What kills a forum?

[amped up]

What kills a forum? That’s an easy question to answer…lack of new posts and information. So why would I bring this up? Because this is a great forum and I’d hate to see it die or be replaced with a simple Facebook page. See, what can plague a forum the quickest is that one simple statement regardless of how true it might be. We all know the one I’m talking about... “USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION”.

90% of the time, it’s a fair response to many questions but let’s look at the bigger picture. Questions and questions that have been asked over and over again, albeit phrased differently can get pretty annoying for the veterans that have spent hours and hours poring over pages and pages of information located within the threads. However, our hobby spans one of the largest age gaps of any hobby out there. Is it possible that maybe we have a younger person seeking an answer and may not have the knowledge yet to bridge the information already provided to work with his/her question? For some, especially beginners, it’s difficult for them to make the connection between information available and how it pertains to their own question. This could be true regardless of age, I know I’ve had plenty of brain farts while trying to figure out what would appear to be a simple issue. So , next time you see that “same old question”, take a moment to put yourself in their shoes and remember when you first got into the hobby and how frustrating and/or intimidating it was . I’d hate for someone to leave the hobby because they were afraid to ask a question and learn something new.

For the beginner, do your beast to research your question before asking, even if you don't find the answer, you just might learn something else useful.

[Bmxreeves]

Very true. Definitely frustrating when I got into the hobby (got a car at Hammers on Feb) this forum has and still does help me. Without a great forum like Rccrawler it would have taken probably a couple years to get where I am now. There is no doubt that a forum (not just a Facebook page) will teach the stuff you know.


Cheers Jacob

[Alexander_0_1]

Hmmm, i thought it would be more like "what should I buy?"

Answer: use the search button....ok, I'll quit.

[maslin]

In my experience, forums don't die from "use the search!" they die when the old guys get tired of telling every single person who's been on the forum a month to "use the search."

People with real insight get tired of answering the same questions over and over. How long will my 27t motor last on 6s? How should I gear a 6000kv outrunner in a Sawback? Those don't need to be threads.

Wading through a page of TopCad catalog builds to find one good thread gets old. People move on when there's no one around pushing the envelope.

[ROLANDROCKSHOP]

^ bingo!!

[Robbob]

Do I need a bec?

[Joshs4x4toyz]

Only if you are going to use the time travel function that traxxas will soon release. I hear that it will blow their "people cant drive worth crap" features out of the water. That way if you really suck you can just jump to the end of the race and see how much you blew. Anything other than that a BEC is not necessary. Welcome to the site!

[travis c.]

Originally Posted by Robbob

Do I need a bec?

What's a BEC?

[Alexander_0_1]

Originally Posted by Joshs4x4toyz

Only if you are going to use the time travel function that traxxas will soon release. I hear that it will blow their "people cant drive worth crap" features out of the water. That way if you really suck you can just jump to the end of the race and see how much you blew. Anything other than that a BEC is not necessary. Welcome to the site!

Only the rc car time jumps your still going have to wait around for the end of the race anyway, plus I heard the flux capacitor eats up a lipo in a hurry.

[Stormin2u]

This is the website that started it all as far as the organized RC Crawling hobby and related industry was concerned. The information available here is and always will be the best information available on the world wide web. Most of the new users today wouldn't have liked the site eleven years ago were newbies asking simple easy how to questions were meet with extreme sarcasm especially if they hadn't done a good job of searching first. It was a place were newbs "paid a price" for lazy un-searched common questions. I have to say todays newer members ask a lot of those same questions most of time most of them without ever attempting a search and its pretty obvious.

Maybe you have a point Facebook might be the best place for todays new generation in the RC Crawling community, I don't know? But I'm betting money it won't ever hold a candle to the collecting and maintenance of the vast data base provided free of charge by RCCrawler.com let alone have it all in one location for ease of use.

We shouldn't be asking ourselves what can RCC do for me instead we should be asking ourselves what can I do to make RCC a better place? Some people give while others only take. After all is said and done its the people who have made it what it is "the best RC crawling web site in the world" bar none.

[Bmxreeves]

Originally Posted by travis c.

What's a BEC?

use the search function!


Cheers Jacob

[onebullet]

i havent encountered many posts that simply say "use the search function" on this forum.... which is impressive considering a "what should i buy/what is better" post shows up in the newbie section every other day.

This forum is incredibly helpful and it really would be a shame to see it stop.

[mikebecher]

I am more than happy to answer questions that interest me or that I might have myself, regardless of if they've been answered in the past. I'll go do the research just for my own sake. I've learned almost as much from answering other peoples' questions as I have from my own hands-on experience. The only exception being the "which RC should I buy" question - I consider that a personal problem.

[Jslick]

Oh, by the way. The search function here sucks.

[wings_of_fire]

Powercut kills a forum

[NoobCrawler]

This is a bit of a double edged sword I think. I can certainly see how it would get old reading the same question over & over. At the same time, the questions start a conversation & thereby gets people talking/traffic going here. I'd say if it's evident that the search wasn't even attempted, then sure, razz them about it. Also, I'm not very tech savvy & even when I search for something, even something I know I've read here before but can't find it. But, that's far from the repetitive questions being asked....

[WHITE-TRASH]

Originally Posted by Jslick

Oh, by the way. The search function here sucks.

Not really, this forum software depends on the user knowing how to enter the search terms. Some software will take a simple term and search for 20 semi related things to bring to the user. V bulletin doesn't really do that.

Last night I was curious at how people had been putting solid axles under an exo chassis. Did I search for "solid axle exo"? Nope "exo+ar60" got me pages of exactly what I was looking for since I've been around this type of software so long. Google is the same way, knowing the right search terms will make for a much better experience.




As for the question at hand I don't know that bookface will take over any time soon. From all I've seen as a non bookface user there seems to be a massive amount of morons with terrible advice and no skills on there that only build rigs with huge amounts of articulation.

The same "what should I buy" "do I need a bec" questions will always be around. I do miss the good old days when it wasn't frowned upon to light the idiots up when they asked outside of the newbie section though...

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by Jslick

Oh, by the way. The search function here sucks.

Noob lol

[djjiz]

I've tried the Facebook axial site.
If you think the questions are stupid here you have absolutely no idea whats being asked over there.

[House]

Fukc Facebook.