Let's develop a path forward that best serves the local dualsport community.
For those of you who may not know, over the last 15 or so years backroadstouring has inspired hundreds of riders to get into this dualsport thing. I bought a KLR650 and put the gravel in my travel about 12 years ago mostly because of the inspiration I found at backroadstouring.
The backroadstouring community has been led by Roger Baugh of Wichita, KS, a man many might consider the grandfather of dualsport in Kansas. Surely not the first man to spend all day on 2 wheels riding gravel roads, but Roger built a community, led hundreds of rides, inspired other ride leaders with his example, shot a few thousand beautiful photos of the KS landscape, and curated them all on the backroadstouring website. For over 15 years, Roger has been working to inspire the community to get out and enjoy the backroads and the beauty Kansas has to offer. All Kansas motorcycle dealers that sell dualsport machines should probably send Roger a fat commission check!
Here is picture of Roger with his KLR on maybe the first ride I did with him on August 28, 2005.
From that same ride, here is a picture of me (left) and my brother, Kyle with our KLRs.
I recently discovered this topic on the Backroads Touring Kansas forum:
Volunteerism And The Future ....
http://backroadstouring.net/phpBB/viewt ... sc&start=0
Unfortunately, like all communities, if people do not participate, share, and step up to lead, the community fades. Roger has seen this fade and is apparently considering options that include stepping out of a leadership role, finding others to take over the system, having others create an entirely new system, or even shutting down the site completely. The good news is that there appears to be a small contingency of folks in that community with both the desire and technical skills to either take over the existing system or create a new system.
An option I’d like to put on the table is to merge the 2 communities...
I launched RideForum.NET on November 30, 2006. So in a few days, we celebrate 10 years of community! I launched the site to fill the gap left when Roger shut down backroadstouring. After we launched, Roger started backroadstouring back up--I assume because of public outcry as many riders found themselves without an important ride organization tool and community. So Kansas has had both systems for the last 10 years: Backroadstouring serving primarily the Southern part of the state (based out of Wichita) and RideForum.NET the NE part of the state and into Missouri (based out of Kansas City).
Both systems use the popular phpBB forum system. RideForum.NET is kept up-to-date using the latest version of the software. Just a few months ago, we installed a modern, fully mobile-responsive theme so the forum looks and works great on mobile phones. We created a RideForum Calendar where all ride events and other events of interest are easily found and sync’d to your own calendars.
We made it easier to directly include photos in your posts at RideForum--no need to use your own or 3rd party photo hosting system. Embedding a YouTube video is as simple as pasting the YouTube URL in your post.
Why a local community forum at all?
Why not just use the amazing AdvRider community? Signal-to-Noise Ratio! AdvRider is awesome, and you won’t find a better community to research bikes or gear, sell a motorcycle, or enjoy ride reports from all over the world. However, if you want to have a focused discussion with local riding buddies on a handful of things and organize a ride or two, the information gets quickly buried in chatter/noise. With hundreds of replies in just a few days in a single thread, it can be difficult to discover the critical event details.
So I believe there is a place for both--an AdvRider global forum system as well as a more local rider community forum. So HOW local is the question? I think it comes down to signal-to-noise ratio. In KS, I think our community is relatively small enough that the entire state can be easily served by a single forum system without too much noise for the members. This can be further alleviated by using more regional sub-forums.
Finding the forum balance
Currently there are only these 3 main forums at RideForum.NET:
Ride!
Are you planning a ride? Know about a ride? Post it here to invite others.
Rider’s Lounge
Pull up a couch. It's cool in the Lounge. Just remember to be a good neighbor.
Classifieds
One man's junk, another man's treasure.
We could have created even more niche focus by creating these sub-forums:
- Off-Road Rides
- Street Rides
- Dualsport Rides
- Day Rides
- Multi-Day Rides
- Morning Rides
- Afternoon Rides
- Rides with Mud
- Rides without Mud
- Experienced Rider Only Rides
- Noob-friendly Rides
- Rides with lots of photo stops
- Fast Rides with few stops
- Rides > 100 miles round-trip
- Rides < 100 miles round-trip
So what would it look like to merge BackroadsTouring with RideForum? Well, not much difference really other than a larger, more active community of riders with more rides being shared.
Can we save the rich BackroadsTouring forum history?
Since both sites use the same back-end system, it is technically possible to merge the data. However, since the BackroadsTouring system is using a very old version of phpBB, we’d need to run the database through several upgrades to get the data ready for import. I speak SQL fluently, so I can do it. (That’s geek speak!)
What about other content such as photo galleries?
Yes, that content can be migrated to the RideForum system.
What is the ultimate goal of a dualsport forum?
The primary goal is to get folks out riding! This means being a resource for riders--especially those new to dualsport. A forum accomplishes this goal by facilitating information sharing amongst a group of folks that share a common interest. That’s it!
Let's hear from the community!I invite the Backroads Touring Kansas Community to consider locking arms with RideForum.NET to provide the best information sharing tools that inspire local folks to RIDE!
Thanks!
Troy Wolf
troy at rideforum.net