Aussie Vee Dubbers and Social Media

It seems to be a hell of a lot quiter here now than a few years back before all the Facebook VW pages appeared and I would like to make a suggestion to admins.

I think it would be great if you guys were to think about an integration between aussieveedubbers.com and Facebook, rather than the forum being isolated from Social Media as it is at the moment.

In addition to driving traffic to the site from your feed, its should be possible to share posts to Facebook and visa versa, creating more interest and traffic to the forum.

I think it would be a pity if this great resource disappeared in 5 years from now, because nobody thought about embracing Social Media now.

Is there a reason this hasnt been done already?

There's a couple of reasons I feel it is all so quiet here now. When this forum was originally created, it was supposed to be a central online meeting point for Australian VW enthusiasts to discuss VW-related topics. In recent years, there have been infinite new forums pop up with many being segregated into concentrating on niche facets of the VW hobby only (eg. kombis, shit-look, etc..). Why we needed all these new forums is beyond me. One that covers all topics in one forum (like this one) should have sufficed, in my mind. I reckon this is the main reason that this place has been watered down significantly in recent years.

The other reason is the crap talk. There's plenty of that here too, which doesn't help anyone and a lot of people I know have moved on because of it.

There's my 2c.

I also might add that social media sites like Fb and youtube are now and for a while have been filtering content to limit bandwidth. This has the unfortunate result of viewers having their subscribed or grouped pages not show new content to them unless they constantly "like" and share it. It is then the the sites sees this as important to that user and will show more content, blocking stuff that they don't actively "like".

So this makes those sites appear inactive but in the background they actually are.


If you are the owner of a yt channel or fb page. you can pay money to open it up to people already subscribed to you. 🤪

My thoughts are that the hobby isn't growing like it used to.

It was maybe sheesh, 10 years ago now it was BOOMING.

Back then... u could get a bug or bay window bus for $1000 sometimes with rwc, or at worst turn a spanner on a few things and get it registered. Heck... even the ol' $750 dub with a few minor requirements popped up.

Now u pay through the roof! late 70's bugs near rwc start at $3000... or if u want a project 60's bug, rather than the $500 it used to be, it'll be $2000 requiring welding / rust repairs. Don't get me started on Kombi prices. This is the general trend; some people get lucky and find bargains.

The game is too expensive for the young ones now (in general).

Tis a shame... It was the cool classic vehicle open to all rich and poor. Poor uni student me was able to sustain it without finance. My younger brother had to get a personal loan.

bajachris88 wrote:My thoughts are that the hobby isn't growing like it used to.

It was maybe sheesh, 10 years ago now it was BOOMING.

Back then... u could get a bug or bay window bus for $1000 sometimes with rwc, or at worst turn a spanner on a few things and get it registered. Heck... even the ol' $750 dub with a few minor requirements popped up.

Now u pay through the roof! late 70's bugs near rwc start at $3000... or if u want a project 60's bug, rather than the $500 it used to be, it'll be $2000 requiring welding / rust repairs. Don't get me started on Kombi prices. This is the general trend; some people get lucky and find bargains.

The game is too expensive for the young ones now (in general).

Tis a shame... It was the cool classic vehicle open to all rich and poor. Poor uni student me was able to sustain it without finance. My younger brother had to get a personal loan.

I totally agree on the prices and how it killing off enthusiasts. And insult to injury is the ever falling quality of parts.

but nearly everything has gone up ridiculous prices.

It is a shame.

bajachris88 wrote:My My younger brother had to get a personal loan.

Did he end up with the "colonalmustard" bug? And if so does he still own it?

I've been a member of this forum for over 10 years...as far as volksy's go I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for input from people on this forum...however, as I'm into drag racing FB allows me to engage with drag racers world wide and only friend like minded people. There is also the issue of wankers who on FB I don't have to engage with. In saying that though, I still try to give back where I can and will comment or help where I can add some value. AVD was the go to place for volksy people but the multitude of different niche forums has impacted the more general forum. It's more a sign of the times not a slowing of the volksy interest. I can say for a fact Volksy drag racing is bigger than its ever been....my 2 cents worth

hellbugged wrote:

bajachris88 wrote:My My younger brother had to get a personal loan.

Did he end up with the "colonalmustard" bug? And if so does he still own it?

Nah that was a 'former' friend which I assisted in procuring and bringing the vehicle to a comfortable, driveable state. T'was a cool car.

Bro's got a type 3 variant. I don't know where mustard is these days

bajachris88 wrote:I don't know where mustard is these days

Was forsale down in Newcastle area a few months back.

I don;t think the hobby is dying, infact the level of quality on many cars is at an all time high now, Valla last year being the biggest ever is certainly a sign the vw community is stronger than ever.

But Chris you hit the nail on the head with prices.
the classic car greed has really taken over and will ultimately kill it off for the younger generations.

Just cos its old don't make it gold..$$$$

esevwbits wrote:

I'm not talking about a simple share/like button (which to be honest is lost on the page)

I'm talking about having new posts feed to Social Media where we can get updates when something new is being discussed. Its very easy to get sucked into Facebook world and not realise there is stuff happening anywhere else.

It is even possible to integrate the two so that posts and comments are synchronised between a forum and Social media (not sure this specific forum has that functionality).

The main thing is, that social media should be driving traffic to the site, and at the moment i dont feel it is, and there is a definite disconnect between the two.

vlad01 wrote:I also might add that social media sites like Fb and youtube are now and for a while have been filtering content to limit bandwidth. This has the unfortunate result of viewers having their subscribed or grouped pages not show new content to them unless they constantly "like" and share it. It is then the the sites sees this as important to that user and will show more content, blocking stuff that they don't actively "like".

So this makes those sites appear inactive but in the background they actually are.


If you are the owner of a yt channel or fb page. you can pay money to open it up to people already subscribed to you. 🤪

Stupid isnt it! That all happened when Facebook decided to monetize their site.

I still think aussieveedubbers cant ignore the importance of Social Media and just how much traffic can be driven to the site by integrating well.

Things have definitely changed.

vlad01 wrote:

bajachris88 wrote:My thoughts are that the hobby isn't growing like it used to.

It was maybe sheesh, 10 years ago now it was BOOMING.

Back then... u could get a bug or bay window bus for $1000 sometimes with rwc, or at worst turn a spanner on a few things and get it registered. Heck... even the ol' $750 dub with a few minor requirements popped up.

Now u pay through the roof! late 70's bugs near rwc start at $3000... or if u want a project 60's bug, rather than the $500 it used to be, it'll be $2000 requiring welding / rust repairs. Don't get me started on Kombi prices. This is the general trend; some people get lucky and find bargains.

The game is too expensive for the young ones now (in general).

Tis a shame... It was the cool classic vehicle open to all rich and poor. Poor uni student me was able to sustain it without finance. My younger brother had to get a personal loan.

I totally agree on the prices and how it killing off enthusiasts. And insult to injury is the ever falling quality of parts.

but nearly everything has gone up ridiculous prices.

It is a shame.

Total shame!!!

Agree 100% re the quality of parts... unless that is that you are willing to spend top dollar. I can't see why anyone would sell poor quality resto parts for any price. It just goes against the whole concept of restoring something.

I dont however think that this is the sole contributor to less people being involved in the hobby (just have a look at how many kids drive around in ricers and how much money they spend on mods).

If my gut is right (and usually it is, and its quite substantial at that), i think half the problem is that the custom VW scene is not very healthy anymore. A healthy custom scene will attract the younger generations. As they mature, so do their tastes in classic vws, and so they start building restos and resto cals.

Also, I reckon if we had a healthier German Look scene in Australia (i mean full on track style cars, big engines, custom colours, big wheels...give the ricers a run for their money on the track also). The scene would attract a new generation of VW drivers, who like myself would eventually end up going down the path of a resto or resto-cal.

For now though, just the mere fact that we arent engaging them through social media anywhere as much as we should be, the forum is going to suffer.

Stanley wrote:I've been a member of this forum for over 10 years...as far as volksy's go I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for input from people on this forum...however, as I'm into drag racing FB allows me to engage with drag racers world wide and only friend like minded people. There is also the issue of wankers who on FB I don't have to engage with. In saying that though, I still try to give back where I can and will comment or help where I can add some value. AVD was the go to place for volksy people but the multitude of different niche forums has impacted the more general forum. It's more a sign of the times not a slowing of the volksy interest. I can say for a fact Volksy drag racing is bigger than its ever been....my 2 cents worth

As far as the forums are concerned, i think aussieveedubbers is still top of mind for me. I do however think that we are not using other tools like social media to engage and attract new members, and the numbers are going to inevitably dwindle.

This problem isn't unique to aussieveedubbers, look at the samba, when I started on there each day you could trawl through pages of new posts. It is significantly quieter too. Facebook I think can be partly to blame but I think earlier posters to this discussion are correct - 10 years ago bugs were cheap cars, easily affordable to first car drivers therefore the forums saw new car owners all the time.

Now how many people are still daily driving their air cooled car? Many people I used too chat here when I first started now have second newer cars, the air cooled car is brought out only on nice sunny days for a cruise. A lot now have families too (yay new generation too indoctrinate haha). Young kids have to be passionate to be able to afford a bug/kombi/type3 and on that side now you have parents saying why not buy something safer if you are spending that much on a car?

I don't think the scene is dying (numbers at valla would show that to be wrong) it's just changing. I tend to find I don't have much time to post on here now but often have a quick read using the phone.

PartyHatCentral wrote:In recent years, there have been infinite new forums pop up with many being segregated into concentrating on niche facets of the VW hobby only (eg. kombis, shit-look, etc..). Why we needed all these new forums is beyond me. One that covers all topics in one forum (like this one) should have sufficed, in my mind.

People create their own forums to safely post their "shit-look" pics and discussions without trolls giving them shit coz they personally don't like the "shit-look", or own a kombi, or built a motor with their own specs. Everyone has different tastes in cars, looks, styles, etc. Too many keyboard warriors these days hiding behind their screens and dishing crap out to anyone who doesn't agree with them. Get out on the road/track and put your car where your mouth is.

Shitebook is like the supermarkets taking over forums who are like corner shops

Wont ever join the place

I appreciate that not everyone likes or uses Facebook. I just cant help but feel that so many users have moved away from the forum to the Facebook and not having a strategy to direct them back to the site will only do damage to the forum.

If the forum starts to appear non active, you risk losing your active users.

I'm new to the scene.

Never owned an air cooled VW before, not as a student or any other time. Owned a highly specialised workshop working on high performance vehicles in the 70's & 80"s, if a VW came through the door we would run the other way. Porsches OK, owned one😂😂😂

Have now owned my a/c VW for eight months and had to do a hell of a lot of work on it and the learning curve has been huge.

I also ask why are there so few VW Bugs around in the clubs? The simple answer I have found in the short time I have owned mine is 1. Terrible service by internet spare part providers. (Not all) but you spend a lot of wasted time finding out the good from the bad, some which are promoted here. 2. Cost of parts which are crap. How many new hobbyists can afford $6,000 - $10,000 for a turnkey engine? Not everybody buying there first hobby car (in this case a Veedub) is an instant mechanic? 3. The vehicles advertised in the lower $3,000 bracket are about ready for the tip or $10,000+ worth of work needed on them. The "good" vehicles advertised for $6,500 - $9,000 are overpriced average ones with plenty of hidden faults for the unwary.

All car clubs are finding the same problem, go and ask the Holden and Ford clubs. The prices asked for decent (if you can find one for sale) Holden or Ford from the 50's or 60"s is mind blowing.

The post vintage club I belong to has more Jaguars init than any other brand. Why? Because they are cheap and nobody wants them. Once they own it they are stuck with it.

These forums are good, but everybody has their own opinions and that alone can be confusing for a newbie.

Is the hobby dying? No, it's just getting very expensive.

MG used to stand for Morris Garages, now it stands for Mature Gentlemen, because they are the only one's that can afford the damn things.

hrastovica wrote:

vlad01 wrote:

bajachris88 wrote:My thoughts are that the hobby isn't growing like it used to.

It was maybe sheesh, 10 years ago now it was BOOMING.

Back then... u could get a bug or bay window bus for $1000 sometimes with rwc, or at worst turn a spanner on a few things and get it registered. Heck... even the ol' $750 dub with a few minor requirements popped up.

Now u pay through the roof! late 70's bugs near rwc start at $3000... or if u want a project 60's bug, rather than the $500 it used to be, it'll be $2000 requiring welding / rust repairs. Don't get me started on Kombi prices. This is the general trend; some people get lucky and find bargains.

The game is too expensive for the young ones now (in general).

Tis a shame... It was the cool classic vehicle open to all rich and poor. Poor uni student me was able to sustain it without finance. My younger brother had to get a personal loan.

I totally agree on the prices and how it killing off enthusiasts. And insult to injury is the ever falling quality of parts.

but nearly everything has gone up ridiculous prices.

It is a shame.

Total shame!!!

Agree 100% re the quality of parts... unless that is that you are willing to spend top dollar. I can't see why anyone would sell poor quality resto parts for any price. It just goes against the whole concept of restoring something.

I dont however think that this is the sole contributor to less people being involved in the hobby (just have a look at how many kids drive around in ricers and how much money they spend on mods).

If my gut is right (and usually it is, and its quite substantial at that), i think half the problem is that the custom VW scene is not very healthy anymore. A healthy custom scene will attract the younger generations. As they mature, so do their tastes in classic vws, and so they start building restos and resto cals.

Also, I reckon if we had a healthier German Look scene in Australia (i mean full on track style cars, big engines, custom colours, big wheels...give the ricers a run for their money on the track also). The scene would attract a new generation of VW drivers, who like myself would eventually end up going down the path of a resto or resto-cal.

For now though, just the mere fact that we arent engaging them through social media anywhere as much as we should be, the forum is going to suffer.

I nailed that issue down bang for buck. VW are the absolute worse bang for buck in terms of performance as well as many other ways. like just getting them on the road.

for the price of a stock vw engine you can redo a whole ricer or falcadoore to very good standards with good parts and increase performance on the side for practically bugger all.

if VWs offered good band for buck maybe the young ones will take them on more readily.

vlad01 wrote:if VWs offered good band for buck maybe the young ones will take them on more readily.

Also,.. perhaps,..

Maybe the majority of 'young ones' don't like air cooled vw's.

Oppps,.. I've said the wrong thing haven't I,...😍🙅👍

After all were are talking about people of driving age born in the 90's and very soon in the 00's.

and,..
a lot of parents want them driving a newer safer car with airbags etc,…

You really have to love them to keep them going.

All Emily and I hope is that when we can't drive anymore hopefully our two bugs will have somewhere to go to someone who will care for them.

After all the Govt probably won't let us drive our 'petrol' cars by then.

landfall wrote:I also ask why are there so few VW Bugs around in the clubs? The simple answer I have found in the short time I have owned mine is 1. Terrible service by internet spare part providers. (Not all) but you spend a lot of wasted time finding out the good from the bad, some which are promoted here. 2. Cost of parts which are crap. How many new hobbyists can afford $6,000 - $10,000 for a turnkey engine? Not everybody buying there first hobby car (in this case a Veedub) is an instant mechanic? 3. The vehicles advertised in the lower $3,000 bracket are about ready for the tip or $10,000+ worth of work needed on them. The "good" vehicles advertised for $6,500 - $9,000 are overpriced average ones with plenty of hidden faults for the unwary.

All car clubs are finding the same problem, go and ask the Holden and Ford clubs. The prices asked for decent (if you can find one for sale) Holden or Ford from the 50's or 60"s is mind blowing.

The post vintage club I belong to has more Jaguars init than any other brand. Why? Because they are cheap and nobody wants them. Once they own it they are stuck with it.

These forums are good, but everybody has their own opinions and that alone can be confusing for a newbie.

Is the hobby dying? No, it's just getting very expensive.

MG used to stand for Morris Garages, now it stands for Mature Gentlemen, because they are the only one's that can afford the damn things.

I think you have hit the nail on the head here , plus you will find the youngins are paying way too much for their fad car ,to find out they don't really like it ,then on selling for more so the escalating prices keep going up for something that you could get a way better riding more comfortable and power to boot modern (but less cool ) car for the same cash.

Carl and Emily wrote:

vlad01 wrote:if VWs offered good band for buck maybe the young ones will take them on more readily.

Also,.. perhaps,..

Maybe the majority of 'young ones' don't like air cooled vw's.

Oppps,.. I've said the wrong thing haven't I,...😍🙅👍

After all were are talking about people of driving age born in the 90's and very soon in the 00's.

and,..
a lot of parents want them driving a newer safer car with airbags etc,…

You really have to love them to keep them going.

All Emily and I hope is that when we can't drive anymore hopefully our two bugs will have somewhere to go to someone who will care for them.

After all the Govt probably won't let us drive our 'petrol' cars by then.

No really, VW are just stupidly expensive for little gain. I found out the hard way.

I could spend 6-10K on a stockish engine built right or perhaps 15-20K for the t4 engine I've always wanted.

or spend less than 4K for fully blueprinted falcadoore engine and add some turbos, make 700hp and drive around reliably for the next 10 years and go though hundreds of sets of types.

or can be really cheap and buy a low K engine for $200 and couple hundred bucks make a turbo system for it, add 15psi, make 500hp and drive til its way past 300,000km and just buy another $200 engine if it ever decides to die. which i have not ever had happen as well and tons of other people in the same boat.

want to really splash out and run with the big boys. 10K and get a full LS conversion. Thats engine, exhaust, gearbox, wiring blah blah

same story of hondas and nissans etc...

just go to a metal scrap yard and see the piles of matte black skyline drift cars with big ass turbo and intercooler. They are so cheap they are disposable.

Naturally young people want power and don't have much money to spend. So poor old VW gets disregarded.

You are either born to respect what came before you or just stick with the times, I use both forums & social media & have done so for over a decade.
Bought my 1st Beetle for $800 (2005) at 19 years of age (rusted piece of sh*t but I loved it) bought the next one at 22 (2008) for $5k then over the next few years spent over $30k on engine, fuel system, brakes, suspension upgrades making it driveable in the modern world.
Loved it, thrashed it, put it to the side for the future. Good investment I think.
Next one a rust free early 60's project for $500 (2013) age 27. Stripped it, cut it & slipped the body on a V8 speedway chassis. Still in progress.
Yes you can get some boosted jap crap for peanuts but the character just isn't there. I also do drive a jap crap car (lexus is200) as a daily for the safety, reliable aspect, but nothing replaces the feel of yester-year.
As for VW air cool clubs in N.S.W....... WHAT A F#CKING JOKE....... Not fun for anyone under the age of 47....
Just MY perspective input from someone under the age of 30....

Hi

We have a small population and an even smaller group of VW owners, we need to keep this place alive by posting things that may be of interest on here as well as Facebook, I try to keep my build thread going on here as well as German Look, VWKD, SuperBeetles only and Facebook.

Steve

Lotta good points here. I spent my early driving years working on 60's and 70's Holdens that you could pick up for bugger all. Still got a couple. Now they're over priced. Got into Dubs in the last couple of years. Prices going up!
Old cars are the new money pits or is it just that what was rare in the 80's is now extremely rare and the easy to get of the 90's are now not so common. Even early commodores and 80's falcons are collectable because there are less of them. It's actually a normal cycle. As something gets older and there are less available then more people want them either because of nostalgia or a desire to have something different.

As for including AussieVeeDubber on facebook... It may be a way to gather a few more people to our forum, but are they the ones we want here. I avoid most social media, probably because I find it more antisocial than social. I like forums like this one, thesamba and kombiclub. There seems to be a fairly consistent good vibe about them. All I've seen from facebook tends to make me want to call it bitchandwhingebook.
My2c worth.

I have had a beetle for over 20 years, was given it as a kid. My boy sits in it and our 74 panel just about everyday. He lives them and also knows that our 72 SC that is in storage will one day be his.
I'm hoping in the time it takes me to get it on the road ( probably ten years) his still interested.

I've wanted to jack my hobby of VW because of money grabbing people, I'm only new to the hands on side and have had a few steep learning curves. The whole peace and love thing is there somewhere but I see more money and gone.

But everyday my boy wants a ride in his panel, so out it comes and so does his smile. I deep down know that these hobby cars aren't going anywhere but I'm much more aware of the scene and cautious.

Saying that I have met some pretty cool people along the way.
Let's just hope it doesn't get so expensive that our younger kids can't jump on board.

Enough of a rant

Dan

airkool_little_bastard wrote:As for VW air cool clubs in N.S.W....... WHAT A F#CKING JOKE....... Not fun for anyone under the age of 47....
Just MY perspective input from someone under the age of 30....

You dont have to be young to get into old VWs or modify them, it helps to have a bit of cash to spend on cars as you get older, you can learn a lot from older VW people if your prepared to engage with them

1303Steve wrote:

airkool_little_bastard wrote:As for VW air cool clubs in N.S.W....... WHAT A F#CKING JOKE....... Not fun for anyone under the age of 47....
Just MY perspective input from someone under the age of 30....

You dont have to be young to get into old VWs or modify them, it helps to have a bit of cash to spend on cars as you get older, you can learn a lot from older VW people if your prepared to engage with them

I realize that you don't have to be young to mod a dub, but the club scene isn't exactly exciting for people such as myself. Don't enjoy car shows, (cars are built to be driven) the VW racing is too political & about as organized at a pile of spaghetti. As for club meetings zzzz. As the generation gap between tradition & modern ways widens it's no wonder this forum is becoming abit on the quiet side.
I previously have worked in one of the top VW performance shops in Australia for 18 months, the experience & knowledge I learnt was priceless & have all the time in the world for the much more knowledgeable volks elders.

This is great discussion, and one of the things I am trying to do is increase mobile via developing a Tapatalk integration (which is actually pretty hard), but also fast Facebook registration and sign in. Honestly, the entire thing needs a good rototil.

However, there is no denying that we are starting to see a die off in the numbers of active participants. This is due to:

We became focused fairly purely on the aircooled scene. With the last aircooled VW's sold in the country back in the early 80's with the last of the aircooled buses, and Beetles endng in the mid 70's, there was always going to be fewer and fewer folks on the scene than when we first opened. We hit peak AVDS around 2008 or so.

Rise of social media. We are focused on one thing and one thing only. Social media is a lot more sticky than we are. So basically, we don't have the same level of stickiness.

Splits off to other forums, which in turn have tended to die off as well.

If you folks think there are too many forums, I'm all for merging like forums. We have over 70, and it disperses traffic all over the place. This could be a good first step as it's easy to do.

Shall we do that?

One last thing, and this is pretty radical, is that I could talk to one of the big VW forums, like The Samba or VW Vortex and see if they want to take us over. I don't know if this would be palatable to you the members, but if we can draw more folks to AVDS because of global scale, it might be worthwhile.

thanks
Andrew

wow!
I'd find it a shame to lose our aussieness (if that is a word)
we live in a globalised community and we have a specific niche in the vw world, if feel
many people have met through dubs and the forum and dare I say it become friends..
just saying..
mergers/acquisitions; if that is the way of the future so be it..
but to me a shame none the less..
my 2c

Would hate to see forum go

And Aussieveedubbers really does cover all VW's and is rather nice to be locals

I fo5r one intend to post more often as want to ensure there is something to look at :-)

Andrew forum merge makes sense. But I agree the Aussie nature of AVD is a plus. Mitchell

I would be up for a forum merge, centralise a few things

If I wanted to join Samba I would have. I like Centremounts and small cc motors though, so I probably wouldn't have been allowed past the probationary period.

It would be a shame if everyone had to trawl through endless pages of bright, shiny, flashing neon fluff (ie, BookFace) to find something of genuine ingenuity and interest.

I'm also a member of Cal-Look Lounge, mainly because the items there and here are very different, but each site is still mostly tolerant of differences and celebratory of enthusiasm.

Keep this site Aussie please, I don't find the extra sections hard to navigate, I always just click topic activity when I come on, then I only look at subjects that interest me

I personally like the smaller community feel and distinct Aussieness of AVD. I'm a samba member and browse sometimes, follow a few build threads and get info when I need it, whereas I visit Aussieveedubber almost every day. I don't know any of you guys personally but feel I'm part of something here.
Then again I do live in a small town and hide from most social media and unreality tv!

I don't think avd should merge with the samba..there I think it'll just become lost - its nice to get information that is aussie specific as there are so many differences between aussie built and US built.

Some of the extra sections could definitely be merged for easier browsing now there is less activity in each area.

wombatventures wrote:Then again I do live in a small town and hide from most social media and unreality tv!

Peterborough small?!?!?!?!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterborough,_South_Australia
1700 people, jeez it's HUGE!!!!
😂
Only kidding mate! I like that area and the Flinders, nice spot.

I don't actively hide, I just choose to ignore everything. 😊

I think a takeover by Samba would not be good. The beauty of Aussie Vee Dubbers is just that... it is Aussie!

I do however think that any of the following ideas would be beneficial:

a) More active marketing (even posting pic links to a Facebook page to drive new traffic to the site) and integrations with Social Media (and mobile of course)
b) A way to monetise the forum in order to justify the effort for admins to run and market it.
c) Active promotion on a local level through clubs and events (ie. its very hard to market the forum australia wide).
d) Provide the various offshoots a mechanism through which they can have their private forums, but still connected to the main AussieVeeDubbers page.
e) Active promotion at VW events
f) Run your own aussieveedubbers event

Re the hobby dying off i dont really believe it is the case. Look at how many cars turn up to Day of (I am in VIC) and it is clear that the hobby is far from dead! The question is how to get the people who already have the bugs to be members here and actively participate.

I will give you an example of what im talking about... I have not been to the forum in some time (so long in fact that i had to log in again). YET, my Facebook profile is ALWAYS on. If there was something on Facebook that a) reminds users of new activity on aussieveedubbers b) gives users a reason to want to come here (eg. professional pics of their cars at events/cruises) they would be inclined to register and become active members again.

Its nothing personal, we all love aussieveedubbers.com, we just forget you are here!

I've certainly noticed one thing, activity is a lot more on the facebook groups than the forums,
all I can put it down to is ease of use and the fact many people seem to live on facebook so you get quicker response times.

I've moderated on SuperBeetles only for a lot of years and also admin the facebook group and noticed the bigger the facebook group gets the quiter the forum gets.
Since I've started admin on the AVD facebook group I've noticed a similar pattern, a lot of the members on there have no idea this forum even exists.

Worst thing about the facebook groups is after a few days the posts are bumped into oblivion and a carbon copy question asked again a few days later.

How many of you are sick of seeing that f--king 5th wheel beetle caravan video or the drifting Beetle replay from Forza because some one new posts it each week.

^ wow 5th wheel beetle caravan.. put the link up please 😂

The fact that old posts are kept on AVD is one of my favourite things. Sometimes reading through posts from 2006 leads to answers that I'd never have got otherwise.
Some are even hilarious reading.

wombatventures wrote:The fact that old posts are kept on AVD is one of my favourite things. Sometimes reading through posts from 2006 leads to answers that I'd never have got otherwise.
Some are even hilarious reading.

That's the way i find it, But Aussieveedubbers has been a great help in not only finding information, but getting inspiration, buying, selling and swapping parts / cars, and helping others. It would be one huge loss if Aussieveedubbers disappeared... my 2c... 🤪

adlbeetle66 wrote:

wombatventures wrote:The fact that old posts are kept on AVD is one of my favourite things. Sometimes reading through posts from 2006 leads to answers that I'd never have got otherwise.
Some are even hilarious reading.

That's the way i find it, But Aussieveedubbers has been a great help in not only finding information, but getting inspiration, buying, selling and swapping parts / cars, and helping others. It would be one huge loss if Aussieveedubbers disappeared... my 2c... 🤪

x 10 very good points

surely just keeping posting will keep it alive, Im not so up with these things

Joel wrote:I've certainly noticed one thing, activity is a lot more on the facebook groups than the forums,
all I can put it down to is ease of use and the fact many people seem to live on facebook so you get quicker response times.

I've moderated on SuperBeetles only for a lot of years and also admin the facebook group and noticed the bigger the facebook group gets the quiter the forum gets.
Since I've started admin on the AVD facebook group I've noticed a similar pattern, a lot of the members on there have no idea this forum even exists.

Worst thing about the facebook groups is after a few days the posts are bumped into oblivion and a carbon copy question asked again a few days later.

How many of you are sick of seeing that f--king 5th wheel beetle caravan video or the drifting Beetle replay from Forza because some one new posts it each week.

OMG the fifth wheel caravan has done my head in. I think every one of my non VW mates has sent it to me like some kind of revelation.

I like the fact that information on this site is relevant to Australia, yes I do look at Samba but AVD is local people saying local things.(if that makes sense)
can I ask about Facebook, I have just joined Aussieveedubbers on Facebook, is it part of this group? i never knew it existed.
I love this site and keep dreaming of getting my KG on the road, the love is there but the money keeps running away.......
Tony

wombatventures wrote:The fact that old posts are kept on AVD is one of my favourite things. Sometimes reading through posts from 2006 leads to answers that I'd never have got otherwise.
Some are even hilarious reading.

Bring back the 1916 thread.......best read ever.

Keep AVD. I check the others too, but the local option is great.

Whitty wrote:

wombatventures wrote:The fact that old posts are kept on AVD is one of my favourite things. Sometimes reading through posts from 2006 leads to answers that I'd never have got otherwise.
Some are even hilarious reading.

Bring back the 1916 thread.......best read ever.

If i recall that was a shitfight, abuse, threats, chaos and general shenanigans hahaha

I love the forum, still the best place to get advice/ideas. I am on facebook but generally find a different sort person and reply you get there... its a different world lets be honest.. i am in my 30's now so not sure where that puts me in the age debate but have been a member here since i was 20.. i love reading peoples restos here but would hate to see them on facebook.

johndoe980 wrote:I like the fact that information on this site is relevant to Australia, yes I do look at Samba but AVD is local people saying local things.(if that makes sense)
can I ask about Facebook, I have just joined Aussieveedubbers on Facebook, is it part of this group? i never knew it existed.
I love this site and keep dreaming of getting my KG on the road, the love is there but the money keeps running away.......
Tony

Hmm, that may answer a question for me, so there is an AVD on FB , recently I received a text message and the author said he got my / his info off FB, I was wondering if it was quite legit, I'll have to search for AVD on FB to see what's going on, that's if I can work out how to use FB😂

there are 2 on Facebook,
Aussieeveedubbers and Aussie VeeDubbers
which one is from this site?
I am a member of both.

neither are the same as this i would say just members from here that have started them both i reckon..

Not sure if it's since been fixed but I had huge problems just registering to become a member on here last year. I would go through the registration process only for it to not accept my password when I would try to log in. After nearly six months of trying, asking on other forums and contacting mods via email with no reply I figured out I had request a new password in order to activate the account. Might have been a simple fix in the end but for a technophobe like me not exactly an easy process.

True. Had the same problem.. AVD would have more users if this wasn't the case.

Ha! Noticed you managed to figure it out the day after I did adlbeetle. Yeah I wonder how many possible members have just given up trying, certainly doesn't help to expand the member base.

i know i spent a huge amount of time clearing out those email as they came in. a lot of them you would email them back and half the time no answer was ever received. i did get a lot of people on as a result of it.
there was a time period that no emails were coming through though and something was broken as was the password reset. both are now fixed.

😂 What a coincidence!

Well I've been 'away' for a few years because I can't afford to play with cars. I still have my 75 kombi that I plan to resurrect soon, and a 65 notch that I hope to restore to road-going condition at least.
Like most people, I use Facebook and I'm a member of the aussieveedubbers Facebook group, but who runs it? It's great for general interest and networking but it really has nothing on this site. Are the two even related?

Hi all

I've been painfully aware of the decline in posts here. To some extent, I have always expected it to dwindle over time, as the number of aircooled VW's dwindles.

The great thing is that aircooled VW owners are passionate about their cars, but particularly in Australia, we did see a bunch of bus related forums and other forums with limited membership pop up. Whether they felt the need to do this or not, I'm not entirely sure, but it's not hard to run a forum. It is hard to run it well - get a nice VPS for a decent price, making sure backups are in place, and so on. Luckily, we've been pretty lucky in that regard over the last few years.

One of the things I've been thinking about is how to drive traffic here. We've had a few false starts, such as using a CMS like Drupal and so on, and none of those worked as well as I would have liked. At one stage, I looked into moving the forum software to be inside Drupal as they have a forum software, but it's really broken.

Recently, I have been contemplating using a third party forum software (XenForo) but that also has not gone anywhere. I like XenForo because it allows mobile phone usage, which considering that I see a lot of traffic from mobile devices, and I know how horrible mobile access is to the forum. XenForo is not great at mobile usage either, but it's still better than here.

Part of the problem is that this forum software which I helped develop has a BUNCH of features, more than most out there. Going to anything else will mean a reduction in features. I don't know if you all use them, but that's something to consider.

I've looked at Tapatalk for mobile integration, but what happens there is that I lose all the limited advertising funds I get now (meaning I really will be paying to run this place), and you still get ads on your mobile devices, but we don't get any of that.

Facebook integration is one of those things I've resisted as I don't want to tie us to the FB platform. The forum has an active FB group with a bunch of members there, so in some ways, that's fine, but again, we don't get any money from that.

So it's interesting - where do we go from here?

Andrew

I like the software that KC uses.. Haven't tried it on mobile though...

If it is a business, You have to make money, otherwise it is a hobby! Its your choice! However, I hope it does not fail as it is a highlight of my day to read and watch others do what I dont have the time for yet! keep it up and i will still be here! Thanks.

old people like me (43) like the forum, young people like facebook. they will come back down the track.

I'm 13, and if that makes me young, i'm not on facebook at all. 🙂

That's cos yer under the car all the time Denver.
I agree though, haven't been on myface account for 5 years and don't even know if it still exists, same with my spacebook.
Here, Samba and sometimes kombiclub
That's the lot
Oh and just commodores (not even a member) when trying to fix my dunnydoor again.... and again.... and again.......who thought putting a fuel pump in the fuel tank was a good idea!
ooops, going back to my corner.