172 replies to this topic

[milestone 11]

OT but your username has always really confused me - unless every other 72 variant had already been taken by other members!

53b has a good excuse. Not seen him for a while.

[TennisUK]

53b has a good excuse. Not seen him for a while.

What was that excuse - that username always confused me. I think the 53 was an aborted design study for a road car?

[milestone 11]

What was that excuse - that username always confused me. I think the 53 was an aborted design study for a road car?

Too many drinkies.

[Collombin]

Too many drinkies.

Yes, I remember now, he meant to type 56.

[Lotus72b]

OT but your username has always really confused me - unless every other 72 variant had already been taken by other members!

Pretty much that's the answer. Also I like the Lotus 72.

[kar]

I definitely think over time this forum improves as all us remaining fans of the sport get older :-)

 

This really doesn't bode well for the future of the sport though.

[paipa]

A bit shocked by how few people under 20 are here (0 out of 65 at the moment I'm posting it!).

 

On my first F1 forum I posted there were a lot of them. It was just 10-13 years ago. How quickly world is changing nowadays. 

This kind of paginated linear forum with avatar pictures, signatures, unstructured replies, and endless threads often going back years doesn't appeal to people who aren't already used to it. I guess they feel similarly about it as I did about my father's mailing list communities in the late '90s and early '00s: no thanks. Not that there's anything wrong with them, it was just old hat compared to the shiny websites and forums popping up.

 

That's why most of us are in our 30s and 40s, platforms age hand in hand with their initial demographics.

[tyker]

I don't understand the pessimism I for one was surprised to find how young the demographic is.

[Marklar]

yeah, nearly over half of the forum is under 40. I expected worse

edit: oops

Edited by Marklar, 16 June 2020 - 13:49.

[Lights]

This kind of paginated linear forum with avatar pictures, signatures, unstructured replies, and endless threads often going back years doesn't appeal to people who aren't already used to it. I guess they feel similarly about it as I did about my father's mailing list communities in the late '90s and early '00s: no thanks. Not that there's anything wrong with them, it was just old hat compared to the shiny websites and forums popping up.

 

That's why most of us are in our 30s and 40s, platforms age hand in hand with their initial demographics.

 

I'm sometimes active on Reddit, where there's loads more active fans than here. It can be enjoyable at times but I much prefer this forum to actually discuss stuff.

 

My biggest issue with Reddit is that discussions have very narrow activity windows. There was an interesting post last night? Well bad luck, you could reply but the algorithm has already pushed the thread to the 2nd page again so barely anyone is going to read it anymore.

 

Additionally, if you happen to have an opinion that's unpopular you can get downvoted so much your comment becomes invisible, without anyone actually writing back to tell you why they disagree. If I'd write the same stuff here at least there will be someone giving a substantive reply.

 

So I like the format of a forum much more, and I struggle to really get why a format like Reddit is so much more popular. So I guess that's how old I am.

[tyker]

It's actually 57%

[Marklar]

 

I'm sometimes active on Reddit, where there's loads more active fans than here. It can be enjoyable at times but I much prefer this forum to actually discuss stuff.

 

My biggest issue with Reddit is that discussions have very narrow activity windows. There was an interesting post last night? Well bad luck, you could reply but the algorithm has already pushed the thread to the 2nd page again so barely anyone is going to read it anymore.

 

Additionally, if you happen to have an opinion that's unpopular you can get downvoted so much your comment becomes invisible, without anyone actually writing back to tell you why they disagree. If I'd write the same stuff here at least there will be someone giving a substantive reply.

 

So I like the format of a forum much more, and I struggle to really get why a format like Reddit is so much more popular. So I guess that's how old I am.

 

it's because with reddit you can basically aggregrate all your interests into one platform, whether it's a sport like F1, a TV series, politics or whatever. It's way more convenient than a forum. Obviously this also means that you appeal a less dedicated fanbase than a dedicated forum would, but since you generally appeal more people even the dedicated fans will follow sooner or later since most people go where the most traffic is.

 

I think reddit could be half-decent without the karma system. Too many people appear to only post for the sake of being upvoted, which generates a lot of useless traffic and decent content to be pushed pages back. Also, the fact that the fanbase there is very biased towards Vettel/Kimi/Ferrari (or at least that's my impression from only lurking) is as you mentioned often killing off decent posts over downvotes. But the karma system is one of the main reasons why reddit is so popular since it's working as a reward system, so unfortunately this wont change.
 

The F1 subreddit has also the additional problem that it is very (and I can't express how much) poorly moderated, even for reddit standards. Small reddit communities or larger communities with better moderation actually dont feel too extremely different from a well structured forum.

Edited by Marklar, 16 June 2020 - 13:48.

[paipa]

One more difference between forums and the reddit platform is that reddit is well suited to handle a large userbase, whereas this place is just about at its limits with a fraction of that. It's not regrettable, but indeed a blessing that this place is an order of magnitude less popular than reddit. Right now both sites are enjoyable, but this forum would devolve into chaos with /r/formula1's user count.

 

The linear model breaks down when you have too many people speaking. It's already hard to find the most interesting comments on topics that quickly generate several pages of posts unless you have the time and willingness to sift through them end to end.

 

My biggest issue with Reddit is that discussions have very narrow activity windows. There was an interesting post last night? Well bad luck, you could reply but the algorithm has already pushed the thread to the 2nd page again so barely anyone is going to read it anymore.

 

This is true, but I don't think it's necessarily about the format itself. It's easier to get heard in a smaller community than in a bigger one. At the end of the day people can only read so many posts in whatever time they dedicate to F1 discussions. It's a fixed sum game. For every post the linear format "forces" you to read due it being the most recent, you are missing out on an older post that may have been more insightful or interesting to you.

 

Unless you read everything of course    Which is only possible due to the limited amount of posters in the first place, and still impossible for a lot of us.

[GreenMachine]

yeah, nearly over half of the forum who answered the poll areis under 40. 

 

Fixed that.  Any mod willing to disclose that number as a % of 'active' users and/or viewers? 

 

ETA:  Twice as many respondents as posters in the thread?  I hope this is not a sign the poll is being fiddled  ...  Yes, I know it is not a requirement to post and vote 

 

EDIT2 I have been advised that the information about users is not available.

Edited by GreenMachine, 17 June 2020 - 22:13.

[Boxerevo]

31... 32 soon.

[MikeTekRacing]

39 here. 

[derstatic]

I share year of birth with Alonso and Massa. I turn 39 in October.

[Muz Bee]

Born the year Fangio won his second title, started following the year Denny Hulme won his WDC - the avatar is me in his 1968 M8A CanAm winning car 50 years after the event. My age explains my bad temper with kids who think you can win GPs and actually only be average. I too am heartened that there’s so many under 40 on the forum. I’m not totally pessimistic about the sport attracting young fans in the future but having just watched an early 2000s GP I am envious of screaming V10s!

[jcbc3]

No.

 

You have to be interested in racing to be interested in motor sports - One of the super solid arguments for why 'road relevancy' mean exactly nothing to F1.

 

 

Apparently it means something to AMG: https://www.carmagaz...rcedes-e-turbo/

 

 

TL:dr

Development made exclusively in F1 engines now to be transferred to road cars.

[ClubmanGT]

33. Too young to be wise but old enough to know better?

[DavidAntW]

Born the year Fangio won his second title, started following the year Denny Hulme won his WDC - the avatar is me in his 1968 M8A CanAm winning car 50 years after the event. My age explains my bad temper with kids who think you can win GPs and actually only be average. I too am heartened that there’s so many under 40 on the forum. I’m not totally pessimistic about the sport attracting young fans in the future but having just watched an early 2000s GP I am envious of screaming V10s!

54 and 67?

[DavidAntW]

33. Too young to be wise but old enough to know better?

Same as me Piquet as champ in our birth year and still idealistic enough to want to see two foxes in the same henhouse!!

[Rhodie65]

44 years young. From Umtali, Rhodesia 1976. Lived in the UK for about 8 months of every year since 2005. F1, Saloon Cars, Indycars and NASCAR