Announcing the Adventure Bike Forums Experiment

[Venture]

I'm probably going to regret introducing this to the public in this way, but this is what I've been working on for the past several months. My day job has been absolutely maddening, so the introduction of it has gotten delayed again and again. This thread and hearing all of what you are saying made me realize there is no reason to delay any further.

In short, I've re-architected the forum to create a shared base from which multiple forums source from. The word of the day is "integrated." As far as I know this is a novel idea and as such is experimental in nature, so I've been hesitant to bring it out, but here it is. This is my solution to the problem of being all-inclusive, yet still retaining the individual community feel of a smaller site. I loved it when Desert Dave brought up about how we are all nomadic when it comes to bikes and bike forums; when we get a new bike we go to a new forum. In this model I've created nobody needs to leave, the next forum for their new bike will be right here and ready, no need to re-register, no loss of PMs, media, no loss of current friends. It's the best I could do folks, I hope some of you agree with my vision.

The pictures below hopefully will help cut through some of the confusion. After you've taken a look, you can pop over to: http://www.adventurebikeforums.com for a look at what is coming. The configuration is not 100% yet, but it's getting pretty close.

I will post a formal announcement soon, but for now at least readers of this thread can share their thoughts on this. I'll be back later to offer further clarification and answer questions and provide additional input.

Chris

Edit 4/30/2012: The above was written a few weeks back, and since then the concept has been completely realized. TriumphTigers.com is now available as the new home for the Triumph Tiger Explorer 1200 as well as the other "Tiger" bikes in the Triumph line up.

The new sites, AdventureBikeForums.com and TriumphTigers.com need a lot of love and lots of tweaking, but with time I hope they grow and take on personalities of their own. We'll see, as I state in the title, this is a grand "Experiment" that hasn't been tried before.

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Chris,

Interesting concept. I definitely like the idea. I find I spend more and more time here, and less on my old forum "home" of Stromtrooper. The truth is trooper has run its course and as far as many of us old timers there are concerned it's pretty much dead of interesting content. However, I have so many friends that I've made over there that it's hard to let go. I keep in touch with may of them now with less frequent emails. We all seem to lament losing touch with our crew, but the idea of staying active with trooper has become less appealing as the site has changed so much over time. Your core data idea would appear to offer an option to avoid losing track of friends who drift away due to a change of bike model. It's interesting, and will be curious to see how it all plays out.

Bravo to you for trying something new. ::012::

 

[Venture]

Chris,

Interesting concept. I definitely like the idea. I find I spend more and more time here, and less on my old forum "home" of Stromtrooper. The truth is trooper has run its course and as far as many of us old timers there are concerned it's pretty much dead of interesting content. However, I have so many friends that I've made over there that it's hard to let go. I keep in touch with may of them now with less frequent emails. We all seem to lament losing touch with our crew, but the idea of staying active with trooper has become less appealing as the site has changed so much over time. Your core data idea would appear to offer an option to avoid losing track of friends who drift away due to a change of bike model. It's interesting, and will be curious to see how it all plays out.

Bravo to you for trying something new. ::012::

Yes, it's the exact scenario we all know. This was probably the single biggest motivating factor that influenced the design.

As far as trying something new, I have two other complimentary items in the pipeline as well. The first involves a novel new way for vendors to interact with the forum. More to come on that, but what I'll say now is that as usual I took a viewpoint of "how can the members most benefit?" when designing it out. The result is really quite interesting and valuable for the members and the vendors alike.

 

[MotorcopBBQ]

It makes me think of all those douche bags who thought they were hot shit in high school with their jock/cheer cliques. Now, they've grown up, gotten fat, bald, and realized they weren't all that but still live under the pretense that they are something.

Napoleon Dynamite's Uncle Rico come to mind!

 

[switchback]

Venture,

So what you are saying is that in each of the specific sites the only unique sections are the bike sections. The forums related to adventurers as a whole are shared. Hmmm, each site has it's unique personality and shares in common interests.

And the best part is it is covertly run by a Super Tenere owner...brilliant, now we can take over the world! ::022::

In all seriousness, great idea! ::015::

 

[houndman]

A neat concept, is the absence of say Suzuki or BMW on purpose or just skipped it?

 

[Venture]

A neat concept, is the absence of say Suzuki or BMW on purpose or just skipped it?

Just skipped it for now. If there is interest I can add boards for any bike that we think should belong there.

 

[Venture]

Announcement:

The two newest sites, AdventureBikeForums.com and TriumphTigers.com are officially launched!

Lots of tweaking to do. Please, share all your comments and questions!

 

[~TABASCO~]

Sounds good ! ::008::

 

[donaldb]

Great idea.

There is a South African forum which does the same thing, which is great for the concept of organising rises, as we all share the same passion and that's the explore the lesser travelled rows.

http://www.wilddog.za.net/forum/

Might be worthwhile to get some tips and work it to your advantage.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

 

[terrysig]

Chris if I see this correctly it is a great idea. With my day job(s) I always have to choose one forum. Just plain do not have time to view the many that I would like. Hell I'd love to stay current on ADV but that's not going to happen so figured the cross over into the S10 forum would suffice. This takes it a step farther getting me the S10 content I need and the ADV content at the same time. Well done!

 

[RockyDS]

Bravo to you for trying something new. ::012::

I agree - seems like a great idea. Obviously it will work for the Super Tenere and has a good chance with the new Triumph Explorer but there's a tremendous amount of momentum on the other existing sites.

 

[MurphCO]

not trying to de-rail the thread but I have a burning question....


why wasn't a separate area just created on ADV? like the KTM and BMW


was there drama I missed or something?

 

[Venture]

I agree - seems like a great idea. Obviously it will work for the Super Tenere and has a good chance with the new Triumph Explorer but there's a tremendous amount of momentum on the other existing sites.

Yeah, it's definitely an uphill climb but I figured it was worth a shot. If the whole "experiment" fails I just shut down the other sites and go have a beer. YamahaSuperTenere.com won't be impacted by any of this.

 

[Koinz]

So Chris, I was clicking away in the new Adventure Bike Forum and I could see that in the Honda forum you can Jump to other forums or back to the main Adventrure forum, but I couldn't easily see that in the tiger or tenere forum. Is it a different "view setup"

 

[colorider]

Just skipped it for now. If there is interest I can add boards for any bike that we think should belong there.

Like we discussed before - I'm liking the idea! Great job!!! ::008::

So, when do we have a board for my new Burgy? ::015::

 

[Venture]

So Chris, I was clicking away in the new Adventure Bike Forum and I could see that in the Honda forum you can Jump to other forums or back to the main Adventrure forum, but I couldn't easily see that in the tiger or tenere forum. Is it a different "view setup"

I'm not exactly sure what you mean... The Honda forum piece only exists (published) on the ABF site. All three sites have different "view" setups on purpose.

 

[Venture]

Like we discussed before - I'm liking the idea! Great job!!! ::008::

So, when do we have a board for my new Burgy? ::015::

You want one?

I was giving a lot more thought to this, and I real am thinking that the ABF site is the one I want to be very flexible with. Let it be the "go crazy" face of things. For example, if people want a board for any kind of interest, motorcycle or not, I'll add it there. I want to try and keep the model-specific sites more tech-oriented, and have ABF be the "fun" forum. Along this same line, if anybody wants a certain bike represented, I don't think I'd have any issue with it, even if it isn't strictly and "adventure" bike.

 

[colorider]

You want one?

I was giving a lot more thought to this, and I real am thinking that the ABF site is the one I want to be very flexible with. Let it be the "go crazy" face of things. For example, if people want a board for any kind of interest, motorcycle or not, I'll add it there. I want to try and keep the model-specific sites more tech-oriented, and have ABF be the "fun" forum. Along this same line, if anybody wants a certain bike represented, I don't think I'd have any issue with it, even if it isn't strictly and "adventure" bike.

Hmmmm, scooters are a far cry from adventure bikes- but perhaps there is enough out there to atleast have a generic one for all major brands. I'm on BurgmanUSA which has been around for quite a while.

BTW, are you going to allow tapatalk on the new forum? I

 

[SisuTen]

Hmmmm, scooters are a far cry from adventure bikes- but perhaps there is enough out there to atleast have a generic one for all major brands. I'm on BurgmanUSA which has been around for quite a while.

BTW, are you going to allow tapatalk on the new forum? I

When did you get a Burgman?

Hmmmm........TKC80's????? ::025:: ::025::