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How did you find VHT?

ancientdad

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With us approaching 1000 members in the next couple months, I'm curious how some of the newer members in the last few months have found VHT. We know many have come from that other forum along the way and I've encouraged some Reddit members to come over as well (along with a few others who visit Reddit) but I know some have found us just by an internet search.

So weigh in and let us know how you found VHT.
 
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I had just purchased my CM450 project, and I had a ton of questions. Still do. Internet searches led me to Motorcycle Forum, and then to Honda Twins. I asked a lot of questions, but it seems I got a lot of inconsistent answers as well. Then my searches led me here. I was a bit confused at first as to what was what, and who was who, but I figured it out soon enough. Now this site is my home base for sure. Lots of knowledgeable members, and even some straight up expert pro advice givers, and you can't beat that. Everyone seems very well adjusted and helpful, and I have yet to see one less than positive reply or input. This site has helped me tremendously, and I truly appreciate that enormously. My bike is up and running very well, and is really making me very happy. I rode 200 adventure miles in the last two days. I am in good hands here.

So to that I say, Cheers! Keep the shiny side up, and ride safe.
 
I think I got here from Google search, but I really don't know. I do know that the orientation of the forums seems to be mechanical, not collecting or performance or opinion. Suits me.
 
I was a troll on HT for a few years; collecting and saving info for a just purchased CM450E. Within what seemed like days after I finally signed up over there, I found LDR’s “resignation” post… I replied to it to thank him for all the info I’d garnered, and was redirected here by AlanF, Richard Pittman’s avatar, and circlingthedrain. Thanks, guys!
(To this day, I just checked again, not one reply to my introduction thread; only PM’s to head over here.)
 
I have been reading on various forums for about ten years and have generally been able to find what I was looking for on existing threads. So, I never registered. Many of my searches landed on the Honda Twins forum and this year I thought I should finally just sign up. Within hours of registering, I learned about this forum and registered after checking that some of the members I was familiar with were indeed active on VHT (66Sprint, Mydlyfkrysiz, WintrSol, crazypj, etc.).
 
Not knowing much about motorcycles - certainly not about rebuilds - I was looking for a public forum that could offer advice and guidance. I landed on VHT, which has consistently proven to be as among the best info sources available.
 
Not knowing much about motorcycles - certainly not about rebuilds - I was looking for a public forum that could offer advice and guidance. I landed on VHT, which has consistently proven to be as among the best info sources available.

But did you find it using an internet search? Or referred here by someone else as so many have been? That was really my question.
 
Found it on Google. Searching for details and info has sent me to HT and VHT. Settled on VHT because it seems to be a good place.

Sent from my SM-G986W using Tapatalk
 
But did you find it using an internet search? Or referred here by someone else as so many have been? That was really my question.

Yes, Internet search. That's what originally brought me, but it's the input and feedback from VHT members that keeps me coming back.
 
When searching even today, this site rarely pops up on the first page of searching. It's lucky even if it will hit the second, third, etc. pages as well. Unless I include "vintagehondatwins.com" in my search string, it seems that Google has it out for you guys.

It's probably both a blessing and a curse... keeps the unintentional away, but also makes it harder to find for the well-meaning folks.
 
When searching even today, this site rarely pops up on the first page of searching. It's lucky even if it will hit the second, third, etc. pages as well. Unless I include "vintagehondatwins.com" in my search string, it seems that Google has it out for you guys.

It's probably both a blessing and a curse... keeps the unintentional away, but also makes it harder to find for the well-meaning folks.

Since we've only been around for a little over a year, the search engines are still catching up and archiving our threads. We're nowhere near the search results that HT has, but they've also been around for 13 years too. What search words are you using that give those results?
 
Since we've only been around for a little over a year, the search engines are still catching up and archiving our threads. We're nowhere near the search results that HT has, but they've also been around for 13 years too. What search words are you using that give those results?

Honda twins, specific bike models, etc.

and I think you meant to say that the search engines are still caching up....
 
Honda twins, specific bike models, etc.

and I think you meant to say that the search engines are still caching up....

Yup, that too! Obviously, if you use honda twins you know what you're going to get - it was the good fortune of the time in 2008 for the founders to get that specific name that so closely applies to all of our favorite bikes. I can't recall any specific search phrases I've used recently, but if you hit on one that has already been archived you'll see that in some cases we actually come in above HT in the results as well as we have sub-sections listed for some of the results, much like HT. It's a lot better than it was a few months ago, so it's getting there.
 
was PM'd shortly after joining/rejoining THEOTHERSITE in 2020, think by ldr but the pm history is gone.

I'm thinking it's his PM history that is gone which affected yours I'm sure, much like mine is gone and you can't look at my profile (but all my posts are still there). I'm guessing it's because we got banned
 
I'm thinking it's his PM history that is gone which affected yours I'm sure, much like mine is gone and you can't look at my profile (but all my posts are still there). I'm guessing it's because we got banned
I've been banned twice, LongDistanceRider and Kevin Mitnick are persona non grata there. Old Guy hasn't been banned, yet:lol:
 
well when you ask a guy questions on offer-up- you quickly figure out he's and admin on the forum.... looks to lots of good data and folks here.
 
well when you ask a guy questions on offer-up- you quickly figure out he's and admin on the forum.... looks to lots of good data and folks here.

Oh, I’m not an admin! Far from it, I’m just lucky to be here. Got the tip from another local.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Chiming in here as a new member. I found this forum by searching "CB350 forum" in Google search. It was the second hit, which is great. TBH I wasn't familiar with this forum or HT forum, but it became clear very quickly which one was a legit, human-run forum and which one looked like a add-cluttered clone. Thanks to the admins for all that you do.
 
I can barely remember how I met my wife. Somehow landed here and saw ancientdad and longdistancerider, 76twinn, I knew I was home. Had not enjoyed HT much for a year or more and had been on the FB groups, maybe that is where I heard of VHT.

I've dropped link at the FB groups a few times so maybe a few will find us.

Thanks to all.
 
I found this on a Google search, I don't recall specifically what I searched, probably the model - SL175. I did find "the other" place but was not impressed.
I did find Jensen's post over there about his experiment with oil in his bomber - what a read!!! I joined just to send him a thank you note, then realized he's over here - duh... I'm still learning BUT - I'm in the right place :)
 
I was lurking on the other site as it circled the drain. Caught some chatter there about starting a new site, so I came here and lurked for a while. It was instantly obvious that the people here actually cared about the bikes and passing around the knowledge.

The new owners of the other site didn't even care enough to put pictures of vintage Honda twins at the top of the page. Soulless corporate *******s..........
 
I used a kijiji image to perform a google image search (attempting to find more information on a bike for sale, I.E. was it listed elsewhere - was it the subject of other conversations). Someone else had posted the same image here asking for purchase advice a month or so prior, so this was a logical place to inquire about that bike.

I ended up buying it.
 
I found VHT during a Google search for tires for my CB77. When I looked at my tires date code, I was horrified that I have tires from 2004! I don’t wear tires out in this bike anymore since my CB1100 my primary ride. VHT is a great forum!
 
It's nice to see that we're out there more than enough now to be found in many search situations. Something else has happened lately... our group of regularly active members (out of the total number) has grown from the mid-300s to 401 in the last 6 weeks or so. For a forum of 1220 or so members to have a full one-third of them regularly active is pretty significant, it means we're doing something right. It's plainly and openly displayed at the bottom of our home page, something that other forum doesn't do because they are not interested in displaying the decline in attendance and participation since their revenue-driven takeover of a once thriving community. I mean, why brag about averaging 12 to 15 posts a day despite a constant influx of new members who post and rarely get any responses, much less responses with the actual content they're looking for?
 
Something else has happened lately... our group of regularly active members (out of the total number) has grown from the mid-300s to 401 in the last 6 weeks or so.

I noticed that "Active Members" count and am curious: what level of activity is used to define an active member?
 
I noticed that "Active Members" count and am curious: what level of activity is used to define an active member?

I can't recall the exact number but it has to do with how much time has passed between posts by a member.

Edit: though it is adjustable, the default is 60 days.
 
I can't recall the exact number but it has to do with how much time has passed between posts by a member.

Edit: though it is adjustable, the default is 60 days.

Interesting - thanks for checking that. I know there are users from all over the world, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a rise in activity as spring in the northern hemisphere approaches.

I had anticipated that the steady stream of new members would slow in the winter, but it doesn't really seem to have done that. Lots of winter projects, I guess.
 
Found by internet search "Honda CL175 forum". Looking for a group that can help with troubleshooting/repairing issues. Hope I'm in the right place.
 
Found by internet search "Honda CL175 forum". Looking for a group that can help with troubleshooting/repairing issues. Hope I'm in the right place.

Oh, you absolutely are. The collective knowledge here is far superior to any other vintage Honda twins forum out there regardless how long they've been around. You won't find a more friendly and helpful vintage Honda twin forum anywhere, and you won't find a larger group of former Honda techs who worked on these bikes when they were new and current models anywhere else either.
 
Interesting - thanks for checking that. I know there are users from all over the world, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a rise in activity as spring in the northern hemisphere approaches.

I had anticipated that the steady stream of new members would slow in the winter, but it doesn't really seem to have done that. Lots of winter projects, I guess.
And the number of bad actors trying to join has actually increased.
 
Bad actors as in scammers or something along those lines?
Yep, that's them. Tom and I have a name collection of servers that host bad guys like ColoCrossing. They say they're in on place and IP address shows up 1/2 way around the world. Then there's the fraud activity scoring, lots of these guys are batting 100%. Then there's the VPN's and Proxy servers to contend with.
 
Yep, that's them. Tom and I have a name collection of servers that host bad guys like ColoCrossing. They say they're in on place and IP address shows up 1/2 way around the world. Then there's the fraud activity scoring, lots of these guys are batting 100%. Then there's the VPN's and Proxy servers to contend with.

I guess scammers have been around in one shape or form since the beginning of time, so it was probably inevitable that cyber scamming would become the problem that it is today. Thanks to you guys for filtering them out of VHT.
 
Oh, you absolutely are. The collective knowledge here is far superior to any other vintage Honda twins forum out there regardless how long they've been around. You won't find a more friendly and helpful vintage Honda twin forum anywhere, and you won't find a larger group of former Honda techs who worked on these bikes when they were new and current models anywhere else either.

This is why I'm here, sharing my build. I did find a few other sites I had considered but they weren't as specific as this one is to Honda let alone twin engines. One site I found did nothing but create a space for a group of know it all to bash newbies for asking questions. After reading a few threads with a general theme of "you're an idiot for asking and you'll just fail" I decided...Nope, not for me. The atmosphere I was looking for is here.
 
I guess scammers have been around in one shape or form since the beginning of time, so it was probably inevitable that cyber scamming would become the problem that it is today. Thanks to you guys for filtering them out of VHT.

I did a rough count from the emails that Jim and I forward to each other from when new members join and we decline them, and since we opened in June of 2020 (and we didn't start keeping track of them right away) we've declined close to 200 attempts by bad actors like Jim described above. The interesting part is that the other forum (and most forums in general) uses an algorithm to approve new members, which is why I often see similarly-composed usernames there (unusual names with 4 numbers at the end is a common tactic) when I look at the list of 12 newest members in any given 24 hour period. Sure, they get a lot more signups but many of them aren't even real, they're only there to spam or scam.
 
I for one, am very grateful for this place. I hope that I earn the friendship that has been extended to me. Can't even imagine the hours and work that goes into maintaining this all.

Thankyou, thankyou all.
 
I've said this often - we really enjoy what we do. I can't speak for Jim, but I spend at least 6 to 8 hours a day on the forum (some days significantly more), much of it casual while I'm in and out of my office at home but there are busy periods that sometimes come in waves. We've had as many as 5 new members join some days and the vetting process that Jim and I have worked out takes a few minutes each, even when new members do everything right and everything checks out. And when we have days with well over 100 posts, it takes time to read each one to be sure it doesn't need to be moved to a different section, or an in-depth answer that requires some research and/or screenshots... it can be complicated but it's as much fun as I've ever had on a forum and I couldn't imagine my days without it now. For comparison purposes, I was on the other forum for almost 4 years, and in our 22 months of VHT existence I've done almost as many posts as I did at HT in roughly twice the amount of time.
 
This is the best Internet forum I’ve been involved in. Thanks AD and LDR. I realize how much time you devote to this site. It’s a great community. I’ve learned so much more this past year than I could have ever on my own.


‘69 CB350
‘68 CB450K0
 
This is the best Internet forum I’ve been involved in. Thanks AD and LDR. I realize how much time you devote to this site. It’s a great community. I’ve learned so much more this past year than I could have ever on my own.


‘69 CB350
‘68 CB450K0

Always good to hear, and we appreciate it. We had a plan for how we wanted to run it when we started and we've stuck to it. Yes, it's time-consuming some days but it's absolutely worth it.
 
Hi - I found the site by searching Google for questions on my 1971 Honda SL175 (KO) restoration. It has been very helpful and I am glad to have joined.
 
When searching even today, this site rarely pops up on the first page of searching. It's lucky even if it will hit the second, third, etc. pages as well. Unless I include "vintagehondatwins.com" in my search string, it seems that Google has it out for you guys.

To really isolate results, use this syntax:
site:vintagehondatwins.com other search terms

To answer the original question, I bought my CM450 over 2 years ago, found the "old" site, and have been using its history using the site-specific search like above. Posting there I didn't have much luck. If I did have luck, it was an old LDR post.

Then I ran into results from this site in a recent search... about 3 pages in.
 
...it seems that Google has it out for you guys.

Then I ran into results from this site in a recent search... about 3 pages in.

Google doesn't give a rat's ass about who we are, what we do or who our competition is.

Kentonius' statement was from almost 17 months ago and the crawlers have found a lot more of our posts since then, but I do agree we are still not always first page in a search. But, when you consider that HT has been around 15 years this year and has over 550,000 total posts while we're only at just over 85,000 posts to date, the search crawlers have had a lot more time to notice their topics.
 
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