Sam's Goldwing Community Forums Review
I'm biker Sam. I ride several motorcycles including my two favorites, a Harley-Davidson Dyna Glide Low Rider and a Honda GL1800 Goldwing. I have previously owned one other Honda Goldwing and two Harley Davidsons. I average 20,000 miles each year on my bikes and to date have covered 22 states on 2 wheels. When I am not out riding, I am reading up on Harley and Goldwing Message Boards/Forums on the web.
I'd like to do a personal review of some Harley and Goldwing forums and I will start with some Goldwing forums I use. I will do a Harley forums review in the near future.
My criteria for joining and participating on any forum are that they should be reasonably busy, not have too many sub forums/sections and be friendly. They should have a good technical and help area for when we have mechanical and other problems with our motorcycles, and encourage social interaction. I prefer that the forum owners are not the biggest posters on their own forums. Forum owners who are their own forums top posters often have egos to feed, and that isn't good for the rest of the members.
I'm stating the obvious by saying that the best forums are those owned by hobbyists or people with an enthusiasm for their forum subject, and it is even better if they are non-commercial in nature, that is not trying to sell products or services to the members. I know that isn't always possible and large forums have overheads which have to be paid for, so a minimal amount of advertising is acceptable for larger expensive to operate forums so long as the advertisers don't try to call the shots in how the forum is run. I dislike forums with more advertising than they really need to pay their hosting costs.
One problem is that many small forums on $4.99 a month hosting packages cram in too many $50 a month advertising banners in order to make money. I work in IT and know what I'm talking about here, I have access to stats and logs that most people never get to see. I've got news for webmasters - you won't get rich out of a forum, so why ruin it with any more banners than you really need to pay the hosting and a little bit to spare? The sad fact is that the real enthusiast web sites and forums from years ago are now very rare, many either sold out to the advertisers when they grew or just went under because they couldn't get the balance right and pay the hosting bills. The economic downturn has seen many many good enthusiast forums and web sites drop like flies. Make no mistake about it, running costs for busy forums can run up to $500 a month for a busy forum with with mixed content (pictures, video etc.) gobbling up over 100GB in bandwidth month after month.
The good news is that we can still find some excellent bikers forums run by people for the sheer love of it and not looking to make a buck out of the members in return. Thankfully the best have survived, but so have some of the not so good.
With that outa the way, here are a mix of some Goldwing forums I am registered on and am familiar with. I've been as objective as I can be and say it like I see it. I registered with an alias on all of these forums between 2008-2009 and took part in a good number of discussions in all of them. I have no association with any of these forums or their owners or staff other than being a member like many of you.
How the mighty have fallen. The GWRRA forum was once the flagship forum for the Gold Wing Road Riders Association. It used to be the major source of quality technical information for Goldwing owners across the whole of the USA and further, bustling with activity. Many GWRRA members including myself regarded the forum as the logical extension of the Wing World magazine. But the same dedication and attention to detail in Wing World was not applied to the forum, it was largely left to fend for itself and was rarely updated. Other independent and better run forums sprung up and some of them provided a better resource for free than the GWRRA were willing to do. Opportunities to turn the GWRRA forum into the best Goldwing resource in the world were continually squandered as forum staff came and left, and the excellent technical posts were archived and buried and are now almost impossible to find or locked out.
A belated and "major" revamp (change of software to SimpleMachines) took place late 2009/early 2010. The nail in the coffin was when it went pay to access in early 2010, meaning if you are not a GWRRA member you now can't access the forum at all. What a way to increase activity on a dying forum! Membership numbers are only just over 3,000 after half a year and post count is a low 35,000 at the time of writing this review. Visitor numbers average 580 forum visitors a day. With the almost obscene amounts of money the non-profit GWRRA generates from its members and sponsors, I believe it is a crime that this once fine message board was neglected almost to extinction all seemingly for the want of a few bucks spent on upgrading and perhaps paying some staff to take care of it. This forum will never win back its former status among loyal GWRRA members and the wider Goldwing community around the globe. Member suggestions for improvement on the forum have traditionally fallen on deaf ears, and since the relaunch this doesn't seem to have changed.
The login process is very messy and in two parts. First you login with your GWRRA number and some numerical sequence out of your address (itself a chore to decipher and you can't change those numbers) and then you login a second time with a chosen username and password in order to post messages.
Become a GWRRA member for the minimum $45 a year membership and you will have access to this message board, if you are not a GWRRA member you are not welcome to even read the posts. And no it isn't entirely free of advertising even though we pay for the use of the forum.
Pros: Simple layout, some loyal members keep it as active as possible, fast server response due to the current low visitor numbers.
Cons: A shadow of its former self. Modest activity compared to when this was the King of Wing forums. Not a lot of technical information yet. Login process too long and awkward. Too many sub-forums right now getting little use. Almost useless avatar size allowance at 65 pixels wide. Some advertising banners, inexcusable for a paid for resource. $45 for GWRRA membership and the excellent Wing World magazine is a good deal, but if you pay and join just to use the forum you will be very disappointed IMHO.
Update April 2011; The GWRRA forum membership now stands at 5,242, up by 2,242 since last year. Total posts are 88,800. That's about 4,000 posts per month since I started this blog over a year ago, down from the initial 5,000 per month in spite of the extra members.
Recent daily post count/new members:
April 12th, 219 new posts, 10 new members.
April 11th, 287 new posts, 7 new members.
April 10th, 187 new posts, 10 new members.
April 9th, 319 new posts, 6 new members.
April 8th, 169 new posts, 2 new members.
April 7th, 249 new posts, 13 new members.
April 6th, 188 new posts, 5 new members.
Update April 2011; The GWRRA forum membership now stands at 5,242, up by 2,242 since last year. Total posts are 88,800. That's about 4,000 posts per month since I started this blog over a year ago, down from the initial 5,000 per month in spite of the extra members.
Recent daily post count/new members:
April 12th, 219 new posts, 10 new members.
April 11th, 287 new posts, 7 new members.
April 10th, 187 new posts, 10 new members.
April 9th, 319 new posts, 6 new members.
April 8th, 169 new posts, 2 new members.
April 7th, 249 new posts, 13 new members.
April 6th, 188 new posts, 5 new members.
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The GL1800 Riders forum is a commercially owned (by HDL Parts) GL1800 specific board and has been around since 2003. At the time of this review, GL1800 Riders forum had the second largest member numbers of any Goldwing forum (26,400) and the largest number of posts with 1.5 million. One reason for the high number of members is that in the early days, HDL customers were encouraged to register and this gave the forum a kick-start to a healthy membership base. This clever strategy allowed GL1800 Riders forum to quickly take over dominance of the GL1800 community from the Riders Rally board (reviewed further down), literally leaving the latter in the dust. Until mid 2009, GL1800 Riders forum actually had the largest number of members of any Goldwing forum, but since then has settled into second place in that respect.
GL1800 Riders forum is definitely the best forum on the web for GL1800 specific technical information, understandably so as all the members own GL1800 Goldwings. However, technical information for older model Goldwings is negligible, in spite of the GL1800 Riders forum belatedly adding a “classic Goldwings” subforum in 2009. This part of the forum has not taken off, as other forums now serve the owners of older Goldwing models much better. Had GL1800 Riders not restricted itself to one Goldwing model and instead opened its doors to all Goldwing owners from the start, it could have replaced the GWRRA forum after a few years.
GL1800 Riders is a very big board on a large high overhead (approximately $400 a month) fast server and so advertising is visible, but only a few advertisers are allowed to place banners at any one time. The advertising is well controlled and vendors have to be “non competing” with HDL to be allowed in. Parts clubs and other commercial incentives to buy are cleverly but not intrusively integrated into the forum. Some supporting vendors are allowed to have their logo in their signatures, but they can't openly advertise. This seems to work very well and I believe that GL1800 Riders has managed to get a nice balance of advertising content without going too far.
The forum layout is professional and neat and easy to navigate, the many subforums are cleverly crammed into a “focus groups” section at the bottom of the main page so the page is not too long. vBulletin is the software used so most of you will be familiar with it.
The forum experience here is very pleasant and there is a large core group of members continually helping new members with GL1800 problems and questions. Over 99% of help posts in the technical forum get replies. This is a very busy forum averaging 3,800 forum visitors a day, with many members online 24/7. Moderation is very good as it should be with paid staff available to keep an eye on everything, and flame threads and trolls are killed off as quickly as they can be seen on such a busy forum.
However, there are some house trolls, ie regular posters who tend to flame threads whenever the chance arises. But as they are regulars, the moderators give them some slack and most of the members take this in their stride and don't take the bait. The Search Function is a tad fussy (typical vBull search) with CAPTCHA question to answer if you are not logged in. When you register, you show up in the members list immediately, but you have to wait to be approved before you can post and that can take up to a day (16 hours in my case) depending on how busy the staff are.
The main men here are LaMonster (1,750 posts) and HAL (4,000 posts). HAL keeps a good eye on things on the forum with the help of other moderators. Member suggestions for improving the forum are well received here, the admins listen to us and are keen to keep things running well. PMs to the admins are always answered, although it can sometimes mean waiting a day or so for a reply.
If you own a GL1800, this is a must-join forum.
However, there are some house trolls, ie regular posters who tend to flame threads whenever the chance arises. But as they are regulars, the moderators give them some slack and most of the members take this in their stride and don't take the bait. The Search Function is a tad fussy (typical vBull search) with CAPTCHA question to answer if you are not logged in. When you register, you show up in the members list immediately, but you have to wait to be approved before you can post and that can take up to a day (16 hours in my case) depending on how busy the staff are.
The main men here are LaMonster (1,750 posts) and HAL (4,000 posts). HAL keeps a good eye on things on the forum with the help of other moderators. Member suggestions for improving the forum are well received here, the admins listen to us and are keen to keep things running well. PMs to the admins are always answered, although it can sometimes mean waiting a day or so for a reply.
If you own a GL1800, this is a must-join forum.
Pros: Simple layout, very active membership, the highest concentration of help available anywhere for GL1800 owners, very good social interaction. Many how-to posts on GL1800 maintenance and repair. Good avatar allowance at 150 pixels wide.
Cons: Some advertising banners. Some house trolls that you should watch out for. Search Function a tad fussy to use. Can't post until your registration is approved, which can take up to a day.
Update April 2011; The GL1800 Riders forum membership now stands at 29,471 which is up 3,700 since I wrote this review early last year. Total posts are 1,845,310, up a whopping 340,000 in the same period. The monthly post has stayed healthy at around 32,000 a month.
Recent daily post count/new members:
April 12th, 1239 new posts, 8 new members.
April 11th, 1276 new posts, 12 new members.
April 10th, 896 new posts, 11 new members.
April 9th, 946 new posts, 9 new members.
Recent daily post count/new members:
April 12th, 1239 new posts, 8 new members.
April 11th, 1276 new posts, 12 new members.
April 10th, 896 new posts, 11 new members.
April 9th, 946 new posts, 9 new members.
April 8th, 1,275 new posts, 15 new members.
April 7th, 1,336 new posts, 6 new members.
April 6th, 1,198 new posts, 17 new members.
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Steve Saunders Goldwing forum (often called just goldwingfacts.com) was set up in 2004 as an addition to the already known Steve Saunders Goldwing Page, which was originally set up as a hobby/homepage in 1999. Owners of all Goldwing models are welcome here. This forum is independent/non-commercial and refreshingly in this day and age, completely advertising free. When this forum was created, it was entering a field already dominated by the original GWRRA forum, GL1800 Riders forum and the Riders Rally forum. goldwingfacts.com is what we can call an enthusiast created site and from its creation as a hobby has seen a spectacular rise in popularity with Goldwingers all over the world. This forum now has the highest membership of any Goldwing forum (29,600) and with just over one million posts is the largest all-round Goldwing forum on the web. Its monthly new member signup rate continually outstrips the mighty GL1800 Riders board by at least 50%, ensuring continual growth.
goldwingfacts.com is a very large and busy forum averaging 3,600 forum visitors a day. The forum resides on a fast dedicated server which at a guess costs between $250-$325 a month, but you won't see any advertising banners here whatsoever. The hosting costs are apparently paid for by members donations and the forum owner (Irish Goldwinger Steve Saunders) makes up any difference himself. Vendor-owned sites and forums could learn something from this model. However, counting solely on donations to cover high monthly server costs can be unreliable, but after 6 years for this expanding forum it seems to be working and I guess after all this time the board owner must know what he's doing.
The software is UltraBB which I had never heard of before I registered here, and the overall layout of the forum has a welcoming appearance, is uncluttered and easy to navigate and use.
The software is UltraBB which I had never heard of before I registered here, and the overall layout of the forum has a welcoming appearance, is uncluttered and easy to navigate and use.
This forum and site has a very great deal to offer Goldwing owners, both from the excellent technical assistance and the community spirit from the members. Many Goldwing repair tutorials with photos and video are available, generous integrated members photo gallery, blog, buyers guides, members e-mail addresses if you want them and a lot of other stuff on the non-forum area of the site. The forum Search function is a bit too basic for a large forum and could do with more options, but they also have the "Google Custom Search" integrated in the forum, which works very well and compliments the forum Search.
The forum experience itself is excellent, you can post messages immediately after you register with no need to wait for approval or activation e-mails. The complete absence of commercialism here gives an informal and casual atmosphere which keeps members returning time after time. There is an extremely loyal, helpful and friendly member base ready to assist you with any Goldwing problem. Large numbers of members are online all the time, you won't feel alone on this board. The various Goldwing model problems are discussed in a single Technical forum, which is different to the more usual separate forum for each model seen on most Message Boards. This approach may take you slightly longer to find a specific help topic, but it also cleverly avoids members forming into model specific clans. Everyone gets channeled into the same part of the forum to look for or give help, and it really works! I have searched back through many pages in the technical forum and have not seen a single question that didn't get answered. The layout of the forum is good, the different forum sections on the front page can be seen without having to scroll down through several screen lengths and they keep the number of sub-forums to a minimum. The other areas of the site such as buyers guide and Goldwing how-to articles are accessed in the small menu on the right, and I think those important areas need links to be more prominently displayed.
Avatar (little picture in your profile) size allowance is very generous at 200 pixels wide, which means you can see what is in the picture. If you use Skype you can have your Skype contact button in your profile. I haven't seen that on any other Goldwing forum.
Many outstanding acts have grown out of the Steve Saunders forum, with members regularly jumping in and helping one another in times of dire need and emergency. When I registered some months ago, they had just raised almost $3,000 for a member who was behind on his mortgage payments. You can make some real friends here. Moderation is good, flame threads are snuffed out quickly by the volunteer moderators team based in the USA and other parts of the world. The usual guaranteed flame subjects (politics, religion, guns) are not allowed and adult content is also frowned on. Trolls are not tolerated here, even regular posters flaming (house trolls) are not tolerated.
The main men here are both from Ireland, the board owner wingnut (Steve Saunders) with 3,900 posts and his co-admin wexy Ciaran Meyler) with 8,300 posts. The owner-while visible on the forum for several hours each day-doesn't unduly impose himself on the members discussions and prefers to stay mainly in the background continually working on improving the site with Goldwing how-to tutorials etc. I guess someone has to do the work while we members have fun. He is always available if you need him and responds to PMs quickly, almost always on the same day he receives them.
The main men here are both from Ireland, the board owner wingnut (Steve Saunders) with 3,900 posts and his co-admin wexy Ciaran Meyler) with 8,300 posts. The owner-while visible on the forum for several hours each day-doesn't unduly impose himself on the members discussions and prefers to stay mainly in the background continually working on improving the site with Goldwing how-to tutorials etc. I guess someone has to do the work while we members have fun. He is always available if you need him and responds to PMs quickly, almost always on the same day he receives them.
Member suggestions for improving the forum are always well received and posted for discussion and feedback with the overall membership. The admins listen to what the members want, sometimes making changes on the same day they were asked for.
After six years in operation, it's a credit to the owner of this resource that he has held onto control of it and resisted the temptation to sell out or give in to vendors like other independents have done in the past. This forum is what the GWRRA forum could and should have been IMHO.
The bottom line is that if you only ever want to join one Goldwing forum, it has to be this one.
Pros: The premium technical resource for all Goldwing owners everywhere, which has grown from a small hobby site and continues to grow faster than any other Goldwing forum. Excellent quality of technical posts. Very friendly, active membership always willing to help and great social interaction. New Goldwing how-to tutorials and tips added often. Very generous avatar allowance of 200 pixels wide, free of advertising banners, an integrated photo gallery and Skype access from your profile. Very easy to use forum software. Resource continually being improved by the owner behind the scenes.
Cons: Search Function of this UltraBB software a bit too basic for such a large forum, although the integration of the Google Custom Search does balance that out. Some important and useful non-forum parts of the site could benefit from more prominent links.
April 6th, 1,002 new posts, 31 new members.
Update April 2011; Goldwingfacts.com forum membership now stands at 34,593 which is up 6,355 since I wrote this review early last year and the largest membership increase of any Goldwing forum. Total posts are 1,272,444 which is a massive increase of 270,000 posts in the same period of time. The monthly post count now averages around 24,000.
Goldwingfacts.com continues to be the fastest growing Goldwing forum on the web.
Goldwingfacts.com continues to be the fastest growing Goldwing forum on the web.
Recent daily post count/new members:
April 12th, 1165 new posts, 22 new members.
April 11th, 1128 new posts, 18 new members.
April 10th, 776 new posts, 14 new members.
April 9th, 939 new posts, 28 new members.
April 8th, 989 new posts, 25 new members.
April 12th, 1165 new posts, 22 new members.
April 11th, 1128 new posts, 18 new members.
April 10th, 776 new posts, 14 new members.
April 9th, 939 new posts, 28 new members.
April 8th, 989 new posts, 25 new members.
April 7th, 1,118 new posts, 23 new members.
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Non-commercial GL1800 specific forum. This forum was set up in 2003 by GL1800 owner Brian Fenner, some months before the GL1800 Riders forum was established. For a short time it was a busy board showing promise but was left standing by the better planned GL1800 Riders forum and now averages 130 forum visitors a day. Riders Rally had a mere 137,000 total posts and 4,750 members at the time of this review in early-2010. Visitor and posting activity is very low and seems to be due to lack of vision and board improvement by the board owner.
For the last few years anyone wanting to register has had to contact the admins by e-mail and ask, in order to weed out spammers. That seems an odd practise at a time when almost every forum on the web since 2006 has now adopted automatic anti-spam measures such as CAPTCHA. You aren't always guaranteed a reply to your e-mail either. In 2005 they added a sub-forum for owners of older Goldwings, but that didn't catch on either and has generated less than 800 posts in the intervening five years.
Commendably this forum has no advertising banners, but then hardly needs it on an inexpensive server package. Avatar allowance size is an average 100 pixels wide.
The forum experience is pleasant enough, but a bit lifeless. It lacks the dedicated core group that is the soul of successful forums, and more importantly the owner Brian Fenner appears to no longer have much interest in it. If you need help with a GL1800 problem fast, you could be in for a long wait. phpBB is the software used and we are all familiar with that. Moderation is good and trolls get the boot quickly because the lack of posting makes it easy for moderators to catch any bad posts.
Pros: Simple layout, easy to use. No need to scroll down too much on the main page to see all the sub-forums.
Cons: Low activity, avatar allowance size an average 100 pixels wide. You have to contact them by e-mail to join, not everyone gets a reply. Has all the signs of a dying forum.
Update April 2011; RidersRally forum membership now stands at 4,852 which is up a mere 102 since I wrote this review early last year. Total posts are 140,008, up by only 3,000 in the last year. The monthly post rate has dropped to around 250 a month and still sliding. This forum has become very stale indeed and continues to die a slow death.
Recent daily post count/new members:
April 12th, 5 new posts, 0 new members.
April 11th, 2 new posts, 0 new members.
April 10th, 3 new posts, 0 new members.
April 9th, 9 new posts, 0 new members.
April 8th, 1 new posts, 0 new members.
April 12th, 5 new posts, 0 new members.
April 11th, 2 new posts, 0 new members.
April 10th, 3 new posts, 0 new members.
April 9th, 9 new posts, 0 new members.
April 8th, 1 new posts, 0 new members.
April 7th, 5 new posts, 0 new members.
April 6th, 2 new posts, 0 new members.
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Naked Goldwings forum (NGF) is a European (Scandinavian) based board for owners of custom (and older) Goldwings. The forum has been around since late 2004 and was added to the original Naked Goldwings site which started out about a year previously, basically as a place to showcase your custom Goldwing pictures.
For naked and custom Goldwing ideas and discussions, this forum is the best place to get the information you need and is another good example of a forum created by an enthusiast for enthusiasts. With 6,680 members and 249,000 posts, NGW has been a great success and is very popular with the customised Wing community, averaging a healthy 550 forum visitors a day. Unfortunately most of the important parts of the forum (like the Technical area) are locked out to non-members presumably to conserve bandwidth for registered members, and this is my biggest gripe and a big hindrance to growth IMHO. Note to the owner: Get the forum sponsors to pay a bit more for the next sized hosting package and open this valuable resource up to all Goldwingers even if they are not members.
This year the original Scandinavian owner retired from the forum after long running health problems and he handed the forum over to some of the long standing USA members, and the future of an important Goldwing resource was secured.
This year the original Scandinavian owner retired from the forum after long running health problems and he handed the forum over to some of the long standing USA members, and the future of an important Goldwing resource was secured.
This is a strongly vendor supported resource and some advertising banners are visible, but not too many. The forum itself is very much dominated by some forum sponsor/vendor member posting and anyone posting a question about a part or accessory will very likely get an “I have one for sale” reply. Hosting bills do need to be paid (in this case a middle cost shared server), and you can always choose to ignore those posts and still enjoy this fine forum. Some Goldwingers complain elsewhere that the independence of NGW is compromised by advertisers having too much say in what is allowed to be posted, and that the NGW owners tend side with the vendors when an issue or argument arises. I haven't seen this myself, but if it's true, that's just the price you pay when vendors are covering the bills. Remember that without sponsors like Randall Washington (randakks.com) and others putting their hands in their pockets to pay the hosting bills, NGW probably would have sunk when the original owner stepped down. So just live with it or go find yourself another forum.
The core membership are very loyal and helpful and take their custom work to the limit, the European members in particular really love their naked Goldwings.
This forum is very nice to use and software is phpBB. Reasonably busy here and you will always be sure of someone helping you with your questions. Member suggestions for improving the forum are generally well received, but it can take time to see any changes. Moderation is good with a team from the USA and Europe, although sometimes flame threads run for too long before being extinguished. This shouldn't really happen with a large moderating team (approximately 12 staff) and might be down to language or cultural differences and understanding of what is happening. Having too big a staff is no guarantee of getting things done any quicker, and just adds layers of red tape IMHO. Avatar size allowance is a reasonable 125 pixels wide.
This forum is definitely worth joining for custom Goldwingers.
This forum is definitely worth joining for custom Goldwingers.
Pros: Simple layout and easy to navigate. Friendly, busy and helpful community for custom Goldwing owners. Very good quality of technical information. Avatar size is good at 125 pixels wide.
Cons: Main gripe is the important areas of this forum are closed to non-members. Some advertising, with some “sponsor member” plugging products in posts. Some cross-posting of technical information in other parts of the forum. Too many moderators and staff for a forum of this size.
Update April 2011; Naked Goldwings forum membership now stands at 7,405 which is up 535 since I wrote this review last year. Total posts are 318,417, up by around 70,000 in the same period. The monthly post rate now averages a healthy 6,000 month.
Recent daily post count/new members:
April 12th, 239 new posts, 5 new members.
April 11th, 305 new posts, 7 new members.
April 10th, 219 new posts, 8 new members.
April 9th, 315 new posts, 5 new members.
Recent daily post count/new members:
April 12th, 239 new posts, 5 new members.
April 11th, 305 new posts, 7 new members.
April 10th, 219 new posts, 8 new members.
April 9th, 315 new posts, 5 new members.
April 8th, 319 new posts, 3 new members.
April 7th, 265 new posts, 13 new members.
April 6th, 324 new posts, 9 new members.
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Classic Wings opened near the end of 2005. Not a lot to see here, 225 members with 830 posts in four and a half years says it all. Visitor rate is good at 550 a day, but they aren't registering and posting. This is an example of how not to create a forum, which is why I added it to my reviews. Webmasters beware you can't just toss up a page with poorly considered objectives and make no effort in its design, and leave it to fend for itself. New forums need to have something different to offer and adapt to the expectations of the members, not just be a copy of what someone else does and expect success. The small number of advertisements visible are hardly needed, the hosting costs are at the lowest end of the scale.
This one has the smell of death, needs to be quietly put out of its misery and not be allowed to linger indefinitely.
Pros: Easy to navigate, very generous avatar size.
Cons: Quiet as a mortuary, nothing special to draw in any new members. Move along please, there is nothing to see here.
Update April 2011; Not very much has changed here in the last year. About 50 new posts and only a handful of new members in the last year makes providing stats embarrassing. I don't even remember why I added this forum to the review.
Recent daily post count/new members:
April 12th, 0 new posts, 0 new members.
April 11th, 0 new posts, 0 new members.
April 10th, 0 new posts, 0 new members.
April 9th, 0 new posts, 0 new members.
Recent daily post count/new members:
April 12th, 0 new posts, 0 new members.
April 11th, 0 new posts, 0 new members.
April 10th, 0 new posts, 0 new members.
April 9th, 0 new posts, 0 new members.
April 8th, 0 new posts, 0 new members.
April 7th, 0 new posts, 0 new members.
April 6th, 0 new posts, 0 new members.
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Goldwing Owners arrived on the scene in 2008. This was a highly commercial site (part of the motorcycle.com network) and forum from the start, which currently has the highest number of visible advertisements of any Goldwing forum. The main page has in excess of twenty banners and other advertisements at any one time and the all important posting pages have adverts in between posts/replies, in additions to more advertisements at the top and sides of the pages. $15 a year for “premium” membership sees less advertising in your face, but still more than most free forums inflict on members. The $15 gets you a bigger avatar at 144 pixels wide, up from 96 pixels that comes with the free membership.
The forum runs on vBadvanced and the design is very slick and professional, money has been put into the design and it all runs well on a fast server. Navigation could be improved though and I initially found it confusing to find my way around the advertisements, but I got used to it after a few visits.
At the time of this review, Goldwing Owners had 20,000 posts by 3,600 members, not an impressive posting rate in spite of Goldwing Owners holding a paid for page one Google position and a waste of the very good average daily visitor rate of 2,300. Visitors come here, see all the banners and most of them just leave and never return.
The forum experience isn't all that bad even with the amount of aggressive advertising, but the front page is too long and populated by a lot of little used sub-forums. This forum lacks the essential core of regularly posting members which forums need to attract new members. This isn't designed to be a technical resource, more of a general Goldwing discussion forum. There are a few members who post daily, but not enough to make the difference in drawing in new members. Most members come and make a few posts and just leave, which is fine if you don't want to hang around and get involved in forum activities. A forum which can't encourage members to keep coming back is doing something wrong and I believe the saturation of advertisements is the main problem. Members and visitors will only take so much of it before walking. Member suggestions for improving the forum get a polite reply and their suggestions usually get put on the back burner.
Pros: Impressive layout, very well designed and typical of the usual motorcycle.com layout.
Cons: Far, far too many intrusive advertising banners, aggressive advertising banners crammed into every square inch of available space. This resource is all about making money from visitors. Part of the motorcycle.com network, a very high profile commercially driven resource. Not as busy as it should be with a page one rank in Google. If you need technical help with your Goldwing in a hurry, look elsewhere.
Update April 2011; Goldwingowners forum membership now stands at 6,591 which is up a nice 2,991 since I wrote this review last year. Total posts are 46,927, up by around 27,000 in the last year. The monthly post rate now averages about 2,500 month.
Recent daily post count/new members:
April 12th, 56 new posts, 9 new members.
April 11th, 56 new posts, 8 new members.
April 10th, 62 new posts, 7 new members.
April 9th, 37 new posts, 7 new members.
April 8th, 46 new posts, 8 new members.
April 12th, 56 new posts, 9 new members.
April 11th, 56 new posts, 8 new members.
April 10th, 62 new posts, 7 new members.
April 9th, 37 new posts, 7 new members.
April 8th, 46 new posts, 8 new members.
April 7th, 38 new posts, 6 new members.
April 6th, 48 new posts, 6 new members.
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North American Goldwings forum (NAGF) came about in early 2008 and is owned by Dean Evans and his wife. This was at launch modelled almost identically to the goldwingfacts.com board and many members there also joined NAGF, you will often see familiar names posting on both forums. At the time of review, NAGF had 1,568 members and 85,500 posts. Unique visitor rate to this forum averages 120 a day. The main poster here is the forum owner himself with over 10,000 posts (11,632 as of April 12th 2011) and over 50,000 posts (62,000 as of April 12th 2011) have been made by just ten members including the board owner and his wife.
This forum resides on a low cost (sub $20 a month) shared server and has advertising banners, I suspect more than needed to pay for hosting. They take donations here in addition to advertisements. Early promises by Dean Evans of "no advertising here, ever" were quickly abandoned and there are always about half a dozen banners on the main page, and four on the login page. However, I never find them a real annoyance.
An auction site was recently added (update April 2011; the auction site is gone) and you can buy a cheaply priced "Gold" membership which gets you access to the "political and adult discussions", ie the type of subjects that cause flame wars on the open forum and are better kept out of public view. Too many sub-forums on the main page means scrolling down to see them all, some of those sub-forums would be better merged into others. Very generous avatar size of 200 pixels and an easy to use integrated photo gallery.
The forum experience is pleasant enough, a small but dedicated band of posters do their best to help newcomers and keep things ticking over. This is more of a general discussions forum and a lack of a real plan or vision from the outset by the owners hinders growth. They just crammed a whole load of sub forums in at the start with apparently no idea if they would ever be needed. I've said it before, you need your own goal and ideas for your forum, setting one up based on what others did is not good enough.
Dedication and focus by the owner is lacking as evidenced by the broken "no advertising here, ever" promise and the current emphasis is on using the forum to make a buck out of the membership. More members would need to post here to keep my interest alive. This isn't a dead forum, but it is slowly and visibly becoming a talking shop for the owners and a few vendors who post daily to keep their commercial profiles visible. This is in my opinion a waste of a prime page one rank in Google. The owner often finds topics from other forums and copies them to here to try and kick-start discussions when things go stale, but it doesn't really work well or add anything positive to the experience.
Dedication and focus by the owner is lacking as evidenced by the broken "no advertising here, ever" promise and the current emphasis is on using the forum to make a buck out of the membership. More members would need to post here to keep my interest alive. This isn't a dead forum, but it is slowly and visibly becoming a talking shop for the owners and a few vendors who post daily to keep their commercial profiles visible. This is in my opinion a waste of a prime page one rank in Google. The owner often finds topics from other forums and copies them to here to try and kick-start discussions when things go stale, but it doesn't really work well or add anything positive to the experience.
Suggestions for improving this forum are sometimes taken on board, but can also get a cold reception. While preparing this review, I witnessed one member who (reasonably in my opinion) suggested that spammer members with anti-American names be deleted or have their names changed to something less offensive to Americans, and he was publicly beaten down by the forum owner for suggesting this. I haven't seen that member post there since, he now happily posts on another Goldwing forum. This uncertainty means members and even the moderators need to tread carefully for fear of unintentionally offending the not very diplomatic board owners. They do not like even constructive criticism of this forum but allow criticism of other forums, and indeed often get actively involved in it which I find mischievous. Moderation is good, with some moderators taking their responsibilities seriously and doing a good job, but often very slow to make a move on a sour topic without the forum owners nod first.
Recently two vendors/forum sponsors were promoted to the moderators team and I feel that having vendors or advertisers as moderators undermines the independence and integrity of a forum and raises possible questions about the safety of the members personal information. I would hope that our private information is only available to the admins and not vendor moderators.
Pros: Easy to navigate, very easy to use forum software with nice integrated photo gallery. Some good posters.
Cons: Too few members posting overall, forum in danger of stagnating in spite of page one on Google. Fear of unintentionally offending the board owners by asking the wrong question feels like walking on glass and stifles posting. Vendors now moderating the forum, more than enough advertising banners. Technical sub forums not up to par after two years, more of a general discussion forum than a technical one. Search function of UltraBB too basic.
Update April 2011; North American Goldwings forum membership now stands at 2,616 which is up a healthy 1,048 since I wrote this review last year. Total posts are 114,833 up by around 30,000 in the last year and down by about a third on the two previous years from 2008. The monthly post rate now averages about 2,500.
Recent daily post count/new members:
April 12th, 78 new posts, 1 new members.
April 11th, 121 new posts, 6 new members.
April 10th, 101 new posts, 3 new members.
April 9th, 99 new posts, 3 new members.
April 8th, 97 new posts, 5 new members.
April 12th, 78 new posts, 1 new members.
April 11th, 121 new posts, 6 new members.
April 10th, 101 new posts, 3 new members.
April 9th, 99 new posts, 3 new members.
April 8th, 97 new posts, 5 new members.
April 7th, 109 new posts, 1 new members.
April 6th, 102 new posts, 5 new members.
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Goldwingdocs.com started out as a site for downloading digital copies of Honda workshop manuals and for doing reviews of dealers/vendors. Scott MacLean is the owner and the forum was added to the Goldwingdocs site in late 2008. This forum is primarily created to help owners of GL1100 Goldwings, but other Goldwing owners are also welcome. As of review time, goldwingdocs had 8,500 (2,100 by the owner) posts by a claimed 15,752 members. However, the members count is false and the stats show that for many months fake user accounts are being added at a rate of about 60-80 per day, the real members head count is probably around 4,000. You can tell which members are fake on any given day because they don’t show in the days “who's online” and if like me you have access to web crawler software you will see the fake members are all coming from the same server IP address that goldwingdocs resides on. The strategy for forum owners adding fake members is usually to make the membership numbers look good for potential site buyers. Note to webmaster; it doesn't work. Potential site buyers will analyze your visitor statistics long before they approach you and they can tell exactly what you have been manipulating. The average daily visitor rate to this forum is 190.
Back to the forum, this one runs on phpBB software. phpBB is very popular, is cheaper to run than vBulletin and has similar bells and whistles. Avatar size here is very good at 200 pixels and there are many excellent Goldwing how-to maintenance tutorials with pictures available to Goldwingers. There is also a nice members photo gallery. Advertising banners abound here, on all the forum pages. The first post in each topic has a lot of distracting small adverts above and below the post text. Goldwingdocs lives on a shared server with low monthly costs, so excessive advertising banners are surplus to requirements.
The forum experience here is quite good and it is easy to find your way around with all the links in convenient locations. GL1100 owners in particular looking for help can be sure that the forum owner will do his best to reply quickly. Not enough other members get involved however, and it can be like watching a one-man show at times. Posting rate isn’t hectic and ticks over at a leisurely pace, so you will easily fine topics you like if you only visit occasionally. Goldwing owners looking for technical help in a hurry will usually get more help faster by looking elsewhere. Moderation is done mostly by the forum owner and he generally has an easy enough job in that area. I haven't seen any suggestions for site improvement in my time there and I can't comment on how well any requests might be received, but Scott MacLean is known to be generally approachable and easy to get along with.
Goldwingdocs unfortunately had to pull the public links to the copied Honda manuals a few months ago after being warned off by lawyers, but you can still get the manuals once you register and send a PM to the admin. There is always a risk that this site will one day be pulled for copyright violations if the lawyers follow it up with a complaint to the hosting company, and it would be a shame to lose a good resource over this.
Pros: Very easy to navigate, everything easy to find from the main page, good well thought out layout, very good avatar size at 200 pixels. Forum owner/admin good at helping with technical questions. Lots of excellent Goldwing how-to tutorials.
Cons: More advertising than this forum needs to cover hosting costs, which sucks some of the enjoyment out of using the board. Very much a one-man show much of the time. Too many fake member accounts. Hosting copyrighted workshop manuals means the future could be uncertain for this useful resource.
Update April 2011; Goldwingdocs forum membership now stands at 27,099 which is up 12,000 since I wrote this review last year. But as the majority of these are fake accounts, the real number is far less. Total posts are 24,247, up by around 15,747 in the last year. The monthly post rate now averages about 2,500.
Recent daily post count/new members:
April 12th, 58 new posts, 51
April 11th, 65 new posts, 58
April 10th, 48 new posts, 40
April 9th, 57 new posts, 42
April 8th, 93 new posts, 54
April 12th, 58 new posts, 51
April 11th, 65 new posts, 58
April 10th, 48 new posts, 40
April 9th, 57 new posts, 42
April 8th, 93 new posts, 54
April 7th, 90 new posts, 42
April 6th, 90 new posts, 44
Note: Member stats for this forum are not to be trusted, as fake members continue to be added at a rate of at least 40 each day. Even casual visitors will see they are fake as they don't appear in the "who's online" panel at any time when they are registered or afterwards.
Note: Member stats for this forum are not to be trusted, as fake members continue to be added at a rate of at least 40 each day. Even casual visitors will see they are fake as they don't appear in the "who's online" panel at any time when they are registered or afterwards.
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GL1200 Gold Wings arrived on the scene in early 2006. This forum is GL1200 specific and is run by Vic Belanger. Vic has the "Tech Centre" of the forum divided up into many sub forums which cover a wide range of GL1200 issues and problems. This forum is another enthusiasts site and runs on phpBB with a very nice custom skin. Advertising banners are thankfully non-existent, the shared server hosting costs are covered by donations from the members and any shortfall is picked up by the board owner. The layout is clean and easy to navigate, although you have to scroll down a bit to see all the forums. I think it would be better to have the tech centre sub forums nearer to the top of the page and the chit-chat further down.
At the time of this review, GL1200 Gold Wings had 2,901 members and 63,000 posts with an average daily visitor rate of 137. The forum owner has a post count of 6,309 and he sometimes has to reply to posts himself to keep the board active. The forum experience here is still very good for a small board and the members are a friendly close-knit bunch. Anyone looking for help with a GL1200 problem is likely to find an answer here, the members reply quickly.
Moderation is good, although six moderators (including the two admins) is probably more than they need for the level of posting here. The main men here are admin (Vic Belanger) and Tropicalsuns.
Pros: Very good technical resource for GL1200 owners. No advertising banners, very good community spirit.
Cons: Too many sub-forums means more scrolling down the page, the technical forums need to be moved up nearer the top. Forum owner sometimes has to post to keep things moving.
Update April 2011; GL1200 Goldwings forum membership now stands at 2,257 which is up 648 since I wrote this review last year. Total posts are 64,913, up by a disappointingly low 1,913 posts in the last year and indicating a quite big slowdown in posting. The monthly post rate now averages about 200.
Recent daily post count/new members:
April 12th, 20 new posts, 1 new members.
April 11th, 18 new posts, 1 new members.
April 10th, 14 new posts, 1 new members.
April 9th, 27 new posts, 0 new members.
April 8th, 19 new posts, 1 new members.
April 12th, 20 new posts, 1 new members.
April 11th, 18 new posts, 1 new members.
April 10th, 14 new posts, 1 new members.
April 9th, 27 new posts, 0 new members.
April 8th, 19 new posts, 1 new members.
April 7th, 52 new posts, 0 new members.
April 6th, 28 new posts, 1 new members.
To be continued...
