quote:

According to their numbers RCU has seen a 36.41% decline in unique visitors year over year. RC Groups has seen similar declines with a drop of 32.57% year over year.

quote:

This similarity in decline eliminates any of the connectivity issues seen on RCU due to the Internet Brands server changes. 

quote:

ORIGINAL: eddieC

quote:

This similarity in decline eliminates any of the connectivity issues seen on RCU due to the Internet Brands server changes. 

The similarity could also be circumstantial, since no supportive data is available. I'd say, given the 'connectivity issues', RCU is lucky it's declined so little.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Greg Covey

Hi Marc,

It seems that some folks still feel that you have Admin privs, likely due to your screen name. Other than being the founder, you have no ownership or privs at RCU. I wanted people to clearly understand the situation.

You stated the following:

quote:

According to their numbers RCU has seen a 36.41% decline in unique visitors year over year. RC Groups has seen similar declines with a drop of 32.57% year over year.

This similarity in decline eliminates any of the connectivity issues seen on RCU due to the Internet Brands server changes.

I have also seen several articles recently on the decline of Facebook. I posted one below as an example.

Facebook Popularity On the Decline

If the answer to your question (and the thread topic) is Yes, then perhaps it lies outside the hobby itself.

Regards.

quote:

ORIGINAL: guver

Has hobbyking forum been declining?

quote:

ORIGINAL: PropsnWings



I am not quite understanding... you believe this has nothing to do with connectivity issues the site has had? 

I believe facbook to be a different breed, and not a forum, where a true comparison could be had, and also the article you linked is from Feb 2008.  

Your opening statement, could be percieved to be somewhat supportive of what others have stated in relation to mods.  I dont think Marc was trying to imply anything other than that he was the founder and asked a very good question, that has sparked a good conversation. 

IB cannot go back and change the past and how they handled the move, but they could be more proactive in how they move into the future with the information obtained from the mis-handling of the site. 

quote:

ORIGINAL: Greg Covey

Hi Marc,

It seems that some folks still feel that you have Admin privs, likely due to your screen name. Other than being the founder, you have no ownership or privs at RCU. I wanted people to clearly understand the situation.

You stated the following:

quote:

According to their numbers RCU has seen a 36.41% decline in unique visitors year over year. RC Groups has seen similar declines with a drop of 32.57% year over year.

This similarity in decline eliminates any of the connectivity issues seen on RCU due to the Internet Brands server changes.

I have also seen several articles recently on the decline of Facebook. I posted one below as an example.

Facebook Popularity On the Decline

If the answer to your question (and the thread topic) is Yes, then perhaps it lies outside the hobby itself.

Regards.

quote:

ORIGINAL: RCadmin

Hi everyone.  Marc here (the original founder of RC Universe).  I've been sporadically keeping track of this site as well as RC Groups on traffic analysis site Compete.com.  According to their numbers RCU has seen a 36.41% decline in unique visitors year over year.  RC Groups has seen similar declines with a drop of 32.57% year over year.

http://siteanalytics.compete.com/rcgroups.com/

http://siteanalytics.compete.com/rcuniverse.com/

I figured if one site was losing traffic the other might be the beneficiary however it looks, based on these numbers, that this is clearly not the case.  So my question is where are people spending their time online now?  Has there been a migration over the years to social media (Facebook, Blogs, Niche RC websites)?  Are there just fewer people active in the hobby so the pool of available visitors and posters has gone down?  Is there another mega-site on the rise somewhere?

I know my club uses Facebook quite a bit.  After a weekend of flying the photos go up on the clubs facebook page and everyone views them there and comments as well. Has this taken the place of a good portion of the previous usage on the large rc websites?

Would love to hear any opinions or facts on why we are seeing this trend in the last couple years.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Greg Covey

It would probably help if I could articulate my thoughts better…so here is another attempt.

The thread topic is, “Are all RC forum's activity in decline?”. The question doesn’t look for particulars of one site versus another but takes a look at a higher level. Perhaps it is a higher level of the hobby or perhaps it is outside the hobby’s control. (e.g. Social media sites, technology, economics, society)

Marc is well aware of the pain caused by IB. RCU is simply a small fish in their corporation. He is simply asking his question as a member, not an owner that is in a position to make changes at RCU. I know that Marc will get a kick out of the thought that I was “putting him down”. Most people don’t know our relationship.

As for “fixing” the issues at RCU, I’m afraid that even the RCU admins above the moderators do not have that under control. Again, the issue with IB has always been that they have bigger fish to fry. When RCU was sold, against Marc’s wishes, it lost its original startup premise and slogan, “Created by R/Cers for R/Cers”.

quote:

ORIGINAL: DejaD

As someone who only started flying RC last spring I looked around and found several different forum sites and tried to become involved as much as possible given my very limited knowledge. I joined RCU mid last year and in one of my very first posts I was relaying the story of a mid-air that resulted in the complete destruction of a foam P-51 from Airfield. I made the ''mistake'' of referring to it as a ''fatal'' mid-air and was promptly roasted for that remark by someone named Charles who evidentally is the verbage police here on RCU. He said many things to me that were totally out of line, ''You need a spanking'' is the one that really sticks out, he did however edit that post before my response was posted. There were also comments made to the affect that, if I was flying a foam replica of an airplane that I wasn't really flying and should only fly a plane that I build from scratch myself. ??  As more members got involved in the thread, is became quite obvious to everyone, except Charles that he had clearly overreacted and should apologize. He did not  and the thread was eventually closed or locked or moved by the moderators. That was probably for the best.

But as I said in that thread, something like 11 of my first 14 posts on RCU were spent defending myself against this person who did nothing but belittle, berate, chastise and insult me. And supposedly he was a senior member here in addition to his claim of being a licensed pilot of full sized aircraft. I guess I felt he sould have been able to find a more suitable way to get his feelings across. Appearantly not. And appearantly nobody in charge here felt he was out of line.  Now tell me, what about that would make me want to come back to this forum? Let me direct your attention to the paragraph that appears above this window...

Please resist the urge to curse, flame, degrade, insult or embarrass someone in your post. We encourage the free flow of your ideas, but believe that they can be communicated (and received) much more effectively if you keep things civil. If you have to vent, take it offline. We carefully monitor posts and will ban individuals who engage in offensive conduct within the forums. Thanks. (RCU Policies)

When I contacted the moderator about the closing of the thread, I got no response.