I hope it grows, too, although usage is increasing. Personally, I believe the only way to make a forum desirable is to fill it with good content, and to make it welcoming from the first post - something only the users of the forum can “make happen”.
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I agree, we can’t “force” anyone to do anything, but we can encourage the membership to use the forum - by
Firstly making sure that everybody knows the resource is here by promoting it in Gambalunga and in communications from the club to the membership, and
Secondly, making everybody welcome (I think Uki did a fine job of this) and
Thirdly, generating lots of useful and interesting content - this is of course a virtuous circle - the better the content, the more users, the more content is generated.
Atb
Simon
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Hi Barry,
Just to let you know that the MGCGB FB page is the official Club page for which I as a committee member have responsibility for. We have a great team of moderators all of whom are club members. It is very much a promotional tool it has the usual content plus I, and any other Club member can use it to advertise Club activities. We keep it strictly Guzzi and signs are that it does attract new members and, as it costs nothing its a bit of a no brainer. The forum is more intimate and lends itself to more in-depth discussions the first step in developing it further will be to appoint a new Web Officer which we a advertising for. So if anyone thinks that they can carry on Uki’s great work we would love to hear from them.
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Thanks for the clarification @PRO . It occurred to me after posting my last that there are ‘other’ Facebook Moto Guzzi groups that perhaps maybe possibly sound like they might be “the club” and which are not. One thing I also intended to convey, but overlooked in the pursuit of brevity, is that the Facebook group also allows for inclusion of individuals who are not (yet!) ‘signed-up’ MGCGB members (that being a peculiarity of how the FB thing works) whereas this forum is for MGCGB members only and thus can be used for conversations that might be consider ‘club-only’ (were one so inclined).
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I must admit that I do tend to use Facebook more.
I just find it a lot easier.
I can go to the page and post a series of photos of an event in an instant.
I am not very pc savvy, and have not yet managed to post a single photo on the forum. I am sure it is simple, but I can’t really see how to do it.
The Pennine branch does tend to post text information on the forum as well as Facebook to try and keep everyone “in the loop” as it were.
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Hey @cheefysteve - as with all these things, a clue or two helps and then it’s just a matter of trying it a couple times - not much harder than Facebook, i reckon (once you know!)
tips here: Uploading photos - #2 by Barry_Conway
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Steve,
Thanks, this kind of feedback is useful - if it can be translated into a “how to” (there may already be one, in addition to Barry’s reply) so that folks who think the forum is less easy to use than say FB can find out how to use it and help build it up.
As we’re all expressing opinions!.. For me, I do my best to avoid Facebook as a matter of principle. It’s been around a long, long time and anyone not using it by now (of Guzzi club age…) has likely made a conscious choice rather than being unable to do so, much like those who use Amazon, shop at Tesco etc.
Any info posted on both, I’ll see. Anything posted only on Facebook, I’m very unlikely to see.
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@Barry_Conway and myself @gus35 plus my admin guise @Forumadmin are here to provide what ever help is required. However we desperately need a need a new web officer to take things forward.
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Interesting discussion. As a newbie, here’s my thoughts:-
I also am a member of the FJR owners club, and their forum is used less as the various Facebook groups are used more.
Im a technophobe but find Facebook very easy to use, and a couple of clicks takes you to all the groups and pages you need.
With forums you have to find them and then generally have to remember your log in details, which means people are less likely to use them.
I had already forgotten them for this forum 
But then I got an email update which got me back in, and then some notification came up asking if i wanted to add the app to my phone homescreen.
I now have instant access and find it very easy to use, and am already using the forum a lot more.
I think the key is to let people know of the app and how to install it, as more people are using phones for Internet access, and people would then start using the forum more.
But I can’t find the app in the app store on my phone? Maybe having that available would make it more available and increase use?
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the app is in the app store, but you would need to know that this forum is on a Disqus server and that you thus need the Disqus app! and thus i agree, easy peasy access to the forum with easy guidance and instructions would further encourage usage. how much of this is done, i don’t know, but it seems that it was done for you?
correction: Discourse not Disqus
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My login details are saved in my phone browser and if for any reason I did get logged out, it would log me in again. This never happens though since I always have a few tabs open from topics I am following on the forum.
I don’t see that this is any more difficult than Facebook or any other website for that matter.
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In my short time membership, I have been advocating this forum over fb and when away from my laptop, I just use my browser of choice on my mobile device. Now I learn that there is an mobile app?
Could you please elaborate as to its location? Discourse (?) server?
kind regards
i can help with that, but you’ll need to do some of the lifting. there’s a magic prompt you get when you first access the forum on a phone browser… something like: do you want to get the app? and then it all goes easy, but i don’t personally know how to initiate or recall that prompt.
manual version: in the app store find the ‘Discourse Hub’ app and install. Then you need to add our forum to that app:
and you’ll then need your forum login details: username/email and password.
hope this helps!
(note: the link i added is for the Apple App Store - I imagine it’s equally available in the Google app place)
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Barry, many thanks. Worked like a well tuned v twin. I’m replying from the app. But a second question comes to mind… Why is it not just a ‘standard’ application? What’s Discourse?
Kind regards
Ok, I’ve got the gist of Discourse.
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result! thanks for reporting back. let me try and tackle those questions …
Discourse is the software that our forum runs on. There are other flavours of forum software, but this is the one we have. It’s primarily designed to run in a browser on, say, a laptop or home computer. As more people become happy to do more on their mobile devices, Discourse were persuaded (as many others) to develop an app to do the job. Optional, of course. That help with the understanding?
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Yup. Got it. Many Thanks
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I don’t use Facebook, and joined this club for that very reason.
Long may this forum continue.
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Dont do facebook, and as a newbie im enjoing finding my way with the forum 
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I guess the dilemma here is that there are lots of folks on the forum who “don’t do” FB, and presumably lots of folks on FB who aren’t “doing” the Club forum.
Attracting the current FB posters to tell their tales, ask their questions and give their opinions on here rather than on FB is the challenge, and one that if successfully managed, will make the club stronger, and attract more members.
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