Little posting on the CJ3A site

[Carls_jeep]

I joined the old CJ3A site not long before it was reworked. It seems like there was more threads and posts on the old site than there are today. The old site had 1080 members and the new site has 194.
 
Why didn't the old members come to the new site?

Were most of the old members just a number and didn't read or post?

Did the old members go to the CJ2A site?

Do we now have the core members that did all the threads and posting on the old site?

If so why is there not the same activity as the old site had?

Did the CJ2A site have more activity after the CJ3A site was reworked or the same?

[Gunslinger]

Good questions Carl,
It seems to me that the activity here has dropped over the last two years.  I've also noticed some old names that don't post anymore here, but are on the 2A.  Its a bit troubling.

[F Bill]

That 1080 member count could be pretty misleading as it may have included 500 spam memberships. ... we are adding 2-3 members most weeks, sometimes more...(sometimes less, too) I am pretty convinced that out of the members we have here, 99 percent are real jeep people....I have probably deleted over a hundred spam memberships in the last six months. When I signed on to moderate, we had probably a 25/75 member/spammer ratio. Ever since we made it mandatory to email me, no more spammers have joined.

if you ever got the chance to see the administrative pages, where the error logs are, you would see we have probably twenty attempts per hour of spambots trying to post here, or join up. Out new signup procedures have blocked them dead cold...

I will say that we have a great membership base with good participation, and the posting is increasing. While it is not the 2A page in terms of numbers of posts, it is a quality group we have here too. During the transition, we did lose a lot of folks who migrated to the 2A page, and we also have had folks who signed up there anyway...One thing you find in the internet Jeep world is folk join multiple boards....and participate wherever things get interesting for them.  I have memberships myself at ECJ5, 2A, 3A, DJ, and G 503 boards.

Ya think we are slow check out the DJ board.....lol..

Another thing that just occurred to me is the economy has caused many to drop out of the hobby....that might also be part of the problem.

[Carls_jeep]

Thanks for the reply Bill and I thought the reasons may be just as you mentioned. I sure hope most the owners of the CJ2's and CJ3's are not hobby owners but really use their Jeeps at least a few days a week. I don't expect them to drive them every day as I do but we need to drive them for people that like to see a real vintage Jeep.

I visit both sites several times a day when I am home. Being retired has it's advantages. �

[calvinhunt]

My posting activity slows way down in the winter because my Jeep goes into hibernation.  You see me quite often, maybe too often, in the summer.  However, I do visit this site almost every day and enjoy following what others are doing while I'm waiting for spring.

[BMIC]

Not sure if I am typical of a new member but maybe Bill's numbers support my activity profile. This may be my 3rd post but I read all of the postings daily. I believe the vast majority of forum members log on for both the shear brilliance of the information (ex. Carl's work on metering rods) or the personal interest of members like Comanche Country.
I owned a 2A in my 20s and my kids and I had great rides in it. Stumbling on the CJ3A forum last winter perked my intrest again. I located and bought a 50 CJA3, not just any, a total basket case just in case I was not up to the mechanical challenge. The project has progressed well beyond the initial "he's trying to regain his youth" snear's (I did that with a Corvette at 55) to a active family project. My granddaughter keeps asking when we are going to pull the engine to make sure in does not confilct with her collage classes.
The CJ3A forum is much more than just the count numbers and I've read it many times "You have to own a Willy's to understand".
Keep up the great work...

[p3ferris]

 lot of people decided that if they do not have their jeep anymore then they have no business here, boy are they wrong.  I am here in the background alot

[3aJeeper]

Although I'm not a heavy poster to the forum, I've been living vicariously thru the members actively posting! I visit the site multiple times a day and get my jeep 'fix'.

I'm not getting the time I'd like to have working on the jeep between work, wife, two boys doing sports, etc...   but then again, who does?   It's been about 4 months since I've done anything substantial. �:(

The forum keeps me motivated with all the things I want/need to do and helps with the planning. The quality of the information shared and willingness to help is outstanding. Maybe not the numbers from the prior forum, but it certainly makes up for that in quality!

I'm sure that once I get to actually working on mine again, I'll have all kinds of questions and topics for discussion....and some may not be newbie questions!  (Ex: Is it supposed to do that??)

Jeep on!

John

[rocketeer]

I think one thing that hurt was losing all our history when the forum transitioned to the newer version. I know there are ways for longtime members to hunt it out (or there used to be) and link to it but that requires that someone actually recalls the original post and that the search function on the old site works, which it does not seem to at the moment. Give it a try. No matter what you search on it always returns the same results.

However, new members have no idea about the old site and searching here will not produce that history. The only way to know is if a question is posted and an oldtimer goes through the effort to find and link. We lost an enormous part of our history. It's like a library with no books, would you go there to do research?

Not looking to get into a discussion of why the transition was done the way it was, just stating my opinion on what I believe to be the after effects.

Larry

[F Bill]

I think one thing that hurt was losing all our history when the forum transitioned to the newer version. I know there are ways for longtime members to hunt it out (or there used to be) and link to it but that requires that someone actually recalls the original post and that the search function on the old site works, which it does not seem to at the moment. Give it a try. No matter what you search on it always returns the same results.

However, new members have no idea about the old site and searching here will not produce that history. The only way to know is if a question is posted and an oldtimer goes through the effort to find and link. We lost an enormous part of our history. It's like a library with no books, would you go there to do research?

Not looking to get into a discussion of why the transition was done the way it was, just stating my opinion on what I believe to be the after effects.

Larry

Thanks for posting that, Larry.. I went a digging and found out you CAN still search the old site. I may put a sticky up at the top of each forum to remind us that we still have access so far.

Here's the link..: �http://cj3apage.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=search

Now there is a trick to searching it however.. You need to go down to where it says search the last "X" days of posting... and change that to a nice high number like 720 �or so. then when you have all the other parts of the search form filled out, THEN AND ONLY THEN go ahead and answer the human checking quesion that is right at the top......Otherwise you are seaching the last 7 days automatically and you will find that you cannot �find ANYTHING at all. The last thing you do is answer the trick question thingie, as it immediately searches when you do.

Another thing I found out while I was over there is people are STILL posting over there, and some are folks that do not know how to get on this site.. I am going to have to ask JR to give me admin status over there so I can direct these folks to the new site. What is weird is I see some spam posters there too...

I was not active here back when we were on the old board...so I really don't know what is there....If any of you guys remember some noteable threads I will see what I can do to get them moved over here too. PM me please...

And welcome back Larry... You are one of the good guys here and I was sorry to see you in the missing ranks for a while. �

F Bill aka president , Jeep hoarders society.

[Matto]

F Bill,  
         Maybe you could lock this link to the top most post of the tech section and title it "Searching the old forum". Sort of the same way the "Old Forum Link" is posted under IMPORTANT TOPICS on the website feed back link. I think thats getting lost over there. I would put your search instuctions with it. And thanks for the time you spend organizing this stuff, I know sometimes it's a p.i.t.a. but it's appreciated by all of us who use this sight daily.
Matt

[F Bill]

F Bill, �
       � Maybe you could lock this link to the top most post of the tech section and title it "Searching the old forum". Sort of the same way the "Old Forum Link" is posted under IMPORTANT TOPICS on the website feed back link. I think thats getting lost over there. I would put your search instuctions with it. And thanks for the time you spend organizing this stuff, I know sometimes it's a p.i.t.a. but it's appreciated by all of us who use this sight daily.
Matt

Done...let me know if it works for ya...

[Matto]

F Bill, works great. �I just logged in over there for the first time in over a year and found I had a PM fom a guy wanting to buy a Hy Lo pump I had for sale in January 2011. Ended up giving it away last spring.
 
Matt

[athawk11]

Thanks Bill.
I can now delete the old link from my desktop.

Tim

[rocketeer]

Bill, I did the search using 700 days but no matter what words I searched on I always got the same 10 results. Starting with:

Re: new fenders for sale
� Result #1 on Jan 2, 2012, 11:54am �

Note the "posted" date. Today is Jan 7th, not the 2nd. Each subsequent return is dated even earlier. The actual posting date for the above post was:

 new fenders for sale
� Thread Started on Jun 29, 2010, 11:12am �

It doesn't matter what word(s) or phrase I search on it always returns the same 10 posts.

Larry