Ozrodders Forum Future

[Gojeep]

I put a link to this forum on all my Youtube posts and notice the thread has a high view count. But doesn't look like it has turned into members like I hoped and more builds to view.

[zuffen]

It intrigues me as we had a heap of active Members 10 years ago and I'm fairly sure they didn't all die or take up crochet.

I know this is the same across all Forums but I just can't fathom where people went/post.

I know Facebook has an Ozrodders (we're both on it) but it's pretty slow .

The only thing I can think of is the whole car scene has split into special interest groups so there are a lot more places to get your hit of whatever sort of vehicle floats your boat.

Whilst we see a couple of new Members each week not too many Post about what they're building.

[turns]

What's wrong with the forum? Why don't people post content or want to participate? This question has been discussed and debated before.

If only I knew the answer to this question..................

I haven't posted as both of my projects have stalled. I don't have a workshop and I am working too much. Feeble excuses that I will endeavor to fix soon. I think of my cars most days.

How people behave online is sometimes confusing compared to their personality. I have had people be downright offensive and threatening to me on FB for no reasonable purpose. When I send them a private message to invite them to go on with it, the courage is drained out of them for some reason.

Back in 2007 when I joined the forum I wanted to remain anonymous. My personality didn't allow it. I like interacting with people and having fun. I have met lots of forum members over the years. I remember meeting Zuffen and Sly Fox at Motorex when it was still in Sydney for example.

The world and it's people have changed in my lifetime. That change has been accelerating exponentially. People are more insular. They aren't as friendly or generous. It is easier to remain silent rather than offer an opinion. Our lifestyle and Australian culture has evolved.

Who knows how it will all end up however I think a 'forum' as a platform for car related content remains the best conduit for me.

Regards Turns

[Meeksie]

I stopped my build thread because not one person could be bothered commenting on my last post, so there it ended. Wasn't here for validation but a little more interaction would have been nice.
I spat my dummy and stopped posting to the thread.

[Twin Spinner]

As Old Col said just before he stopped posting here, I'm sick of talking to myself, but as mentioned above, this problem is not just with Ozrodders. And yes, we are now living in a very Ignorant, Violent Society. Take care Folks, it's a Jungle out there

[jeffa]

Hi All.

Why don't I contribute?
I do, not in the way of my (stalled) build, but I do try to add constructive comments, even just a "well done".

We lost a lot to FB because of the instant gratification it used to give. But as a "now" medium, it doesn't keep records, so no pictures, construction tips, Engineer comments etc.
The forum has all this and more. It's OUR heritage. We mustn't lose that.
I even toyed with the idea of a book, showing various builds, pictures etc. But I am not into publishing books.

Around the time the forum died (well, went into hibernation) we also lost Larry O'Toole and ASR magazine. Nothing in the magazine arena has the same construction how-to's etc that ASR had. That publication gave a lot of potential rodders an insight into the Rodding Life.

But that's the past.

Rod, re the costs, I can help share them, maybe some others can too? Some things are ok to "leave to others" some are not.

Some suggestions for the forum?

Can the forum have a simple thumbs up icon so we can show we ARE watching but don't have anything relevant to say? Yes, a thumbs up cna appear impersonal but no pesponse at all is a lot worse.

Some members, and more importantly, inexperienced members feel they can't compete with the talent on here, so don't post very often - if at all - with their own builds. I am in this boat. Yes, my Chev IS progressing but not in a regular or photogenic way. I sometimes feel that if I did contribute consruction pictures/articles etc, there would be an expectation that I would be regularly posting with updates.Not possible in my lifstyle.
I do wonder how many stalled projects are out there. They stall for many reasons: money, space, inexperience, parts and so on. But there is also the situation where a build has burst on the scene the the builder lost the urge. Lost the enthusiasm. Maybe because it's "all too hard". And maybe even pride? Please don't take offence anyone, but some of the standard of work on here is way beyond even so-called professional standrard. Maybe they feel they can't compete? They also dont want to appear to be a flash in the pan. So they disappear. The car eventually gets sold or simply rots.
Maybe it's physical location? Way away from the influence of fellow rodders "in person". Too far away from the professional help most builds require eventually.

Quite a few potential members have trouble posting pictures. Yes, it's easy once you know how, and there are guides. But it must still be difficult, or they wouldn't ask.

Well... It's a start.

Jeff.

[zuffen]

Jeff,

Your comments are welcome and I believe are most accurate.

Some things we can't change such as easier phot posting and the thumbs up.

You can put up a Post with a thumbs up from the smilies list.

I think your idea of new Member's being overwhelmed with the quality of some of the builds is pertinent and I know I can't turn out anything like the quality of others, but I still have fun.

We are currently under a Bot attack and we had over 5,000 Users online on Sunday. Not very likely. That would be almost half the total Membership here over a period of 20 years!

I'll be contacting the gent who helped my sort out the upgrades a few years ago as he may have an answer as I'm in the dark.

[46 deluxe]

I've had replies blocked today with this message .

Your IP 124.150.61.86 has been blocked because it is blacklisted. For details please see http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=124.150.61.86.

[zuffen]

The Forum is struggling with being overloaded with Bots. I altered some settings this morning and we dropped from over 1700 guests to nil.

As we assigned a set amount of Bandwidth, if we exceed the limit they restrict either full or partial access to the Site.

Hopefully with the Bots (apparently) under control things will stabilise and return to normal.

As an aside we have had 154 Members log into the Forum in 2025 but my guess is less than 1 in 3 have Posted anything.

[hewey]

Ozrodders isnt alone in this, forums were slowly dieing out even before this place went offline. That hibernation really twisted the knife in. Which is a shame, there are some great friendly and helpful people and great builds on here.

I had a similar experience to Meeksie to be honest. While I never contributed much in terms of build content, I tried to 'give back' with some decent events pics and coverage when I got out and about. And it took ages - plug the phone in, find the right folder, download pics, cull them to a reasonable selection, resize them, upload them to photobucket (and then later imgur which was photo by photo), transfer the links, write up a post. Getting up into an hours work, only to have 1 or 2 comments. Just wasn't worth the bother.

At the same time, Instagram comes along and allows me to upload pics instantly direct from my phone in 10% of the time. Not just that, it allows me to connect directly with other people at those events, follow their builds or what events they get to, and so on. Just makes more sense in so many ways. I do agree that for having a collection of builds it isnt the same as ozrodders used to be.

On top of that, there's never been so much quality car content on youtube. There's various channels on there that I love to follow. But again, more time away from forums.

Zuffen said

The only thing I can think of is the whole car scene has split into special interest groups so there are a lot more places to get your hit of whatever sort of vehicle floats your boat.

I can't speak for everyone, but if anything the opposite has happened for myself. The proliferation of cars and coffee events, combined with just getting older and more mellow, my automotive tastes have just got even wider. At our most recent cars and coffee event, I ogled a Lamborghini Miura, Detamaso Pantera, a 90s Dakar homologation Evo Pajero, an 80s RX7 and BMW coupe, and a 90s SS Commodore. All well out of scope for posting on here. And likewise, I've been able to connect to with plenty of other liked minded people on instagram too. And my wife is completely on board, even asking what events we can get to and what car we're going to take, and she loves the variety as well.

Unfortunately I don't think there's any easy answer or magical silver bullet.

[zuffen]

So this prompts the question should we turn off the support system keeping Ozrodders alive?

[Sly Fox]

So this prompts the question should we turn off the support system keeping Ozrodders alive?

I hope not, it would be a sad day if that happens.

Hopefully some of the longer-term members that were posting a wide variety of builds will post what they've been up to and with new members joining on a regular basis, I hope they start posting either what there building, planning to build or just asking questions to solve a problem, find a part or just to learn something.

OzRodders is a friendly place, making sure it survives is up to all of us.

[zuffen]

The last thing I want to do/be is the person to pull the plug.

I've had a great 13 or so years here and have enjoyed the ride.

I'll do my best to keep it going, but we do need people to let us know what they're up to.

A dozen or so people posting doesn't make for a good future, so we need all the new guys to chip in as new blood will keep this repository of amazing builds alive,

[zuffen]

Last night I dealt with Hostpapa, our Service provider and they are looking into the problems we are having.

I've also messaged all new Members who joined in the last 2 months who have numbers in their username. Pete (Sly Fox) noticed all the dodgy member applicants have number in the their Username.

I have posed them a question only an Aussie could answer.

If we don't get a response I will cancel their Membership.

If they get the question wrong, I'll communicate with them with more questions.

We suspect one of these new members has been causing us issues and hopefully this will solve the problem.

If you look at the bottom of the main board you can see how many people are on line. Last week we had way over 5,000 which is now down to 1 or 2 which is what we would expect at the moment.

Bear with us.

[Sudsy]

I don't contribute too much these days as the interest for me and cars has declined a bit. Probably due to doing too much work for other people for the last 15/20 years. Now i would rather jump on the bike and go for a ride. I will however still continue to try and help with peoples questions if i know the answer or can give an option to do what they need to do. Apart from that i just browse and see if there are any new posts every few days. A lot of the older guys that were here when i joined and had the pleasure of meeting at Harcourt many years ago are also thin on the ground these days. I hope it keeps going but as has been mentioned i am on a few other forums that are practically non existant these days so this isn't the only forum suffering from lack of interest by new members