That's well said. I find myself without a lot of emotion regarding what I said. Times change, and change is the only constant. I bet people were souping up their chariots back when the Romans were the dominant society. I've been fortunate enough to enjoy my hobbies, bring some smiles to the casual onlookers, help out others interested in the same things when I can. I've got nothing to be mad about.
In the last four months, we've had pretty massive traffic growth... more so than we've had since 2017 or so... I have no idea why. I don't really care about traffic. I live to think about old cars, create content about them, and get people out of the way that get in the way of that. Nothing more or less really...
Makes me somewhat sad to read this thread. Demographics...humbug. A wise man once said, "Change is the only constant there is." I'm going to get off my old ass and go for a drive in my roadster.
My take was that the "like" feature was the turn in the road for content generation. Look at build threads for example - someone creates the content with photos and descriptions/captions (which is a lot of work). In response, that post typically receives likes rather than engaging in questions and comments from other posters. Eventually, the build threads read more like a diary rather than an forum involved build, and that's hard to justify the work required to sustain the threads.
I’m 46 and I see more youngsters being involved now, not less. There was a long time where I was always the youngest around but that’s now changing. But you’ve got to make an effort to get their attention. At one of the race meets this year the organisers lined us all up on the grid at lunch, they had posters printed with the drivers and cars on and a place for autographs, I thought it was cheesy as hell before hand but I spent an hour signing posters for kids, they all thought it was brilliant. They got to sit in the cars too. There’s kids out there now that are going to remember sitting in an old NASCAR or C2 Vette for years to come. So next time some kid waves at you as you go past, don’t be a grumpy old fart, wave back! My Vette is OT, but Bernie’s isn’t:
Yup and when threads with a bunch of guys arguing about how to pronounce Z get more responses and looks than your build thread there is little motivation to even start one in the first place.
We are all getting older and I am not able to get out to work on my car much anymore, plus not having disposable income so that limits me as well. Health issues has hit many of us old farts and that has slowed us down so I am not able to get around to car shows and events as well as not having friends that enjoy hotrods alive to attend those events with! I am accepting the fact that I'm not likely to get my project car finished or even getting it running and driveable drains my desire to actually work on it anymore. I am guilty of being one of the guys that hit the 'like' rather than posting comments on threads that I enjoy keeping up with and I usually read thru all of the comments before thinking about posting a comment that would just be repeating what has already been posted.
What I've noticed is the same thing I see at car and motorcycle events, Look for the guy with black t-shirt, white hair and beard. I would be willing to bet that over 50% of the people on the HAMB are retired and aging out.
I can agree that the focus of this forum is traditional hot rods and customs, but at some time, a little harmless horse play isn't a bad thing. I've read all three of your excellent threads; the one about that awful green and white Mercury that seemed to get some off the wall comments, the exceptional one about fillers, and the very interesting one about a battery drain or a short that never told us what the actual problem was. Would you mind telling us what you found the problem to be with the last one, please?
I have been a member since 2016. This is my go to place for used parts, technical info and cool old cars. I have been involved in other forms that involve vintage motorcycles and they have definitely had a decline in members and new content. I have always found someone here that has the answer to one of my questions. I try to do a search before I ask a question but sometimes I wonder If more people asked questions, would there be more conversations? I know the younger generation does not appreciate our old cars yet, but they eventually will.
Since we're all "boys" (in today's vernacular) I like to bring it up when it's a zombie thread, friendly note, maybe the occasional glib remark. Why not? Lettin our peeps know. Some day this thread will be there.
Granted, but there a whole bunch of old Guys that have parts rat holed and speaking for myself I will sell them at an extreme discount or even give them away to the right individual that I believe is sincere about their H.A.M.B. friendly build. I have done this many times in the past.
We could make jokes, but it's actually true, Danny. You being sick and not posting as much definitely made a difference. Couldn't help but notice the difference.
God this is rich. Reminds me of Nick Saban: focus on the outcome and you probably fail; stay focused on the process! Our fearless leader is stone cold cool. There, I said it.
I see that happen all too often and quite often it is an FNG who joins to spread his alleged wisdom on a several years dead thread and if you check the OP's posts they haven't checked in on the board after a few days of their original post. When it is a question I usually scroll down the page(s) to see who answered an what their answer was. That often saves several minutes or of research work to make sure that the answer that popped up in the back of my 77 year old head is correct. Sometimes I have to revise the answer when more info from the OP shows up. Good questions with all the facts get good answers, Half Ass questions with vague details are hard to give good answers to. Sometimes I wonder how many actually do find the Hamb in a search and read the thread and find the answer they want and go on about their business and never join or participate At this moment 12-03-2023 6:14 PM pacific time there are 6327 log ins, 458 are members, 4993 are "guests" and there are 876 Robots.
Well, I don't know if it says anything about this thread, but I have noticed a thread I started in 2020 about what kind of hamb friendly car you would buy if you had a no limit amount of fun money has been making the rounds again the last day or so, lol Larry
Quite often I look up information on Google .... I get better info along with extra info that my motors manual does not include. ....... Sometimes I'm blessed with a youtube video showing actual steps to do what I need. I would consider myself a total idiot if I were not going to take advantage of the information available at my finger tips. ...... The way we learn & gather information has changed over the years. Many times my searches bring me to a old HAMB thread. Simply because of the vehicle I may be working on at the time. There has been a few times I get a 10 year old thread that answers my question ..... I see it has been semi active over a few years .... I feel I have something of value to add to the thread so I reply. Possibly something new has come along in the past 10 years so I share it. I was brought here from a google search .... only fair to assume another with the same question will be brought here in the next unknown years. Seems there is always some dufus to complain about bringing up a old thread. They simply do not understand the thread is in a search engine and it will come up over & over again as people ask the same question. Many people here are solid daily participants in the forum ..... but because their wheels or other car parts are post 1964 ..... games are played to circumvent the rules ..... Show us the car but not the wheels. Where Hot Rods were a thing people put together in the past .... using what is available. Today to build a pre 64 car is a rich mans game ..... bunch of old farts with too much money to spend. While we get a few new younger recruits every year .... too many old farts die every year .... The pool is shrinking .... just by natural selection. ...... Simply not enough new recruits with a viable project car to replace those leaving. ....... JMHO.
something the people who complain about posting a ? on a new thread is that they never realize most of the old post are devoid of pics. also if new threads are the same as old ones there would probably never be new threads. i would imagine just about everything related to our kind of cars has been posted by now.
Doing an in process built thread is a royal pain in the butt. Often times, the process isn't very clear with out pictures, and stopping the work to take the pictures steals some of the limited time most guys have to work on their project. Then, you get the guys that cry about how you did something not to their liking, or maybe something in the background is slightly off topic, and the entire thread could get deleted. Then lets add to the fact that as we grow older, most of us are not doing much building anymore, and what we might be doing to our build has already been done 1,000 times before, probably by someone much more talented then ourselves. Build threads are a pain, the draw backs are many, its often not worth the effort involved to make one. I've been on other hot rod sites before. On nearly all of them, when it comes to someone looking for technical advice, someone will nearly always suggest they seek an answer for their questions here on the HAMB. Those same people will also warn them to expect to get flamed if they don't use exactly the correct HAMB words, but if they can hang tough enough, they will get the right answers. What other people say about this site should be heard and understood. It might explain why the volume may be up right now, but the number of long term members is pretty short. People are sent here to get good answers, but the attitude of many here drives them away shortly after they get the info they are looking for. For most hot rodders, the HAMB has reputation of being a bunch of arrogant asses. I try to come here to share what little I know in the hope of helping someone gain knowledge through my life experiences.
Also don't forget this forum whilst primarily a car site is also a place where members care about other members. I know it sounds soppy but it doesn't take long for people to start caring if they haven't heard from a member lately. It is a social forum by default.
The Jalopy Journal
