yeah, why is facebook killing forums ?
I'm not on FB, just wondering where/why the action went.
Seems like the forums been a goldmine of info forever (although a lot of the valuable info is lost every now and then)
I'm assuming more traffic, but Is the info on FB better organized or something..... or its just how the new gen rolls

i dont see how facebook can be killing forums, all ive ever seen is pictures and people trying to sell pricey cars and parts. facebook lacks a archive format where you can easily look at old posts and threads, i may be looking at the wrong facebook pages however i just type in ae86 in the facebook search bar.

i'm not on facebook either but i'm guessing facebook can be convenient because a lot of different things are in one place.

zem wrote:i dont see how facebook can be killing forums, all ive ever seen is pictures and people trying to sell pricey cars and parts. facebook lacks a archive format where you can easily look at old posts and threads, i may be looking at the wrong facebook pages however i just type in ae86 in the facebook search bar.

I'm a fairly new comer (to this site) and I'm with you on this one. I checked Facebook and didn't even really see anyone selling parts. I was told there was an abundance of stuff being sold on FB but didn't find much. Circuit Theory I found through Facebook though. The AE86 is still super popular online and off. Everyone seems to love them and wants one....Maybe just not as many owners?

If anyone has this golden ticket to the secret AE86 guild on FB let me in on it lol.

IMO the tech/general sections have been roughly average since I started coming here in 2009, but maybe a little less now. Perhaps there's less in the journal section currently, but it's still fairly active. The classifieds have definitely slowed down a lot, but I think that's mainly because Toyota discontinued so many parts. Further before most of the sought after jdm bumpers, lights, etc. got discontinued Toyota stopped allowing their dealers in the USA to bring in the jdm parts directly. (No more homie hook-ups from the dealer.) As a result prices have sky rocketed for both new and sought after used oem parts. At least the exchange rate is favorable now.

figured I just throw the topic out there, as I've seen the same comment made on quite a few forums - too dam often
So there has to be something to it ?
For instance, in a recent thread I commented on the lack of folks posting their turbo 4AG builds here.
Response was that there are actually "about the same percentage still buiilding them, but they post on facebook..... and the problem was, there are way too many groups out there, to subsscibe to".
Sounds like the activity is definitely still there, but traffic is just not flowing thru forums, reflecting that
Guess you gotta know where to look on facebook
FB was a turn off for me, after being alarmed by the ridiculous garbage people spew on there
More or less curious about what lured the "typical" 4AG enthusiast away

Assuming you're correct... perhaps it has to do with vanity, or more specifically, 'social media's' ability to display it. Only a very select demographic will see what's posted on a forum like this (niche enthusiasts). On fb everyone ('friends,' family, colleagues, etc.) can see what's posted. (Most, perhaps none, of those people would see it on this forum.) Think of it as a larger audience to show off to.

Everyone these days wants everything right here right now.
People want easy access on their phones and tablets. Having everything in one place makes that a lot easier.
Facebook is much more of an ADD mentality, here one minute, gone the next. Unfortunately I think that represents many new minds. Whether FB created it or just pandered to the craving IDK.
I do fully believe that much of the traffic has gone that way though.
I would be willing to bet that if you actually put together a statistic of average posts per day in a section comparing say 2006 to 2016 that you would see a drastic drop in activity and not just on our old car forums that are going to loose a little traffic every year anyway as the cars get older and the group gets smaller.

It's been a double edged sword for me. I would rather be on the forums and would love to go back t the days when I had 69 FB friends and wasn't a part of any groups but for my business it has been by far my biggest marketing resource.
I spend much less time on the forums myself these days just because 10 minutes of involvement on facebook does more for my business than a day on the forums. So the forums end up being something I check in on when I have a few minutes and am not completely burned out by social media.

thank u !!
that's about the best explanation I've heard. You summed it up very well

He makes a great point. Fb is slowly being integrated into everything (even this forum). A lot of websites now require one to log into their fb account to post a message. Manufacturers, Vendors, etc. will list their fb account link when making a new announcements rather than their own website. Pretty much any business without fb is doomed to fail, or least considered not modern in terms of pr which is bad from a business perspective. I still think vanity snowballed the whole thing in terms of the individual. Back in 2007 I never figured it would last considering what happened to My Space; unfortunately, I was wrong. Still, somehow I've avoided becoming a fb lemming.

I'm a non facebook user that was active on this site from about 2003 to 2007, and briefly again in 2010. Just signed up again. Have had AE86 all this time. The reason I fade out because it depresses me to see the community in decline. This is one of the most recent topics in fun talk and the last guy here was 4 days ago. I mean damn. How does this community revitalize?

It's simple, Facebook is user friendly, quick, and easily accessible with our cellphones. Forums are designed to be used on a desktop/laptop computer.

This is more apparent with classifieds. I remember the days where I would snap photos of parts with my digital camera, crop/edit on the computer, upload to Photobucket, then lastly take the time to type up the ad with descriptions/photos. Cellphones/Facebook is now the "one-stop-shop", just snap a photo and immediately post for thousands to see.

Unfortunately the major downfall is not being able to write "DIYs" or "build threads." There is essentially no way of searching for topics/threads on Facebook.

But what I really think hurt this page was the few times it went down; frustrating users after losing all the information that many of us spent many hours on. Plus for some reason the "new" format seemed to scare off many users as well.

^ I remember back in the day only smart people knew how to upload photos to websites (cardomain) Now the masses have internet access and its a bunch of filth taking over. You have to know where to look to find the good stuff.

yeah, FB has a new flavour, but it's not only club4ag that has experienced a sharp decline in traffic. I see it all over

My question would be:

If you removed the forums from the internet entirely, would the facebooks, instaqgrams, twitters, etc... be able to supply the knowledge base and instructional ability that a forum does? Many facebook users still reference forums as a resource for builds and tutorials. If that does not exist, I think it would be much more difficult for users to have a reference guide to know how to do things.

Im with yoshi on this one.

I saw this happening quickly with the club4ag fb group and how quickly things went sour there when it was first formed. I saw all of the interesting and technical info get drowned out by all the dudes trying to get the likes with a bunch of 'fluff' posts of pics of their cars and what not...

I tried addressing this myself with creating a local focused group (norcal represeennttt) and it went pretty well for the passed couple years. but it does feel rather limited because we kept it to local dudes only. though we are at 500ish users, things still got drowned out in a way, and I feel it really is just the way the groups were made to be. posts of interesting discussions get lost eventually, and really hard to keep things going in general. I tried addressing this with "sticky" posts, but no one really makes an effort to click into those topics. So those posts that people tried making an effort to follow the guidelines never got seen...

it's pretty frustrating, and I can only imagine how it is for new users where there are so many different places to go to get good info and find somewhere with some sense of community.

I also tried addressing the whole thing about info being all scattered everywhere with a reference page (see here: https://sites.google.com/site/ncalae86/resources-1). But I've lost motivation to keep it going with lack of feedback on it (general lack of motivation that I've been trying to manage really, not just corolla stuff).

Corollas are great cars, and I feel they breed a great owner being so old and reliant on low-speed fun. In turn bring together a great group of like-minded owners to form a great community. I felt this before I even had a corolla and cruised the old-old-old club4ag back in the early 2000's, then moreso when I got my corolla when I turned 15 in 2006 and mingled with more corolla dudes irl. Then to see it dismantle in this fashion to dudes looking for the likes on facebook/instagram/other soc media is a disappointment.

But maybe this is just the way it's supposed to go? Corollas are no longer cheap enough for the budget friendly and driven enthusiast to jump into anymore. And the same spirit will come back around through another chassis (frs/brz in 10 years)? And if a new owner jumps in still wet at the ears will have a much harder time without the guidance of someone helping them either.

So many questions, and I'd like to think that the corolla community will come together stronger than before. But doesn't really seem all that likely?

/drunk ramblings

ive been seriously over it the last mmm 8 years or so..

but i still love the car.. i still build them..

but im not so active on the forums anymore. I am waiting for the day when it becomes as strong as it was back in the day. =D

I would agree with you guys. I've loved these cars for a while but only been an owner for 4 years. So I'm not very active but I blame that on the fact that I live in Baltimore which doesn't have the most thriving ae86 community.

Anyway, I never have any luck with finding groups with parts for sale on Facebook or Instagram, this is still my best resource for parts love the for sale section. Outside of having to drive hours for finding parts locally, it's my only saving grace.

In the 4 years I've been in it though I've met some really awesome people who showed me some real love for driving an 86. I never felt that way with the rx7, Acura, Honda, Mitsubishi community.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, though the forums have slowed down all the information that has been compiled is still here. I always use google to search before I ask something on here and like 99.9% of the time I can find my answer since there is such a wealth of knowledge for these cars online. Be it from YouTube, club4ag, other forums or random webpages.

Final point, the forums still have their place but as far as developing community goes social media has forums beat. Something about being able to see all the 86s across the world on Instagram is a magical thing though, so I can't say I don't enjoy the benefits.

Last last thing. The language barrier would prevent us from being able to interact with people from other countries who drive 86s that don't speak English. With Instagram and other social media, you can see these pictures and kind of develop a connection that would have more difficult 10 years ago. So I don't know what's better or worse, just making a comment .

I think sometime it's just a lot easier and faster to post stuff up on FB instead of forums.

Except most people on FB car groups are fuggen morons.

The one sole thing that killed this forum for me is the lack of upkeep on it. The search feature is INOP, browsing peoples profiles and related posts is INOP, and the lack of good content on here anymore.

*RANT* but the OLD club4ag before it crashed and became this light blue forum was great because of its search feature. Anything and everything was covered by it, and you can start lurking peoples profiles because they were quality posters and you found alot of knowledge in the posts. Now i try to search anything and it doesnt work. Which leads me to google, and other forums. Facebook is cool for classifieds, but thats it. Not really any knowledgable posts or good info.

Killing forums........ from what I see you can access fb so much more quickly, more so then forums. I can understand that for people with business it's been a heaven sent. Demographics plays a big role in this. They would just like to get info NOW and they want to be seen doing it.

When I "discovered" club4ag in the (very) late 90s, it was a mailing list. Really exclusive. Then it became this format. Now if you don't have a fb account you're nowhere. Decline in forum traffic? Yes, of course. But for us older hachi blokes we'll keep coming back to the forum.

If you can grasp what I mean.....

Sometimes when you get involved with something, you get to love the way it is, and
you get annoyed/frustrated when it starts to change in a way you don't like. Welcome
to the real world

But there is a bigger picture here. Marketing has become an extremely sophisticated
and subtle force in our world. We now have several generations who have grown up in
a world where we are taught that self-gratification is good... instant gratification is
better, and anything that gains the attention of your peers, no matter how stupid or
offensive, makes you an instant superstar. Go to Youtube and look at what gets posted
there... consider what "goes viral" and collects a million likes... quality stuff huh ?

Ask yourself why is Facebook free to join, when all they ask in return is that you share
with them all your likes and dislikes, places you go, food you eat, clothes you buy,
where you live, went to school, birthday, email and telephone numbers. As someone
on this forum is fond of saying... information is power. And when Facebook knows all
there is to know about you, they use/sell that information for commercial purposes.

People are the cash cows; marketing and technology are the milking machine. If you
grow up in a world where all this is considered normal, you accept it without question.
However, if you are from an older generation, you can see how the dumbing down
process works. You refuse to sell your soul to the devil just to gain a million likes, and
you lament the passing of an old friend.

You want the forums to be the way they were "back in the day", but you can't wind back
time. The AE86 will become one of those "funny old cars" that your kids will point out
when you are out driving to the mall in your androgynous, computor-designed, wind
tunnel shaped, eco-friendly, recyclable, hybrid Bitzer. And groups of old men will get
together once a month to reminisce and swap hard to get rusty old AE86 parts.

This is the Natural Order of things... it has been happening since the automobile was
invented, and it will continue. The only thing that keeps forums alive is the love and
enthusiasm of the members. But unfortunately, as with all organistaions, when the
owners/administrators lose their enthusiasm, the feeling filters down to the membership,
Add to that the fact that these days anyone coming out of school and wanting to get
into the car scene has multiple choices. There are plenty of cars that are just as cheap
as a half decent AE86, but are faster, better handling, safer and more likely to get
parental approval to park in the driveway.

So, by all means hang onto the things you love, but don't expect the new generations
to share your love. Getting older can be a bitch sometimes

Cheers... jondee86

PS: Yes, cold and wet here today, so I am stuck inside

This thread lacks pics.... so I give you an example...



Who knows this car today ? Yet it was once known as the world's fastest production car.
Fortunately, there are a handful of enthusiasts, mostly wealthy, who salvage, restore
and preserve these cars to show new generations something from the past.

Because of the volume sold, the AE86 will never make it into the top eschelon of
collectables. However, that means that it will stay within the reach of folks of more
modest means who want to have something different to love in their garage

Cheers... jondee86

jondee86 wrote:So, by all means hang onto the things you love, but don't expect the new generations
to share your love. Getting older can be a bitch sometimes

And thats the truth with some cheese on it.

The cars are old...
- Finding an AE86 is tougher than it was 10 years ago - low supply, fewer owners, less posts.
- Maintaining one takes space, money, tools, time, ability, and desire which a lot of prospective newb owners are lacking.
- There are more modern sports cars on the market - S2000, Miata, 350z, G35.
- After 30 years, there isn't a lot of new stuff to talk about.

Facebook isn't killing the forums, the casual AE86 crowd is riding off into the sunset.

... and "The specified search backend doesn’t exist."

Sad but it's true...

I'm not on fb anymore and bringing back the old days and coming back here.

Skaughtto wrote:Facebook isn't killing the forums, the casual AE86 crowd is riding off into the sunset.
... and "The specified search backend doesn’t exist."

I agree 100% to the above comments.

Facebook could be a convenient tool but, I delete my account years ago...and I am happy.
I have better things to do than uploading what I had for lunch....!!

you want to know what killed the forum . when the remodeled. right after the remodel it all went to kaka!