. I believe that this club is not really interested in supporting this forum. They place good words in the Advertiser, see page 5 of the latest edition, but do not follow up by encouraging the use of the forum for technical discussion. Members should be encouraged to use the forum for such, rather than being told to use the Spares Schemes, which cost additional fees to join and can only be very limited in their responses due to the fact that the experts asked are few in number. It is better to publish all technical questions and answers on the forum so all can see, not just the questioner. The use of the forum utilises the widest possible responder base for answering questions.
This club appears not to be interested in supporting the technical aspects of our hobby. Look at the recent article about E10 fuels. Rather than give us real technical facts we were told to ask our mechanic! Rather elitist, don't you think?

[bbshriver]

As a relatively new member (joined mid 2021) I am also a bit disappointed in the low activities here, especially since my region (SouthEasty USA) is pretty quiet also. It seems the place for real discussion these days is FaceBook groups, I'm a member of 2 or 3 quite active groups there.

[John Murch]

There is nothing wrong with the forum itself, and questions regarding older cars usually get informed and helpful replies, however the situation with T types and later is rather different, with a few exceptions I doubt that many owners attempt work on their cars.
Personally I really dislike Facebook and the way discussions work there, but we all favour something slightly different from each other - would be very dull otherwise.

[benbrown]

I'd love the forum to be more active, and more chatter on the SZ cars like mine would be great. I don't really do anything myself on my car but I might give some things a try in future.

I'd also like to avoid Facebook completely if I can, it's something I've been attempting to do for the last couple of years.

[AnthonyEssington8982]

You can actually use Facebook without giving everyone your info or arguing with everyone, with 3.6 Billion users I think they’ve probably got the forum thing sorted.
It will come to a time where all BDC members will be F/B or Meta users.
I remember in the 1980s my best friend saying Mobile phones will never catch on!
He also said Home computers will never catch on!

Compared to Meta the forum is slow, difficult to navigate, complicated to post picture’s especially multiple ones or video.

I think it is something the club should look at, there are many RR and B pages and groups on there that many of our members are also signed upto.
We must move with the times.

[benbrown]

I was actually somewhat of an early adopter of Facebook, my dislike of it isn't driven by any sense of luddism or not wanting to move with the times. It's not somewhere I want to spend time, though if I'm only using it for specific groups then maybe it wouldn't end up being too bad.

It would certainly be better if things like image and video sharing could be improved on this forum, it's really not very intuitive at the moment. I've run forums in the past though and know saying this is easier than doing it.

[bbshriver]

I was actually somewhat of an early adopter of Facebook, my dislike of it isn't driven by any sense of luddism or not wanting to move with the times. It's not somewhere I want to spend time, though if I'm only using it for specific groups then maybe it wouldn't end up being too bad.

It would certainly be better if things like image and video sharing could be improved on this forum, it's really not very intuitive at the moment. I've run forums in the past though and know saying this is easier than doing it.

I've been on FB almost since it came out; back when it was basically limited to university students, and you could really only connect with others at your university. Interesting how times change!
These days, 99% of my facebook interaction is related to groups that interest me, mostly car & watch groups and it's pleasant enough for that.

I do think a forum like this has some advantages in terms of keeping single topics open, as on Facebook it's much easier to lose track of a specific discussion.

I think as "new cars" get older, more people start working on them. The Arnage/Serpah group on Facebook often has people tinkering about with things, or looking for solutions to common faults.

In my own case, my goal is to have the "basic service" done at the dealer, mostly because it's been done that way for almost 18 years (since new), and it seems a shame to just stop.. but I try to handle any "extras" myself, for example I have just recently replaced the boot-lid struts, and installed a BDC badge to the grille (which required removal of the grille); On my to do list is an inoperative window, antenna, and a suspension clunk somewhere that I suspect is a worn bushing.

[1gr8johnny]

i have had difficulty initiating a post, i would like info on color code conversions or how find paint matches, i have a 1963 S3 saloon with code IOI 151-2582 gray for top and IOI 151-2571 blue for bottom, the car has sat inside for 25 years and the blue paint looks like a green tint
. thank you

[Charles Skinner]

I joined this club seven years ago specifically to use the forum because I was new to R-R/Bentley ownership having bought a Type R and wanted easy access to technical information and advice. A couple of questions I posted were quickly and most helpfully replied to but after frequent and thorough scanning I saw that only a small handful of members were replying to queries and that fewer and fewer questions were being posted.
For the past couple of years I have been using the RREC and and RREC Australia's fora which seem to be far more active, especially the latter which is now my favoured source. There is nothing wrong with the structure of the BDC forum, the problem is one of very limited use. Happy problem solving, Charles