How to get the forum active again?

As Facebook became more popular, and the cars became “older”, the amount of traffic seen on G2IC dropped considerably. Then we had all these hackers messing up the forum, which made things worse. Now there are tons of disjointed Facebook groups that allow quick answers to people looking for help. I assume that’s why people are posting to these groups. But that’s how it was on G2IC too several years ago – quick answers, lots of engagement etc.

I’m looking for suggestions to get people back here, where content is searchable and most likely “better quality” due to the really smart people that have made posts here. I need to know if I’m fighting a losing battle here. Do I just need to dump some money into advertising, or am I missing something? All ideas and thoughts are encouraged.

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I suppose the main problem was being inactive for a while. Now that you are up and running again hopefully people will find out and come back. FB may be easy and seemingly popular there is way too much crap. It’s tough to have to spend money on advertising but maybe members will spread the word and that will help.

Yoooooo. I’m back haha. Had to make a new username but I saw the post on fb we need more content. We need a damn YouTuber to do a gen 2 haha. I’ve fell outta Honda but ride around with an optional db2 armrest waiting to see a gen2 person haha. God I need another db1 in my lifetime

Is there a way to have an app attached to the forum so there would be push notifications for new posts? That might help with the “instant feedback” people seem to want. I personally hate how the Facebook era of car pages work but they are popular.

if I can just figure out how to upload some images I would update my build thread. This is the only place I am willing to post actual updates and progress. Also, is there a way to get some of the old school decals we used to have?

I pushed a G2IC app several years ago but it never caught on. I will try doing it again though.

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I think you can do it, but it’s going to be an uphill battle. No disrespect, but step one should be to get rid of the default vBulletin format. If necessity dictates you stick with vB, you gotta make it look a little more appealing. Despite the hundreds of extremely useful threads, and it being a great historical archive, this forum looks and feels abandoned. People still use forums. I think it’s mostly older heads, but we’re still out there. I’m active on CivicX and NissanZclub both of which have hundreds of members. You just gotta bring G2IC into 2020.

Yeah VBulletin does NOT make this easy at all. It has a stranglehold on the data and I can only move it to similar setups. I see that NissanZclub uses Xenforo, which I have looked at in the past year as a stepping stone to something more modern.

In my defense, I don’t think you can compare CivicX and NissanZClub to G2IC. Those all get new visitors all the time with new car models, while G2IC is very restricted. And it’s not like I can change that at this point! It isn’t like the cars don’t exist anymore because there is obviously still a strong following, but they’re just not here.

Wow, it’s been a while since I logged in. IIRC, the forums were down for a while and I completely forgot about this place. The sad thing is, my teg has been sitting in storage for 2 years and I’m sure it’s not just myself that has kinda gotten out of it or has moved on to other cars.

Anyways, I think it might be worth considering merging some of the sub forums into one. As it stands, due to the low amount of traffic G2IC now receives, if we continue to keep all of the sub forums the way they are, it looks even more of a ghost town. All of the “Tuning” sub forums can probably be merged, the “Parts for Sale and Trade USA” and the other one for everyone else in the world can probably be merged into one- same thing can be said about the WTB sub forums. Thoughts?

Hey Cillu. Ironically, the people who have sold these cars have always regretted it. I just got stopped in a parking lot 2 days ago from a prior Integra owner who was extremely jealous of my Integra and was talking about how much misses it and wants another one. :wink:

Anyway, I just re-arranged the subforums because it is necessary for new forum concepts and the migration efforts. It needs to all be in one level. I’m not too concerned that it’s not visually “busy”. For the time being, it’s making it easier for those to browse certain sections because the search feature isn’t all that great. I’d also like to keep it like that in the hope that the forums come active again too :wink:

So the forum appears to be running fine. Just need to get the visitors back. I am thinking about a sticker giveaway as an attraction. I want to organize a meet now that the weather is getting better. Any other ideas to get people away from these FB groups?

Now that things are up and running again the word will get out and visitors will be back. FB is easy but a site like this so much more useful and “real” I will be here on a regular basis. I am doing paint and bodywork this winter and will be looking for ideas and suggestions.
I am up in the Northeast, NH, and I don’t run into many G2s. I do my best to get the word out and will continue to do so.
Good luck. We will get this rolling again.

I don’t think you’re going to get people away from the FB groups… but if we make this forum a better experience than the FB groups, I think a lot more folks will start to utilize this first or concurrently.

I know many people are into regional area sub-forums too. If you were to make a few runs of stickers with some regional flair added ( IE - G2IC Hawaii, G2IC East Coast, West Coast, PNW, Dirty South, Canada blahblahblah would be sick. I know it’s not about money but marketing, raffles etc, really seem to suck people in. I, for one, would for sure buy a couple t-shirts, stickers, other gear.

Just a couple thoughts .

Jordan

We bounced around the idea of “regionalizing” the forum many years ago but found that it broke up the user base and information was being sort of “hidden” in these subforums instead of shared with everyone. As long as we don’t do it to the forum itself, and people just want to have decals stating such, I’m on board. I am unsure how to name the regions though.

I think it would be a fun activity to have people join a whiteboard session and we break up the US/Canada and World with our own slang terms – to make it more personal! :nerd_face:

I do plan on having shirts, clothing for sale again though. :+1: Just need the demand to increase a bit before I drop that sort of $ on it.

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