A Christmas Wish from Captain Obvious: KEEP THIS AUTOPIA FORUM ALIVE and GOING

Lonnie said:
Actually many of the "Epic Threads" Category of this forum fall into that "historic thread" discussions. I have no idea how they got there and who made that determination to place them there, but they do make for "interesting" reading about past detailing subjects.
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Great thread and thanks for posting it. I was single-handedly responsible for creating the Epic Sub-Forum and still thinks it’s a great place to visit and get re-grounded. This forum is my home and where I, and so many others, cut their teeth in the online world many years ago. I joined back when it was like the Wild West operated by DavidB and have seen it go through some very interesting (to say the least) changes. The biggest discouraging thing is the lack of presence by the management/ownership. Like zero! There’s been no advancement in any way shape or form. Heck, there hasn’t been any repair of the countless issues that has plagued this place ever since AG took it over from 3D. I’ve literally spent 100’s of hours trying to promote discussion, modifying for sub-forums, grow awareness and bring in new life yet it seems that it’s all gone down the crapper. Sure, it’s mostly because forums in and of itself don’t resemble what they used to, but I blame that on the creators of these platforms for not making them user friendly. I really think this forum needs to be condensed. There’s so many redundant and not viewed sub-forums. So many of the links don’t work so it’s not like we’d be missing out on any opportunities there. If someone gave me my moderator access again I would totally be willing to help reorganize what I think is out of touch.
 
Sadly David, moderator access isn`t what it once was. There was a time when I had the permissions to do all the behind-the-scenes stuff and did. That went away a good long time ago.
 
I understand PBMG’s position concerning their products. I do believe that if this turns into a clone of the Autogeek forums, there’s no real reason to keep it going.

Many thanks to the Moderators for all the work that they put in. It’s much appreciated.
 
This forum was so rich with content back in the day. The result is a wealth of knowledge and history.

It would be almost tragic to see it end.

The culture has changed, and become even more fast paced. The attention spans have shortened....

I see a similar thing with the Facebook Detailing Trading Post type pages. In 2015 they were hopping. I could post something for sale and have it gone within the day often times. The past few years they`ve been a ghost town.

Is it a sign of the times, or are brighter days ahead?

I remain optimistic that a resurgence is still ahead for the forums. They`re all down too. Meguiar`s, Autogeek, along with Autopia, but that doesn`t mean they`re out!

I still enjoy visiting for the review discussions. Sometimes It`s to see what`s new, to see how people used something in the past that I might be using, and It`s to reminisce on products I used to use that have either changed formulation, or are no longer in production.

The dawn of the random orbital is a fun time period to read on. The initial pads that accompanied those old 7424s. Remember Edge Pads?

I will always be thankful for those posts and the people who participated. I have learned so much, and every single one of the posters on all these forums have contributed to whatever success I achieve in this industry. There has to be young folks hungry for knowledge in a sort of "post-magazine" media culture. Forums are an excellent match for that curiousity.
 
Accumulator;[URL="tel:2188767" said:
2188767[/URL]]Well, if nothing else, this thread has brought a few old-timers to their keyboards :D Hi, guys, nice to see you posting.
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Back at ya’.
 
I can in many years ago 2004ish as a young guy who purchased a black car and could not get rid of the swirls, it was called TID Truth in Detailing back then and morphed onto this great place.

I do Support Autopia in my purchases although I do buy some things they don`t carry else where.

This is the only detailing forum I visit. I just never liked the AG forum for whatever reason.
 
I think this forum is a little slower paced because it`s not raining free product samples here. The endless cycle of guys writing positive reviews in order to get more free products. The older I get the easier it is to see through the reviews, especially the ones that don`t compare to other similar products. In fact those low quality but lengthy reviews advertising on forum space have led to a wave of good comparisons on YouTube.
 
Because this Autopia Forum has been around for SOOO long, I think David Fermani`s "observation/analysis" that many of the thread sub-folders and their thread topics are historic in nature and information, but no longer relevant to today`s current detailing product usage and methodologies, and hence, no longer of interest to many forum members and non-member lurkers. They are there but if no one uses or views them, why have them.

History is just that, a record of yesterday`s existence and experiences. I will quote two cliches, being also Captain Cliche as well as Captain Obvious. "History repeats itself" and its twin allegory, "How can you know where you are going if you don`t know where you`ve been." Does that apply to the detailing information within this forum? Probably not. It`s a nice remembrance and "interesting read" of the past if you are into those topics, but as stated, for most it is not because it is not relevant to today`s detailing. MOST Autopians come to this forum for the latest-and-greatest news and discussions on NEW products, equipment, methodologies, and trends in detailing. It helps sells those products and equipment sold by PBMG, which financially contributes to the reason WHY this forum exists in the first place.

That said, it would be a shame to see some of this older information and thread topics disappear. But I am an exception and minority who may, from time to time, access these older threads.

As has been said, "You loose tomorrow by living in the past." It`s a tough decision to make and I would hope that somehow that past threads and their information could be archived and preserved. I also know that the formatting of text information within those threads is jumbled and almost non-readable, not to mention links to photos are missing or stamped with copyright names, obscuring the image. I can understand, for those two reasons alone, why these older thread topics should be deleted (AKA, "poop-canned").

On a side note, one thread topic for 2021 that was of interest to me was Setec Astronomy`s started thread:
Products You Don`t Hear Too Much About Anymore...
Judging from the number of Autopian-member posts to this referenced thread, detailing products nostalgia and history is STILL of interest (and importance) to many of you. What is really telling is how many Autopians actually USE some of those older products in their detailing exploits, just because they WANT to remember what detailing was like or because it was a pre-VOC product that worked pretty good for a specific detailing task. I rest my case about importance of detailing history!
 
Setec Astronomy:
Guilty as charged about the "Detailing Products You Do Not Here Much About Anymore" thread. You just gave it life and I just continued to "contribute" to it. Unlike THIS thread which I did start and continue to contribute to it, for better or for worse.
I am not trying to make this an "epic thread" by any means. It just an observation about this forum and its existence and continuance and what will make that happen in the near future from the perspective of a long-time Autopian member.

It is nice to see that there are the occasional new members coming to this forum for detailing advice and information. It is a challenge on "How does this forum attract new members?" That was kind of answered in the thread that stated that young people do not care about vehicle detailing and why. Social media and its various subjects of interest along with computer gaming that appeal to such an age group are two reasons that compete for their time. And the fact that many young people see personal vehicles for transportation as a reason for Global Warming and are more inclined to using public transportation, human powered locomotion (AKA bicycles), or when-needed transportation services, like Uber or Lyft or even ride-sharing (It`s not a new concept; we called it car-pooling in my younger day or even hitch-hiking) rather than own a vehicle.

Like I said, without both old and new members posting their detailing exploits, this forum does not exist
(Yes Captain Obvious, you continue to do your part)
 
I been ill these past 8 yrs due to my heart problems and haven`t been able to use a rotary or PC with any of these great products everyone had spoke of and shown on this forum. I remember meeting David B. yrs ago in Florida for about a hr and he was one dude that at the time really care about this forum and products he sold thru his site. All the great folks that help this forum to grow these past 20yrs and help many new folks to care for their rides that was great to see and also great folks at Detailing City. I had miss them and wish they don`t close this site down but with money used to keep it up and going might the problem at PBMG new owner and the great folks at AG.
 
It seems to several of us that if the traffic remains slow then that is reason to question the survival of the forum
 
Bill D said:
It seems to several of us that if the traffic remains slow then that is reason to question the survival of the forum
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I guess, Bill, but it`s been this slow for a long time. I just don`t see them shutting down the forum unless they were shutting down the ACC store, and it`s hard for me to see them doing that. I haven`t been on AGO for a long time, I suppose if that is where all the action is (both forum and store) then shutting down ACC might make sense, but I really don`t know, there`s an awful lot of old members that are going to remember the Autopia URL when they need some detailing supplies.

I`m also not sure we should be judging the new owner`s goals/expectations by the previous owner. They may be perfectly happy with things.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
I guess, Bill, but it`s been this slow for a long time. I just don`t see them shutting down the forum unless they were shutting down the ACC store, and it`s hard for me to see them doing that. I haven`t been on AGO for a long time, I suppose if that is where all the action is (both forum and store) then shutting down ACC might make sense, but I really don`t know, there`s an awful lot of old members that are going to remember the Autopia URL when they need some detailing supplies.

I`m also not sure we should be judging the new owner`s goals/expectations by the previous owner. They may be perfectly happy with things.
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I may be totally wrong, but I don`t think PBMG is doing as well as when Max owned it. A lot has changed since then. A couple of big things are young people aren`t into cars like we were. Another is Amazon.

I doubt the owner will give a warning that the forum is shutting down.
 
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