TRF Forums

I have just had a look at the list of members and there are more than 11700 people who have signed up to our forum. round figures 3000 year .....8 people every day

i haven't done the Math but i would guess that more than 90% do not post and 99% do not post more than a dozen times.

Even when Mario had his little play a couple of weeks ago......no real change ( the math may show something).

This tells me that we are irrelevant to the vast majority of trail riders and the forum does not serve its members so they don't use it. Not new news by any means.....

So the question is what should we do about it?

Ignore those figures, a lot might be spammers and there are always ones that will not post.

A survey sent to all members might give you some answers although that will not include those signed up on the forum who are not members.

I am sure you could find out how many of those 11,700 have logged into teh forun in teh last 6 months, that might give a munbers of active use.

Keep to the quality an dthen folks will use. Ignore quantity for quantities sake as thats just numbers and only for the egotistical folks, quality will always succeed.

Not everyone lives life through the internet.

For instance, while things have changed a bit now, the Gloucester Group was very firmly one where people communicated at meetings and by phone rather than on the web. It still managed to do a great deal, and raise a lot of money for the TRF fighting fund.

People may well use this forum once or twice to find their nearest group, then that's it for them. It's done its job, and not everyone feels the need to become an on-line persona.

I wouldn't stress about it. The forum is a good point of contact for new members, and a valuable media of communication for those who wish to communicate. Many of the folk who work very hard for the TRF in senior positions don't seem to use it very much, but that doesn't mean they are not working hard for the TRF.

Personally, I believe this demonstrates the demographic of the TRF - specifically the average age of members.

I will agree that not everyone lives their life through the Internet, however I would guess that people of my age and below use it heavily - in part due to the use of smartphones and tablets. I think that one recent change that has made a big difference is the introduction of tapatalk access to the forum.

Social media is also a key driver IMHO - like it or not, Facebook et al has made a huge impact on people's usage and I think we are missing a trick.

Yes social media - but would that now detract from members usingthis forum?

If each individual group set up thier own website and facebook page etc woul dthis mean the decline of this forum and indeed teh TRF.

I still think that it will go this way and actually decline if we dont as a national group keep it all under one umbrella.

I dont do a lot of forums, just a couple of Triumph ones, there are members from all over the world, they have thier own technical sections and just as important ride out sections, these dont get split down and groups going their own way, I just wonder why we do? Well maybe apart form a needing a good overhaul of this website.

With too much social media we may be missing some relevant points and issues as become disjointed.

Just an opinion, and I do not have an answer.

I agree with much of that...there's a danger of further dilution the more media get added.

Personally, I have decided not to get involved with Facebook or Twitter.

Facebook seems to be for children, and too many people seem to have got themselves into trouble using twitter.

So I've just got four or five bike forums, a truck forum, Linkedin and my own website to deal with, which is quite enough, thanks!

Linkedin is almost as bad as facebook IMO.
Constant pestering from people you don't know or care about. It's organised cold calling.

Back to the subject.
Agree with above that dilution won't help and not sure that Facebook has any advantages but then I'm biased as I hate it.

In some respects, as long as enough people use the forum to maintain contact and interest, then it will be working OK.
The main aspect is getting ALL the groups to use the forum either instead of, or at least as well as, their own websites.

It will find a natural level that keeps communication going - the most vital aspect.

I still maintain that the vast bulk of members (not just the bulky ones ) do use the internet and email but for some reason find it difficult to bring themselves to use when the TRF are involved.
Most of the forums I am on only have a relatively minimal number of regular posters.

We are still in the unusual position of having become a campaigning organisation with a group riding element rather than just a chat room and that changes how we need to operate and interact.
How do groups like MAG etc compare?

I’m not sure that many will be interested or bothered about the real reason why people do not use our forum, but I’ll try and detach any preconceived ideas and give what I think is the answer.

The Forum does not give people what they want, whether that is Joe Public, Mr/Ms TRF Paid Up Member, or Forum Member.

I’ll try and expand on this and although some people may see this as criticism there is no intension of this post being anything but helpful.

People do not understand what the TRF’s purpose is and this does not come over on the web site, not everybody wants to read the Articles and Memorandum of Association and even after doing so they may not be much wiser.

The national TRF may be viewed as a Rights of Way organisation intended to maintain the vehicular rights that exist to use the road network of “Green Lanes”, BOATs etc that exist in England and Wales.

TRF groups are seen as a meeting place for likeminded people who want to use these Green Lanes on Motorcycle and Quads. Depending upon the group they may also get involved in ROW activities, helping to maintain lanes when requested by the appropriate authority, a link with the local police and maybe the CPS through other bodies, a link with Local Authority or National Park Rights of Way department, a support for horse riding events, and there are many other things that could also be added to this list.

All of our groups except one have a formal meeting at least monthly, although some don’t want to advertise their meeting place for what could be extremely valid reasons. The one exception just mentioned is Virtual Peaks, now one might expect they would be active on the internet, well they were, not sure about currently, but they piggy-backed onto another site. Many of the groups also have their own web site and some have their own forum as well.

From what I can understand this situation is related to the TRF not having a National web present until recently whereas certain groups have had theirs for much longer.

Until all these separate group web sites can be interlinked with all members having free and easy access to all group sites the TRF is going to continue being a weaker organisation than it could be. To explain this further I’ll use shopping as an analogy, most of the small corner shops have now disappeared, the few that still exist have kept their own identity but joined larger groups such as SPAR and NISA, however the more successful such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s Morrison’s and ASDA are big groups all working together with a corporate identity and ethos depending upon the size of their store you know what you are going to get when you go through the door.

90% of the Paid Up members have an e-mail address so this indicates they have access to the internet in one way or another.

I could continue but perhaps this could be a topic for the next Exec Meeting.

^^^^^^
Pretty much sums it up.

When Mario was doing his one post every minute the other month he asked which was the best website i don,t think this one was mentioned, we know the site could be more user freindly but as i said to Mario one member of each group to visit the site at least once a week and pick up the newbies for their area and others can still post if they want to, if you want to see a smooth web site visit the UK KTM site.