Fewer people want to buy BMWs?

[jaffles]

Originally Posted by Mason Hatcher

This is social media

Technically, but FaceBook, Pintrest, Instgramme etc are what most of us call social media. Old school forums doesn't track you, market you, and scammers generally don't exist due to moderators or forums members calling it out. Chalk and cheese really.

[Mason Hatcher]

Originally Posted by pbonsalb

This is old school message board social media. I prefer it, but understand the young are moving faster today and many don’t have the time or patience to write in sentences or read in depth content. I have been on Facebook BMW message groups before and a few people are doing more involved and impressive stuff than what you find the old people doing here. I would say there is more innovation and pushing the envelope there than here.

It cracks me up that people claim to not do social media while doing social media

[drbluedevil]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

The fewer threads can also be an indicator of people ramping up the American way; which is to change cars like underwear. Many people these days don't keep their cars past the warranty period.

In my case, this isn't due to laziness or waste. It's a pragmatic decision.

I used to keep cars 8-10 years, but those were simpler cars in simpler times.

My previous X5m one day (under extended warranty) started throwing metal shavings into the crank case to the point of being undrivable. It's actually a documented issue for a few people on these forums. I never raced the car, always maintained it perfectly, etc, and it still experienced a catastrophic failure requiring, according to BWM, a total engine rebuild. That was a $49,600 repair on a vehicle that was worth less than that at the time. If not for the extended warranty I bought, I'd have just junked the car and eaten the loss. I'll keep BMWs past the factory warranty, but I'd always have a warranty of some kind!

None of my naturally aspirated, technologically simple, non-luxury cars could possibly have developed such an expensive problem.

There's a reason people run (not walk) away from old German cars.

[No one]

Originally Posted by Mason Hatcher

It cracks me up that people claim to not do social media while doing social media

Speak for yourself. Social media: https://www.google.com/search?q=social+media. Forum: https://www.google.com/search?q=forum+definition. If you miss the point , I can put it simply. Social media is where you create content to share (though nobody asked ), trying to gain attention. Forums is where you ask or answer questions, discuss matters. It's like the difference between writing and reading. Attracting attention to yourself (sm) or a matter of interest (forum). For example, Sand is using this forum as a social media provoking void discussions deliberately. I never created a thread.

[lastresort576]

this post hits right in the feels. I miss the ways of forums in the early 2000's. The activity, the diy's, build threads, and the ability to search for stuff quickly. now its all just a mess it seems.

[Phillies8008]

Message boards are definitely social media – they just happened to have started before we actually started using the term. As others have pointed out, message boards are the dinosaurs of social media, but they're far superior in terms of finding actual ongoing, updated information. Reddit is really the closest we have to a modern-day equivalent, but to my mind it's somewhat inferior in that it doesn't really promote ongoing discussions past a day or so. But it's fantastic for finding answers. Facebook/TikTok/YouTube Shorts are close to useless, though actual YouTube videos are perhaps the best source of information available to us. If it exists or has been done, you can bet the ranch that there's a YouTube video of it out there. Facebook purposefully doesn't want you to easily find information – their goal is to keep you "engaged" for as long as possible, and easy, quick-to-find information doesn't further that goal.

As far as BMW goes, their sales numbers look pretty great, so I'm going to say they're doing just fine, the useless metric of the number of messages posted here not withstanding.

Whenever you see a headline/post title/whatever formatted as a question, the answer is almost always "no". I've found this to be especially true of YouTube.

[afadeev]

Originally Posted by tom2021

Does that mean fewer people want to buy BMWs?

And now we know the answer to that Q:

https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=2209107

a

[Phillies8008]

Where the hell did they find a new i3 to sell?

Also: 5-Series sales up 202%. I was assured everyone hated these, lol.

[Mason Hatcher]

Originally Posted by No one

Speak for yourself. Social media: https://www.google.com/search?q=social+media. Forum: https://www.google.com/search?q=forum+definition. If you miss the point , I can put it simply. Social media is where you create content to share (though nobody asked ), trying to gain attention. Forums is where you ask or answer questions, discuss matters. It's like the difference between writing and reading. Attracting attention to yourself (sm) or a matter of interest (forum). For example, Sand is using this forum as a social media provoking void discussions deliberately. I never created a thread.

https://www.google.com/search?q=is+a...hrome&ie=UTF-8


Yes, a message board is generally considered a type of social media, specifically a discussion forum, because it facilitates user interaction, content sharing, and the creation of online communities centered around specific interests. Like other social media platforms, message boards allow users to create profiles, post content, and engage in discussions with other users.

[No one]

Originally Posted by Mason Hatcher

https://www.google.com/search?q=is+a...hrome&ie=UTF-8


Yes, a message board is generally considered a type of social media, specifically a discussion forum, because it facilitates user interaction, content sharing, and the creation of online communities centered around specific interests. Like other social media platforms, message boards allow users to create profiles, post content, and engage in discussions with other users.

A huge link (plenty of text behind what's shown)! AI can be handy for a quick "research" but it still takes some natural intelligence effort to analyse the results properly. Technically - yes, plenty in common, it can be used for either purpose but the intended(?) and primary usages seem different. At least I believe so. The term "social media" was introduced to me regarding online brothels facilitating showing off, attracting undeserved attention. I despise that and I've never been there. Not interested, really. So I'd rather differentiate. Say, if "social media" expanded still happens to be a too narrow a term, "internet media" can be considered to keep one's vocabulary from growing beyond control. Some use just "fuck" for pretty much everything.

[Mason Hatcher]

Originally Posted by No one

A huge link (plenty of text behind what's shown)! AI can be handy for a quick "research" but it still takes some natural intelligence effort to analyse the results properly. Technically - yes, plenty in common, it can be used for either purpose but the intended(?) and primary usages seem different. At least I believe so. The term "social media" was introduced to me regarding online brothels facilitating showing off, attracting undeserved attention. I despise that and I've never been there. Not interested, really. So I'd rather differentiate. Say, if "social media" expanded still happens to be a too narrow a term, "internet media" can be considered to keep one's vocabulary from growing beyond control. Some use just "fuck" for pretty much everything.

All that to say nothing. I think now you're just being obtuse

[remaxdavid]

I love the forums. I have learned so much with other people's posts.

[Altamate]

Originally Posted by Phillies8008

Message boards are definitely social media – they just happened to have started before we actually started using the term. As others have pointed out, message boards are the dinosaurs of social media, but they're far superior in terms of finding actual ongoing, updated information. Reddit is really the closest we have to a modern-day equivalent, but to my mind it's somewhat inferior in that it doesn't really promote ongoing discussions past a day or so. But it's fantastic for finding answers. Facebook/TikTok/YouTube Shorts are close to useless, though actual YouTube videos are perhaps the best source of information available to us. If it exists or has been done, you can bet the ranch that there's a YouTube video of it out there. Facebook purposefully doesn't want you to easily find information – their goal is to keep you "engaged" for as long as possible, and easy, quick-to-find information doesn't further that goal.

As far as BMW goes, their sales numbers look pretty great, so I'm going to say they're doing just fine, the useless metric of the number of messages posted here not withstanding.

Whenever you see a headline/post title/whatever formatted as a question, the answer is almost always "no". I've found this to be especially true of YouTube.

I agree with you,

I’ll add, So many of the more specific message board forums have all but died, their traffic reduced so much that even the AI bots leave them alone or can’t find them. I think, Modern social media has taken their place. Not sure why it hasn’t happened here and at some other forums, but I think maybe it’s because BMW is still selling enough new cars to provide a captive audience.

[Phillies8008]

Originally Posted by Altamate

I agree with you,

I’ll add, So many of the more specific message board forums have all but died, their traffic reduced so much that even the AI bots leave them alone or can’t find them. I think, Modern social media has taken their place. Not sure why it hasn’t happened here and at some other forums, but I think maybe it’s because BMW is still selling enough new cars to provide a captive audience.

Yeah, I think message boards in general have died off in favor of Reddit, Instagram, et. al. There are still a decent number of active ones, and for that I'm very glad, but they tend to have a dedicated core that keep it going.

On the whole, I find them to be much more useful for ongoing discussion than Reddit since older Reddit posts become completely buried. It's great if you're googling for a specific answer to something, but at that point it's just an archive.

[Timmer-Bimmer]

It sure has been raining a lot since NASA starting sending those rockets up.

[Bc2005]

For some historical perspective, the predecessor to these message boards was the Usenet Newsgroups. I first used them in the 80’s.

News was hosted by Usenet servers at various universities and businesses. There was a set of global topics (usually all hosts participated), and then each host could add local forums ( e.g., for sale at xyz university). It was all text, but you had the ability to reach all over the world to share information or ask questions. This capability preceded the World Wide Web by several years, so it was a unique information source at the time.

A little more trivia - Posting pictures was possible on Usenet news but you had to use UUENCODE to create the ASCII text to post, and the receiver had to use UUDECODE to get the picture back. If the picture file was big, it was chunked into 64k (I think) blocks of text and then reassembled at the receiving end.

[Phillies8008]

Originally Posted by Bc2005

For some historical perspective, the predecessor to these message boards was the Usenet Newsgroups. I first used them in the 80’s.

News was hosted by Usenet servers at various universities and businesses. There was a set of global topics (usually all hosts participated), and then each host could add local forums ( e.g., for sale at xyz university). It was all text, but you had the ability to reach all over the world to share information or ask questions. This capability preceded the World Wide Web by several years, so it was a unique information source at the time.

A little more trivia - Posting pictures was possible on Usenet news but you had to use UUENCODE to create the ASCII text to post, and the receiver had to use UUDECODE to get the picture back. If the picture file was big, it was chunked into 64k (I think) blocks of text and then reassembled at the receiving end.

Sometimes I miss Usenet -- the signal-to-noise ratio was so much better. I first used it in the early '90s at college, and it felt like some sort of black magic, lol.

Another fun fact: Usenet and UUENCODE/DECODE is still used quite a bit in the pursuit of obtaining movies and TV shows by... alternate means.

[Joachim]

Back in those times i "used" it on a so-called organizer with a pocket modem, connected to the device and the phone plug at the wall.
Result: Mom wasn't able to take nor receive phone calls, and the monthly bill from the phone company was like that of a Small and Medium-sized Enterprise.
But the free newsgroups of the local universities were so helpful for a poor student's questions and issues.

[Phillies8008]

Originally Posted by Joachim

Back in those times i "used" it on a so-called organizer with a pocket modem, connected to the device and the phone plug at the wall.
Result: Mom wasn't able to take nor receive phone calls, and the monthly bill from the phone company was like that of a Small and Medium-sized Enterprise.
But the free newsgroups of the local universities were so helpful for a poor student's questions and issues.

And you'd invariably be almost done with a big download (well, big for those days) and someone would pick up the phone. Back to square one.

[tom2021]

Hey, we might have chatted on Usenet back in the early ’90s—misc.*, science.*, rec.*, etc

[93civEJ1]

forum boards in general are just a dying breed. I used to spend hours upon hours on forums, and these days they are slow moving. Facespace ruined forums. I wish they were still as lively are they were back in the early 2000's.

[jaffles]

I left hear for a while, to be open it was Donny, his henchmen and all that goes along with it.

I joined a UK forum and there are plenty of new sign ups, and a lot more on diesels, but all they do is ask how to fix their issues. There is very little banter about anything else and my car is not that broken.