Two thousand in two thousand twenty three

ancientdad

ancientdad

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 22, 2020
Total Posts
22,613
Total likes
1,140
Location
Nature Coast, FL
Actually, 3000 in 3 years would have been more appropriate but it was overly optimistic to ever think we'd get there.

With 3 new members on this day in 2023, we reached 2000 members. I'd hoped we could hit that number, along with 100,000 posts and 10,000 threads, by our 3rd anniversary June 1, 2023. We might yet reach 100,000 posts (we're at 89,437 as of this moment) but it's pretty unlikely we'll reach 10,000 threads by then (we're at 6,977 as of this moment).

Still, it's quite the success story for a "Consortium of Old Guys" who decided they'd had enough of the corporate thumb on the day to day enjoyment of our previous home and broke away to make our own future. We've lost a few along the way, encouraged a few to move their member-beneficial efforts here, and have only had to ban 3 total in all that time while warding off hundreds of scammers who tried to sneak their way past Jim and I.

Thanks to all of our active members for their enjoyable and helpful contributions that make it so much fun to be a part of VHT every day. (y)
 
There is no other website where I feel as good reading and writing about the art of motorcycle maintenance. There are a hell of a lot of members who really know what they are doing in the garage. Congratulations to you guys for putting this together. I am very grateful.
 
I have been helped along so much by guys on this excellent site. And I have never had to take any attitude like I do on the Sportster forums.
 
Whenever I log onto VHT and the black screen with the gold Honda wing comes on for a few seconds I fell my pulse rate go lower and the cares of the day recede away……..
I find my self even reading about other Honda models that have no similarity to my CB350 apart from the manufacturer but the information so gathered is always useful somewhere.
A big well done to all the administrators and of course to the hundreds of other casual contributors.
Gary
Auckland
 
Shortly after joining VHT I received a question from AD asking what I thought about the responses I was receiving here compared to that other site (he noticed I was a newbie there as well)...and the rest is history...
 
To AD and Jim and all who make VHT what it is ...THANK YOU !!! It is informational, inspirational and a place I enjoy spending a bit of time every day.
 
Let me add a big Thank You to all the Admins that thought this site up and were willing to put all the time and effort into setting up and maintaining it. This has been one of the friendliest and non-critical sites for those of us who have questions/problems and need advice with our bikes. It is greatly appreciated.
 
Really glad I landed here when the "old broke bike" bug struck me again after the pandemic. Big big thanks to the admins who keep this great resource going!
 
Do to my vast interest in bikes of variety, Enduros, Turbos, 2-strokes, 6 cylinders, I have been involved in a number of different sites. In addition, there are other hobbies like Smoking Meat, Fishing, Hunting, cj2a willys .... that I am members of forums. \

For each type of hobbies, generally there are multiple forums, and user groups (Facebook) that are popping up. I have been fortunate to find my way to pretty decent sources. I guess, when I have run into bad ones, is when I move on to a different forum.

In all my hobbies there are a few forums that really stand out. For me, Its technical knowledge, and comradery. This form is definitely in the top of my list as one I visit frequently. Its very interesting to see what others are up to, and if there is a issue I am running into, a very quick response with good advice. Sometimes, not what I like to hear, but you always get the facts, LOL.

Being retired from Software and programming, I understand the effort to put together and maintain a site like this. Good job and hats off to you. Thank you very much.
 
I'd just like to chime it to say that the value of this site, and appreciation from many members who may be like me, can't be measured in the number of posts and threads... I don't post much because I still consider myself only knowledgeable enough to get myself into trouble, and I'm certainly nowhere near confident enough to give advice to anyone else. But I lurk and refer to certain posts over and over and have learned so much from the vets and experts here, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It's always my first stop when I have any question at all about my bike.

I'd be 100% lost without you guys, so thank you!
 
Tell us more about this banned club with 3 members .... sounds interesting .... VBG

Certainly good to see a higher percentage of active members here. The old one and done posts or someone rattling out the same drivel in multiple threads is a definite turn off.

Good people here for sure.
 
Boomer343 said:
Tell us more about this banned club with 3 members .... sounds interesting .... VBG
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Thanks, our percentage of active members has dropped about 10% in the last year or so but we're still around 20% to 25% which is about 10 times what that other forum can claim.

As for that very exclusive group of banned members... only one was banned for just being a rude (not to mention almost completely unintelligible) numbnut, that was "cntrhub". His spirit, and gobbledygook answers, lives on at that other forum in the form of PoiPio. The other members of that exclusive group were scammers who were cut loose based on our discovery of their previous efforts elsewhere. But that doesn't include the hundreds (literally) of others that Jim and I have exposed during the vetting process. A big change recently came from us adding a new field in the signup and profile areas about "Bikes Owned", the intent of which began as just an idea to try to add that information to our sortable member list to attempt to create the ability to sort the members by model of their vintage Hondas. Turns out we couldn't find a way to connect the added information to the member list since there is no ability to add another field there, but the byproduct of adding the field of info to the signup area was the bad guys (who clearly aren't vintage Honda twins owners) don't have a clue what to put there during their attempt to register... so it did make them easier to spot. Some of the ridiculous names used in that field by spammers and scammers include:

AmandaempizUU
BarbaraCobEW
RonaldSlurlJG
RamonddakPY
LucillefodapTC
CindySloliPZ
JamesLamXK
BnhfuirBibYM

They have no idea what to use and often those "names" are the same as their username, not to mention they always lie about their location as if we could never figure it out (example, they'll say Puerto Rico or Philippines but they're really in Russia). It can be quite entertaining at times and has gotten a little easier as a result of the added field info. Jim and I have been saving all of the rejected registration emails in folders in our respective email accounts (I started doing so at his great suggestion well over a year ago, so he probably has more than I do) and there are well over 250 in my folder alone. Our 2 latest new members, vetted just this morning when I signed in, put the total of registrations since the beginning at 2573 with the actual total membership at 2053, so the difference of 520 is the number of denied registrations or those who were booted.
 
I imagine most of us have absolutely no idea of the tedious crap you have to wade through every day to keep this site useful and orderly. We thank you for it. You are succeeding.
 
wentwest said:
I imagine most of us have absolutely no idea of the tedious crap you have to wade through every day to keep this site useful and orderly. We thank you for it. You are succeeding.
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Actually Bob, most of it is pretty simple and not often tedious, but there are occasional moments when I yell at the screen for a minute, LOL. I'm sure many have noticed that I clean up posts sometimes and space pictures properly when they've been accidentally butted up to sentences (it seems that Tapatalk must give a view that doesn't always reflect what it looks like on a computer once posted), but it's just me being picky about the appearance overall. Jim and I will move posts to the appropriate section to attempt to keep a semblance of order for future searches despite our search feature being well below average, since one day we hope to be using a better software for our purposes.

I think the most frustrating thing for me is the inability to successfully get a message out to everyone about something important. Many members, no matter what way they view the forum (computer, tablet or phone) only focus on their specific interests, understandably, but it often keeps them from seeing a "global" message or post of importance like new information about scammers (a member will sometimes post after the fact that they received a PM from one of them we've caught and/or banned), or the best way to search for specific content here at VHT (by using the site-specific Google search method) or my biggest pet peeve :lol:, somehow missing my Welcome Package (which I include in an auto-generated PM to every new member on their first login, as well as in my first reply to everyone's introduction, AS WELL AS in one of 3 announcements at the top of every section of the forum). And discouragingly, the forum software only allows 1 announcement to show at the top of each section no matter how many announcements you make - the viewer has to open the first one (currently about scammers) in order to see the other two, which is a poor design. Nothing I can do but continue to try to reach as many as possible in the only ways I have available short of emailing every single member which, even IF my email provider would allow me to do that for only every active member without seeing it as me spamming, would likely go to the spam folder of at least half the recipients (that which I've learned in close to 3 years of emailing some new registrants to let them know that they must look for the validation email in their spam folders to find the link to click to get themselves into the approval queue, and THAT email going to their spam folders).

It's a labor of love, and so far I'm not the least inclined to get a divorce. And from a 3 time loser in that category, I know when it's time. :rolleyes:
 
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