What killed the forum? How can it be revived?

[Sparkplug]

This dude

Can you refresh my memory on why i was gonna do that? Lol glad to know you’re still thinkin bout me
But How have we not met yet? When was the last time you rode. Ive been riding surf up and down the west coast for 7 years… never seen you once.

Hear me out on this theory, people get so much dopamine released when they talk bout jet skiing or anything on internet, from people liking and responding.
Theres a lot more ways to like a post on Facebook, a lot more ways to trigger the brain to release dopamine… FB was designed to get us addicted…

Remember when that guy at pismo pissed all over your jet ski. And your p u s s y ass said o he's brian something so it's all good.

But you never seen me. Hahaha. Glad you run your mouth so much you can't even remember. But others do. Photographic memory. And they know that eventually. We WILL cross paths again.

 

[Sparkplug]

That's why Facebook is lame. Hella never was been thinking they are king shiat. Till life catches up with them and everyone finds out the grass ain't greener.

 

[Jhucke]

How many times can you have the exact same conversation?
Sure, you did a search and your symptoms are"different" than all the other's mentioned but it's really not.

Honestly, if people remember there's a tech section and spent some time reading, everything has been answered and there's only so many times you can type up the same response to the same question. Now, that means there may not be as much conversation as before but I bet there's still a ton of traffic that flows through for the information amassed over the years.

This is true and it’s not all about technical details. Think about how many different hulls, parts, engine manufacturers there were trying to be prominent in the game just a short couples years ago. Seems like that is seriously dwindling, almost no new stuff happening other than manufacturers leaving. I’m thinking about back when TNT was on the forum a bunch, AFFORDABLE POWER ITS COMING, different guys offering stroker kits; that stuff was actually interesting to read about. I think it’s less about having the same conversations, but more, there’s just nothing to discuss.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

The problem is everyone wants answers and they want them right now, they can't wait and have no patience, I saw it on here just a few days ago, a guy posts up a thread here then he goes to PWCT and posts two more threads over there, I answered him here, he never checked the thread here or replied to it.

How do you help people like that when they want instant answers and gratification ?

On Facebook you will get answers sometimes almost instantly, the problem is anyone will answer and throw their two cents out there, take it for what it's worth, most of the answers will be wrong and the people answering them have no track record either of being wrong are right .

It doesn't matter on Facebook , within a few minutes you won't be able to find it again anyway, here unless something happens to the forum and everthing is lost forever you can easily find it years later., sooner or later people will realize this, well at least the smart ones will anyway.

 

[MADMAT]

Whatever happened to great surf vid uploads! I mean like the BIG old school stuff! Huge BR re-entries, massive stabs, people pushing the limits hard!?

And how is JK? Whatever happened to him?


Still my all time favorite!! Crank it up!!!!

 

[MADMAT]

What was that badass cutting edge website back then? The one that had that ^^ vid up!?

 

[MADMAT]

 

[OCD Solutions]

Actually that makes a great point. We used to be able to upload videos direct to this site and once that stopped, people were forced to other platforms.
Could it be that simple?

 

[Big Kahuna]

might be a good idea to start an X-h2o Facebook group and try to compete with the crap ones that exist today. You’ve already got a huge user base here that would join and a couple shares by well known people In the jet ski world would make it take off very quickly. You could then push people here at appropriate times. For example, you offer informal quick advice on FB then direct someone here for a more in-depth tutorial on how to rebuild an engine.

Facebook groups are pretty helpful for other hobbies I have. The main problem is the content is not organized or categorized in any way which is where the forum shines.

Have you looked to see if there was a FB page?

 

[Jcary85]

Have you looked to see if there was a FB page?

15 members. Watch out lol. Somebody has to really advertise and SEO it. Could really help keep the forum alive IMHO. Web based forums fizzling out isn’t unique to the X. It’s ease of access mainly that’s driving people to Facebook. Interface is nice and easy to use and people are already there trolling marketplace (well maybe that’s just me). This forum is clunky as hell on a mobile device and the front end native apps that are out there suck. Again, not a problem that is unique to the X

 

[Midlake Crisis]

All that.
And mountain bikes

 

[MADMAT]

Fullgaz!! Riot Radio!

 

[Big Kahuna]

15 members. Watch out lol. Somebody has to really advertise and SEO it. Could really help keep the forum alive IMHO. Web based forums fizzling out isn’t unique to the X. It’s ease of access mainly that’s driving people to Facebook. Interface is nice and easy to use and people are already there trolling marketplace (well maybe that’s just me). This forum is clunky as hell on a mobile device and the front end native apps that are out there suck. Again, not a problem that is unique to the X

Other than when I am at work, I use my phone and have no issues. sometimes I use phone even when sitting at my desk at work!!!!!

That is the 2nd FB Page we have had, First one got deleted years ago because nobody used it. Personally I dont see a need for both. Kinda defeats the purpose.

 

[aSuperJet]

Politics are against stand ups and the 2stroke. The gov has been killing the standup for a long time. It was happening 20 years ago when I got my first 550. In another thread someone mentioned people aging out in this sport. You have to be 16 to ride right? Legally? When you are 18 and you save up you pennies to buy a standup You ride for a few years, you have kids. They can't ride it. They can ride the tube on the end of the 3 seater though. The 2stroke has been banned from some lakes and we have been waiting for it to get banned at others for years it seems. 20 years ago I wondered how long you would be able to get parts for the 701. From the outside I am sure this sport looks like a dead end to most people.

I think the X and other forums represent the peak of social media. I ditched FB a decade ago. I still have hope that society will recognize how bad an endlessly scrolling manipulated news feed is. Most forum search is easy to understand for a human and organized in a way you can understand, Usually chronologically. I do think organizing the good information on a forum is tough. Ultimatly it falls on the community to do it. I like where things are going with the bookmarks and tags. When that gets tweaked to highlight the best posts on the site, it will push things forward. I think engagement is important on a site like this, so some level of answering the same old questions is good. Most people come here to talk skis, and answering an easy question is a good way to do that. It has value because this is a social site. This place has a lot more value than a document archive.

 

[red_ak_ranger]

n

Politics are against stand ups and the 2stroke. The gov has been killing the standup for a long time. It was happening 20 years ago when I got my first 550. In another thread someone mentioned people aging out in this sport. You have to be 16 to ride right? Legally? When you are 18 and you save up you pennies to buy a standup You ride for a few years, you have kids. They can't ride it. They can ride the tube on the end of the 3 seater though. The 2stroke has been banned from some lakes and we have been waiting for it to get banned at others for years it seems. 20 years ago I wondered how long you would be able to get parts for the 701. From the outside I am sure this sport looks like a dead end to most people.

I think the X and other forums represent the peak of social media. I ditched FB a decade ago. I still have hope that society will recognize how bad an endlessly scrolling manipulated news feed is. Most forum search is easy to understand for a human and organized in a way you can understand, Usually chronologically. I do think organizing the good information on a forum is tough. Ultimatly it falls on the community to do it. I like where things are going with the bookmarks and tags. When that gets tweaked to highlight the best posts on the site, it will push things forward. I think engagement is important on a site like this, so some level of answering the same old questions is good. Most people come here to talk skis, and answering an easy question is a good way to do that. It has value because this is a social site. This place has a lot more value than a document archive.

Politics are against stand ups and the 2stroke. politics(specifically most people) dont know what stand ups are. And I don't think 2strokes are on the radar, theyre deff not top 100 issues, but in a general sense I'd agree.
The gov has been killing the standup for a long time. we have bigger more powerful standups. they killed them all the way to a 1500cc beast lol.
It was happening 20 years ago when I got my first 550. I got my first in I think 2007. a 650sx in Minnesota. they are popular there.
In another thread someone mentioned people aging out in this sport. You have to be 16 to ride right? Legally? It depends on state but I'm seeing 13 to ride alone( any jetski)
When you are 18 and you save up you pennies to buy a standup You ride for a few years, you have kids. They can't ride it. They can ride the tube on the end of the 3 seater though. huh????
The 2stroke has been banned from some lakes and we have been waiting for it to get banned at others for years it seems. yah i see this is a thing on some lakes but there is no federal law and no state has blanket banned 2 strokes. its a case basis on the lake.
20 years ago I wondered how long you would be able to get parts for the 701. From the outside I am sure this sport looks like a dead end to most people. That seems pessimistic. 701 parts are easily available and theres a good amount of riders outside of this forum. Something i notice is the cost to get in the sport has risen (either a new ski or the cost of used).


Something personal to me...I used to live 5 minutes from the lake with a boat launch i could leave my truck on because such low use (in Alaska..lol). Now in Texas it's a 35 minute drive to the lake where I have permission to launch because I sometimes captain boats for a lake travis company and it's just not as easy as it used to be for me.

 

[Mdavies_02]

Whatever happened to great surf vid uploads! I mean like the BIG old school stuff! Huge BR re-entries, massive stabs, people pushing the limits hard!?

And how is JK? Whatever happened to him?


Still my all time favorite!! Crank it up!!!!

Without clicking the video I can already hear the intro. Such a classic.

 

[tom21]

Well I just woke up an hour before dawn, not because of an alarm. No, because I'm old. Not w.f.o. old but I'm spending a large amount of time thinking about mortality. Some, sorry, most of you know what I'm talking about. I recognize almost ALL of your names. Once again I was not invited to the old guy TED talk. No matter. I found it and stumbled in.

Almost the entirety of this thread reads like a bunch of old codgers complaining about the world. Hold up, I agree. See previously mentioned old dude comment.

I can't say how long I've been working on skis but I think my earliest posts are 2003? Here or pwct.

For a long time I was addicted to the site. I was supposed to be working but I just had to read thru the new posts one more time then I'd get to work. Problem was my legs would go numb and I was just about to piss myself I'd been sitting so long and not working.

Tiktok is my drug of choice now. I'm on a mission to learn stuff. I have an insatiable lust for knowledge and it's over a weird variety of topics but that's a topic for random posts thread I might hit up later.

FB is just another tool to keep tabs on events. Like the news used to be. I found that link to the carb tuning and it will change my life. Please somebody do one for choosing props. Or knowing what you got going on.

Lots of groups to follow but mostly for pics to get ideas. I used to go to Pinterest for that cause of food then it became backyard outdoor kitchen diy stuff and wood projects.

TikTok is comedy, news, life hacks, cooking and now gardening and health.

For the longform of stuff I find on TikTok I go to YouTube cause I'm a visual learner. Check out aj Hartman for carbon infusion. Stumbled onto that from FB composite group.

I listen to podcasts now almost all day everyday. I'm into a decent variety of stuff. I want to learn about so many things and I keep fantasizing about starting a standup/composite podcast/YouTube cause there isn't one? Talk the guys in the industry still building and talk to the guys still riding. Prob be a dud. But still something I daydream about. Sometimes I get overloaded and have to listen to something funny or offbeat to give my mind a rest. Music when I'm working.

Pwct got old cause it was mostly couch stuff and people being aholes(sometimes me included?) Mostly stalked the x. Lots of cool riders and builds but eventually I had to push away from the keyboard as the urge to keep scrolling was just to great to overcome. I also can't say a simple thing in less than 2 million words so there's that. And I'm also mostly an ahole. I would do almost anything for my friends but mostly I dislike people.

Just like some of you I have been away for some time and just kept my head down and did my thing. Awesome people like sanoman and a few others would hit me up on text when I wasn't replying cause I wasn't here.

I think some of the problem other than what's already covered is that it's just sooo much stuff. And really I don't care to see 90% of the threads. They have no interest to me. And probably best I'm not the one to reply. But oddly enough when I Google a question it ends up back here. So this is the library of Alexandria. It is a shrine to standup jetskis. There is nothing even remotely like it. FB is not even a close second.

I have no idea if that's helpful but it's also still hard to look away from the screen. There's always another post to read. We want it to be some bs or stupid same question again, sorta, don't we? What would we do if it was all hard questions and nobody had answers? That's the real death nell of a forum. You've searched and found your exact question and gone to the forum of say Chevy. Com and found nobody answered and it's just sitting out there for years. Poor bastards probably died waiting for an answer. Seen a few forums that had potential and just never went anywhere. How is it we have such a small niche and so many loudmouth experts? Better appreciate em. Nothing gathers eyeballs like a spectacle! Please don't take offense to that. It's half joking. I'm very grateful to the many who tirelessly and politely help all of us. Matt E, Bk, jett just to name a few. They are not to be confused with the other "experts".

Is that 2 million words yet?

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Well I just woke up an hour before dawn, not because of an alarm. No, because I'm old. Not w.f.o. old but I'm spending a large amount of time thinking about mortality. Some, sorry, most of you know what I'm talking about. I recognize almost ALL of your names. Once again I was not invited to the old guy TED talk. No matter. I found it and stumbled in.

Almost the entirety of this thread reads like a bunch of old codgers complaining about the world. Hold up, I agree. See previously mentioned old dude comment.

I can't say how long I've been working on skis but I think my earliest posts are 2003? Here or pwct.

For a long time I was addicted to the site. I was supposed to be working but I just had to read thru the new posts one more time then I'd get to work. Problem was my legs would go numb and I was just about to piss myself I'd been sitting so long and not working.

Tiktok is my drug of choice now. I'm on a mission to learn stuff. I have an insatiable lust for knowledge and it's over a weird variety of topics but that's a topic for random posts thread I might hit up later.

FB is just another tool to keep tabs on events. Like the news used to be. I found that link to the carb tuning and it will change my life. Please somebody do one for choosing props. Or knowing what you got going on.

Lots of groups to follow but mostly for pics to get ideas. I used to go to Pinterest for that cause of food then it became backyard outdoor kitchen diy stuff and wood projects.

TikTok is comedy, news, life hacks, cooking and now gardening and health.

For the longform of stuff I find on TikTok I go to YouTube cause I'm a visual learner. Check out aj Hartman for carbon infusion. Stumbled onto that from FB composite group.

I listen to podcasts now almost all day everyday. I'm into a decent variety of stuff. I want to learn about so many things and I keep fantasizing about starting a standup/composite podcast/YouTube cause there isn't one? Talk the guys in the industry still building and talk to the guys still riding. Prob be a dud. But still something I daydream about. Sometimes I get overloaded and have to listen to something funny or offbeat to give my mind a rest. Music when I'm working.

Pwct got old cause it was mostly couch stuff and people being aholes(sometimes me included?) Mostly stalked the x. Lots of cool riders and builds but eventually I had to push away from the keyboard as the urge to keep scrolling was just to great to overcome. I also can't say a simple thing in less than 2 million words so there's that. And I'm also mostly an ahole. I would do almost anything for my friends but mostly I dislike people.

Just like some of you I have been away for some time and just kept my head down and did my thing. Awesome people like sanoman and a few others would hit me up on text when I wasn't replying cause I wasn't here.

I think some of the problem other than what's already covered is that it's just sooo much stuff. And really I don't care to see 90% of the threads. They have no interest to me. And probably best I'm not the one to reply. But oddly enough when I Google a question it ends up back here. So this is the library of Alexandria. It is a shrine to standup jetskis. There is nothing even remotely like it. FB is not even a close second.

I have no idea if that's helpful but it's also still hard to look away from the screen. There's always another post to read. We want it to be some bs or stupid same question again, sorta, don't we? What would we do if it was all hard questions and nobody had answers? That's the real death nell of a forum. You've searched and found your exact question and gone to the forum of say Chevy. Com and found nobody answered and it's just sitting out there for years. Poor bastards probably died waiting for an answer. Seen a few forums that had potential and just never went anywhere. How is it we have such a small niche and so many loudmouth experts? Better appreciate em. Nothing gathers eyeballs like a spectacle! Please don't take offense to that. It's half joking. I'm very grateful to the many who tirelessly and politely help all of us. Matt E, Bk, jett just to name a few. They are not to be confused with the other "experts".

Is that 2 million words yet?

WFO old, I like it only because it's true.
Reading through your post it sounds like a younger version of me, very relatable .

 

[Midlake Crisis]

Well I just woke up an hour before dawn, not because of an alarm. No, because I'm old. Not w.f.o. old but I'm spending a large amount of time thinking about mortality. Some, sorry, most of you know what I'm talking about. I recognize almost ALL of your names. Once again I was not invited to the old guy TED talk. No matter. I found it and stumbled in.

Almost the entirety of this thread reads like a bunch of old codgers complaining about the world. Hold up, I agree. See previously mentioned old dude comment.

I can't say how long I've been working on skis but I think my earliest posts are 2003? Here or pwct.

For a long time I was addicted to the site. I was supposed to be working but I just had to read thru the new posts one more time then I'd get to work. Problem was my legs would go numb and I was just about to piss myself I'd been sitting so long and not working.

Tiktok is my drug of choice now. I'm on a mission to learn stuff. I have an insatiable lust for knowledge and it's over a weird variety of topics but that's a topic for random posts thread I might hit up later.

FB is just another tool to keep tabs on events. Like the news used to be. I found that link to the carb tuning and it will change my life. Please somebody do one for choosing props. Or knowing what you got going on.

Lots of groups to follow but mostly for pics to get ideas. I used to go to Pinterest for that cause of food then it became backyard outdoor kitchen diy stuff and wood projects.

TikTok is comedy, news, life hacks, cooking and now gardening and health.

For the longform of stuff I find on TikTok I go to YouTube cause I'm a visual learner. Check out aj Hartman for carbon infusion. Stumbled onto that from FB composite group.

I listen to podcasts now almost all day everyday. I'm into a decent variety of stuff. I want to learn about so many things and I keep fantasizing about starting a standup/composite podcast/YouTube cause there isn't one? Talk the guys in the industry still building and talk to the guys still riding. Prob be a dud. But still something I daydream about. Sometimes I get overloaded and have to listen to something funny or offbeat to give my mind a rest. Music when I'm working.

Pwct got old cause it was mostly couch stuff and people being aholes(sometimes me included?) Mostly stalked the x. Lots of cool riders and builds but eventually I had to push away from the keyboard as the urge to keep scrolling was just to great to overcome. I also can't say a simple thing in less than 2 million words so there's that. And I'm also mostly an ahole. I would do almost anything for my friends but mostly I dislike people.

Just like some of you I have been away for some time and just kept my head down and did my thing. Awesome people like sanoman and a few others would hit me up on text when I wasn't replying cause I wasn't here.

I think some of the problem other than what's already covered is that it's just sooo much stuff. And really I don't care to see 90% of the threads. They have no interest to me. And probably best I'm not the one to reply. But oddly enough when I Google a question it ends up back here. So this is the library of Alexandria. It is a shrine to standup jetskis. There is nothing even remotely like it. FB is not even a close second.

I have no idea if that's helpful but it's also still hard to look away from the screen. There's always another post to read. We want it to be some bs or stupid same question again, sorta, don't we? What would we do if it was all hard questions and nobody had answers? That's the real death nell of a forum. You've searched and found your exact question and gone to the forum of say Chevy. Com and found nobody answered and it's just sitting out there for years. Poor bastards probably died waiting for an answer. Seen a few forums that had potential and just never went anywhere. How is it we have such a small niche and so many loudmouth experts? Better appreciate em. Nothing gathers eyeballs like a spectacle! Please don't take offense to that. It's half joking. I'm very grateful to the many who tirelessly and politely help all of us. Matt E, Bk, jett just to name a few. They are not to be confused with the other "experts".

Is that 2 million words yet?

Tom, great to see you post. I got some great stuff from you over the years, and your footholds are still the best. Be well!

 

[Quinc]

The jetski brothers are only people I see doing new and interesting things. Be cool to see more builds like what they are doing on here. Or if someone was putting NOS and a turbo on wr500 or something else interesting/different.