Hardly anybody benefits from this forum

[Rob B]

Hello Scott,

I am not on the committee but may I respectfully suggest that this FORUM is not being fully utilised? - An agenda item for the next committee meeting please and to be actively promoted via the SOCK as the PRIMARY method for all future technical discussions.

It may be that the Technical Secretary and others are doing a fantastic job assisting HOC members with their various enquiries, problems, fixes, etc. BUT, nobody else learns of or benefits from this because it is not being done via the HOC Forum. I think only five or six of us contribute out of a membership of about seventy people I'm guessing. A terrific amount of effort went into setting this up which is effectively wasted. I'm certain that some people will always prefer to communicate by telephone, face-to-face or snail mail for their various (numerous) Hesketh technical issues but the basic transcripts of those discussions or "fixes" and recommendations could then still be made available for all HOC members to learn from via this Forum.

Personally I have little interest in the HOC as a social club but my bikes and their technical aspects / issues are important to me and that is the primary reason why I remain a member of the HOC. Quite possibly the only reason.


Many thanks,

Robert

[Dave Snr]

Hi Rob,

I'll put your comments on the agenda for the next committee meeeting January 21st.

You're right, Jeff has put a tremendous amount of work into the forum, both setting it up and content.
The subject is often discussed at committee including the last AGM - see minutes in Sock 114, June 2016.
New owners, which are few, seem to use the forum and I'm sure it helps them.
But you're right, amongst the longer term members, there is little contribution.
But thanks to Jeff, we've recently covered oil pressure switches, including info from Mick Broom and replacement indicator boxes.
Both of these subjects, were also included in the Sock magazine, because we're aware that the majority of members don't look at the forum.
Jeff's also covered Astralite strengthening, updated forks and so on.

Question is how can we make members use the forum?

At the AGM, Jeff, who is a member of several other bike clubs, said that forums are old hat and that in future, social medai will replace them and that some clubs have closed their forums in favour of Facebook pages.

I've never used Facebook, so am a bit of a dinosaur in that respect.

Would you Rob, or any other member like to comment?

The social events do keep the Hesketh bikes in the public eye and are very useful to members. Our overseas rallies in 2012 and 2014 were very well attended by nearly all of our European mainland members. That really helps them when trying to keep their bikes on the road, when they've met UK members and talked about the bikes.

Best regards

Dave H

[Julf]

I would hate for the discussion to move to facebook (or other social media). Here it is reasonably permanent, and we can all go back and look for solutions, whereas on social media information will be transient and quickly lost.

OK, I am an old fart, and would even prefer a mailing list instead of a forum, but...

[HOCAdmin]

The forum uses web-space within the HOC's own domain.  The hosting package includes a 'gallery' feature that enables HOC to permanently host images that can then can be linked to forum posts, properly illustrating discussions on technical problems and their solutions.

The forum provides a structure to these discussions that enables contributors and readers to easily find and follow them.  It's a facility that I find  essential and I know other HOC members (but, by no means all) agree.  I have no plans to dismantle or transfer the site, or forum.

Social media sites provide alternative access to online information.  Their 'footprint' amongst the 'connected community' has expanded exponentially over the past five years and it would be foolhardy to ignore the PR opportunities and accessibility options that they afford.  I use FaceBook (an individual account) and I'm a member of at least five FaceBook groups.  I've discussed my V1000 extensively on these groups and also 'pointed' other group members to our Forum and website when content held there may be pertinent to problems on their machines (even if they're not Heskeths).  It's clear to me that there is still a place for Website and Forum content types, alongside social media sites...

It's impossible to 'force' members to use any of the communication methods available to them.  It appears, at first hand, that the Forum is not well used, but the site statistics show that the site received over 58,000 visits in the past year (yes, many of those will be 'bots' doing automatic searches, but by no means all) and that represents over 180 times the number of issues of the Sock we deliver.

The number of contributors to the Forum, Site and Sock are actually comparable (and frequently identical), but the level of feedback the site statistics provide is infinitely greater than that which the readers provide on the Sock (0% in the past year) so this underlines the importance of the Site and Forum in HOC's communications arsenal.

I think it's important to note that 'new' Hesketh owners tend to use the Forum far more then those who have had their machines a long time.  Additionally, those folk who actually use their machines feature largely amongst regular visitors, so it would appear that the Forum is actually being used by those who need it most.  As machines change hands, the new owners visit and start to contribute too.  It's a slow process, but better than no change at all.

I hope this explains my position, why I'll carry on with it, and that regular users need not be concerned that the forum is going anywhere.

Best regards and thanks for reading

Jeff

HOCAdmin
HOC Web/Forum Admin

[Julf]

And just because we don't post doesn't mean we don't follow this forum with interest.