Forum Activity

[rocco]

Hi Gang
I can't help but notice that there isn't too much activity on here or the other forum. Could it be that every Minor owner has completed all the work they need to do and there's nothing left to learn or share?
How many owners do you think there are who regularly drive their cars? If there's no regular stream of owners coming through, that'd mean these cars will eventually stop appealing to people and fade away. I get the impression that the average age of Minor owners is somewhere around 60. Maybe newbies are annoying to the long-time owners? Do you all know each other already?
How many turn out to attend meetings at classic car events? Forum threads of projects are usually great to see, especially when they're full of photos. I doubt I could share anything interesting right now but getting feedback, guidance, advice along the way during my restoration would be pretty nice.
Has there ever been a thread where people have shared a few not-too-personal details about themselves and their cars?
I was just thinking that it would be nice if there was a bit more activity on here, that's all and we could get to know folks a bit better.
Cheers

[les]

This is a very active forum, with great feedback, information, and help, can’t see what you base your opinion on. I could understand your view if you were referring to the LCV forum.

[rocco]

Well I supposed the term active is relative. I was only comparing to other car and motorbike forums, it wasn't intended as a dig.
I can also understand it completely because once you have finished repairing/restoring a car, you generally don't need to frequent the forums so much. Everyone has been really friendly and helpful to me so far, I just wanted to know a bit more and immerse myself in to the "scene" a bit more. I want to know everything about the car, specific tools, tweaks, hints and tips for all the jobs that are ahead of me and behind most of you.
Then again, it could be that there isn't much special info to find out about. It only took me an hour last night to remove all the parts on both sides of the engine in preparation to remove it - and I'm a slow worker! Easiest work I've ever done.

[NETTIE]

Well rocco its like this I'm in the bracket over 60s i visit the forum daily after having my breakfast i will take a quick look on here for 5 mins then my eyes are tiered so i have a rest then i will go and have a tinker with my traveller for 30mins which is exhausting so i will have another rest then after lunch i have a sleep then later in the day i will have another look on here then its dinner time i wash up then go to bed so i don't really have much time left to contribute on here.
Only joking ha ha

[myoldjalopy]

There are many owners who have not restored their cars, for various reasons, the main one being they are in a good enough (or better) condition not to need restoring. But one thing is certain for all - the cars need to be serviced/maintained and will periodically go wrong! That is inevitable. I have lost count of all the repairs I have had to do to my current car over the last 22 years! Fortunately, most of these have been relatively minor (oops - no pun intended!) but the forum is very useful for asking for, and getting, advice. This is especially true for bizzare faults that are not covered in the various manuals (e.g. when my car started stuttering and jolting because of - as I found later - a washer that had been lurking in the distributor for six years or more had finally worked itself into a position where it was interfering with the spark distribution. Fortunately, I was able to solve this mystery myself by inspection, but it did puzzle me for a bit as it was an intermittent fault on the road one day). Sometimes the manuals assume a certain level of knowledge that some owners may not possess. Additionally, it is the detail provided by members on such mundane tasks as the best way to grease trunnions and other helpful tips which are useful.
So, in response to 'rocco', just ask about anything to do with your car and there will almost certainly be people here who can advise. The one thing I would ask of all contributors is to bring threads to a conclusion - there are many instances of queries arising and suggestions given but the thread finishes before anyone knows the outcome and how is was achieved. That is not helpful when part of the value of the forum is the ability to search for previous threads on a topic which may be causing an owner issues.

[KeithL]

I agree with @myoldjalopy. The Forum isn't just about restoration - I've never restored a car in my life and we made sure we got a Minor that didn't need any work doing on it other than ongoing servicing etc. I have found the Forum incredibly useful for all the little questions and issues that arise with any car plus, of course, all the equally interesting non-technical queries and discussions. Changes to the MoT, changes to the Highway Code, E10 fuel and electric vehicles all spring to mind as recent topics for discussion. Is the Forum as active as some? Probably not, but having seen some of the rubbish that gets posted on some more active Forums that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[Monty-4]

Facebook has sucked in a lot of what would have been forum traffic, and spins it through cynical algorithms that radicalise people because that is what gains the most engagement, personal data, and thus ad views.

Good news recently that its user base started shrinking, forums are far more civilised!

[simmitc]

And we do not plaster adverts everywhere

[myoldjalopy]

And we do not plaster adverts everywhere

And amen to that!

[philipkearney]

And on a very practical level, with the forum, all the questions, information, hints and tips are saved and available at your finger tips - if you know how to search. Unlike Facebook, where the information largely disappears and the same few questions get asked again and again and again....

[Chief]

if you know how to search. Unlike Facebook, where the information largely disappears

Yes, I never understood how FB became so popular with such lousy search facilities.

Still, all of this just shows how active the forum can be

[philipkearney]

[/quote]
Yes, I never understood how FB became so popular
[/quote]

And there is one of life's great mysteries!

[les]

Perhaps not that mysterious, maybe some see it as being odd if not participating. The ‘in thing’ so to speak.

[jagnut66]

To be fair, this forum used to be allot more 'active' than it is now.
Locally, MADMOGS (Mansfield and district branch) turnout, on the second Tuesday of each month, seems to attract about the same level of people as it always has (since I became a member anyway).
Unfortunately fears over Covid may have affected the turnout for some branches meetings.
Though the MMOC also seems to have a very active 'young members' group, so they are coming up and through. They seem a good bunch, though at 56 I am sadly too 'over the hill' to be part of their activities.
I believe they have an active Facebook forum if you are within their age bracket.
Personally though I am not a great fan of Facebook. I will use it as a tool for information or if I see something I'm interested in advertised on there but otherwise I mostly avoid it.
Fortunately the MMOC is very inclusive, whatever your age.
Best wishes,
Mike.

[don58van]

I too avoid FB. I haven't used it for many years because I am concerned that its operators don't do enough to minimise its damaging effects. I note that Many other Minor messageboards are now all but dead. Regrettably, if the MMOC messageboard continues to fade I will have to give up my stand against FB so that I can stay in touch with the Minor world.
Lets all try to save the MMOC messageboard by using it whenever we can and avoid FB when we can.
Don

[rocco]

I gave up FB shortly after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. It was the last straw for me after a series of policy changes where they all but stated that they owned you and everything you possess!
It meant I lost contact to a lot of friends and family but I could hardly moan about Zuckerberg's nefarious activities and continue to use his business, could I?
I was hoping that this thread would muster up a bit of support and generate ideas for getting the site a bit more active but if the desire isn't there then so be it. I am only a newbie here after all and the last thing I want to do is to annoy anyone. It's still a superb site for information gathering and everyone has been double-friendly and helpful so far, so this isn't a complaint - just to be clear.

[KeithL]

I'm not sure I agree with the contention that the Forum isn't active. This topic, for example, has elicited responses from about 10 people in a few days during which other important things have been going on.

[MorrisJohn]

Hi Rocco,

I'm just the right side of 40. I know a few owners that fall into that age bracket, though most I know are 50s to early 60s. While there is an active young members group in the MMOC (which is great) I do think we need to be drawing in more younger people to these cars.

As for the forums, they've been invaluable in a way that Facebook (a platform I quit many years ago) could never be.

[simmitc]

I am trying to find time to prepare an article about the Forum to go in Minor Matters and thus increase activity. It would be really helpful if everyone could send me examples of how the forum has helped them, and perhaps some links to specific articles. Meanwhile, this may be of interest:

[geoberni]

Yes, I never understood how FB became so popular with such lousy search facilities.

Still, all of this just shows how active the forum can be

There are Search facilities on the facebook group, the problem is people generally are too lazy to use them, just as most people post repetitive comments simply because they don't read what has already been posted.
It seems that the majority only read the 2 or 3 comments that their small phone screen displays.
Just as many people start posting reactive comments to the headline of a link, without reading the actual link that has been posted.

As a fictitious example let's say someone posts a link to a newspaper website with a headline 'Polluting Classics' and an image of a Minor or any other classic car.
The great many will post random reactive comments without reading if the article on the link is for, against or neutral on the subject.
They will just 'go off on one' without reading the link.

People seem reluctant to search for anything on the internet in general let along facebook itself.
One of our community facebook groups often gets lazy questions, such as 'Which Bin is it this week?' Is the tip open this week? etc
When the information is readily available via a couple of clicks on the local council page...