Post by: Jillsy on June 10, 2022, 01:43:13 PM
Some of you may have noticed that our Member numbers have decreased significantly over the past few days. That's because I have gone through and deleted everyone who hadn't logged on to the Forum for 2 years or more and had 0 posts. I have also deleted the accounts of people who requested I do so (I have left all of their posts on the Forum though).
If you are Members of other Forums or FB pages associated with your vehicles (eg LCOOL on the net) or your Camper Trailers (eg Kimberley Kamper Official Owners Group on FB), why not tell those Forum Members about Myswag.org? It might help us add some fresh and ACTIVE Members to our already amazing group of Members. Here is a copy of a blurb I put on three 200series Owners Groups on FB (I'm still a Member from when we had Ruby and Bruiser the Cruiser :angel:)
If you happen to be own a Camper Trailer, please feel free to check out www.myswag.org - it’s an ad free Off-road Camper Trailer Forum. There’s a spot for you to brag about your 200 as well as a place to tell everyone all about your Camper Trailer. It has Members from all over Australia and has Member-written information regarding almost all things outdoor and camping related. Go and check it out!!!
Feel free to copy and paste the above or make up your own little blurb.
Post by: Fizzie on June 11, 2022, 07:41:17 AM
Could I suggest that it could also make mention of hard-floor, hard-roof, hard-wall Camper Trailers as well? ;D
After all, some of us have upgraded! ;D
Post by: Jillsy on June 11, 2022, 08:12:24 AM
Post by: Jeepers Creepers on June 12, 2022, 11:44:12 AM
If you look at the statistics page, the forum as a whole has been in a huge decline for years.
And that, is based on cold hard facts and figures.
Post by: WilSurf on June 13, 2022, 04:59:47 PM
Thanks Jillsy.
Could I suggest that it could also make mention of hard-floor, hard-roof, hard-wall Camper Trailers as well? ;D
After all, some of us have upgraded! ;D
Aren't they called caravans? ;D
Post by: DandyD on June 15, 2022, 05:41:37 AM
Post by: Jillsy on June 15, 2022, 05:45:01 AM
I’d love to help but I can’t see many others joining from up here.
;D ;D ;D :cup:
Where about's in the UK are you? My Mum was from Yorkshire (Huddersfield)...
Post by: DandyD on June 15, 2022, 09:31:24 AM
My wife is from Yorkshire.
Post by: DannyG on June 15, 2022, 11:16:07 AM
Facebook has become the new active space for people to get info. But the info or quality of people you find on Facebook groups leave a lot to be desired on a lot of occasions.
So given time the people will come back to forums. Especially forums that are not over moderated but maintain a somewhat family friendly environment and have quality content. All of which Myswag has, hence its a successful forum and should easily last the test of time and come out the other side of this Facebook hit.
I have a forum that is Vehicle based, Ill give Myswag a mention on it, hopefully it'll create a few new active members.
Post by: Mace on June 15, 2022, 11:25:22 AM
I know you guys have just done a massive clean out but Forums in general are having a bit of a slump at the moment.
Facebook has become the new active space for people to get info. But the info or quality of people you find on Facebook groups leave a lot to be desired on a lot of occasions.
Very true Danny.
However the forum stats indicate that Myswag is experiencing an uplift in members, which is good. Its a matter of converting them to active posters.
(https://i.ibb.co/B6XrncT/Screenshot-2022-06-15-111816.png)
Facebook makes it easier for member to post their trip details up instead of having to upload images. I would imagine that between the Forum and the Myswag FB site, the actual amount of member useage hasnt dropped of that much. COVID has also had an impact on personal trip report threads, IMO.
Cheers, Al.
Post by: DandyD on June 15, 2022, 09:23:23 PM
Post by: Jillsy on June 15, 2022, 10:38:03 PM
Just looking now, there are six registered users viewing the forum and 72 guests. Is there any way of prompting the guests to join?Will definitely check if they’d an option when we do the forum update Mate - good idea…
Post by: grunf on June 15, 2022, 11:34:09 PM
People who do that usually get banned. So we may rethink this strategy.
Post by: nab on June 16, 2022, 12:57:45 AM
Post by: Jillsy on June 16, 2022, 03:10:15 AM
Very common practice on other forums is that advertising and inviting people to other sites is not allowed.
People who do that usually get banned. So we may rethink this strategy.
Definitely don't do it if it will get you into trouble!!!
Post by: Jillsy on June 16, 2022, 03:11:12 AM
Whenever someone asks me a bout camper trailers and which ones they should buy, I always give them 3 options - check out a camping show, hire one and check out Myswag. Facebook is pretty crap for info (good for Marketplace though), forums still hold technical info which is reasonable straight forward to find.
I do the same ;D
Post by: Jillsy on June 16, 2022, 09:13:17 PM
My wife is from Yorkshire.
Small world ;D
I know you guys have just done a massive clean out but Forums in general are having a bit of a slump at the moment.
Facebook has become the new active space for people to get info. But the info or quality of people you find on Facebook groups leave a lot to be desired on a lot of occasions. I agree - gosh there is some absolute tripe out there
So given time the people will come back to forums. Especially forums that are not over moderated but maintain a somewhat family friendly environment and have quality content. All of which Myswag has, hence its a successful forum and should easily last the test of time and come out the other side of this Facebook hit. Naww such lovely words :cup:
I have a forum that is Vehicle based, Ill give Myswag a mention on it, hopefully it'll create a few new active members. Thank you!!!
COVID has also had an impact on personal trip report threads, IMO.
Absolutely. I am looking forward to doing our trip report as we travel to and from (and including the National Meet) - 8 weeks worth of trip report :o
Post by: McGirr on July 25, 2022, 04:07:43 PM
You can join groups related to brand or model of your car , camper, caravan etc.
Pictures can upload quicker no matter the size of them.
Replies are simple and quick.
Social media groups have bigger audiences.
You don't have to scroll through endless topics to find things. Yes there is a search function and you can set up notifications but really you need to be on tapatalk to get any quick notifications.
Personally I still hop on now and then but it's now out dated in sense and thats not going against foums as I have met some great friends from here. I also don't see anything that interests me anymore from the group sadly.
Mark
Post by: Banjo16 on July 25, 2022, 05:21:13 PM
Post by: paceman on July 25, 2022, 06:54:27 PM
Most of my visits to the forum are out of habit now…
Older members that I enjoyed communicating with are gone or don’t frequent the forums either.
I’m going on a 10 day trip out to western Queensland in September, and don’t really see the need to compile trip reports… can’t see how it would be interesting to more than a couple of people at most.
Also, a lot of us have never met others on this forum and sometimes it can feel like an outsider looking in, with little groups within groups.
I have found the forum very useful over the years and have tried to pass on that help to others, but if I’m brutally honest, I think the forum is fading…
Hopefully YMMV…
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Post by: duggie on July 25, 2022, 07:08:15 PM
Post by: vern on July 25, 2022, 08:17:59 PM
I have stated this before , the worst thing that has happened to Myswag is the Bookface site , people on Myswag are known by their user name , unlike bookface where you bookface profile is who you are . Just my 2 bobs worth .Do people even use the Facebook page? It's very quiet, hardly ever see it in my feed
Sent from my SM-A526B using Tapatalk
Post by: Pete79 on July 26, 2022, 06:08:32 PM
Facebook is good for killing time, photos and quick answers (of questionable accuracy).
I signed up here when I was researching specific technical details for an upcoming trailer build I was planning. I read so many build threads, some that were up to 10 years old (or more). I read some threads many times and studied 100s of photos intently.
I didn’t need to ask many questions or comment on other peoples work while researching, I just took everything I needed from the threads that I liked.
To steal a phrase from annoying people at work, this is the forum’s “unique selling point”.
You can’t do that stuff on Facebook.
Over the years I took heaps of knowledge from this forum, not just for my build, but also camp oven cooking recipes and good spots to camp that I had never heard of before or had driven past and had no idea I missed them.
The biggest thing about forums is members contributing, so I tried to give back to this knowledge base as much as I could and documented as much of my build as possible.
I also tried to write as many trip reports as I could whenever we did something interesting or different.
But over the last couple of years that specific knowledge base/information input around off-road campers (or camping in general) has basically stopped in this site and as a result I’ve drifted away recently.
I still prefer forums over Facebook and float in and out of this forum from time to time, but there really isn’t much off-road based activity happening in here these days and to be honest I don’t feel that some of the side conversations are all that healthy sometimes either. I just don’t see much that engages me personally here anymore.
Having said all that, I truly hope this forum stays alive because there really is some great information hidden in these pages and maybe a few new members will spark up the camping and camper trailer side of this group.
Perhaps I’ll get inspired for another build one day and contribute more myself again.
Post by: Spada on July 27, 2022, 06:14:31 AM
Skip forward a bit and we were all in lock-down or severely restricted in where we could go & what we could do, and the general chit-chat lost some relevance as we all progressively went stir crazy.
With the cycle of life looping back around and members now starting to get back out & about, I suspect normal viewing will resume shortly. This forum has been a great source of info for a lot of people, but I see a few members from past that used to contribute quite a bit have gone real quiet. The user stats show that they are still logging in and reading quite regularly, but they're just not posting like they used to. I suspect thats because we've gone off-topic a bit (thanks to covid).
Winter will be over in a month or two, so maybe it's time to start thinking about having a few meet & greet weekends in some local campgrounds? That can be as simple as posting a campground that your going to and inviting people to come along and say hi. I have to say that I've met some great people through a few of the Brisbane area Myswag days/weekends that have been done in the past, which then created a personal link to the forum discussions and helps drive the conversation.
There is nobody on here that doesn't like camping, and I suspect many of us may have first heard about Myswag in a campground? so lets just get back out and around a campfire so we can chat face to face again ;)
Post by: Fizzie on July 27, 2022, 07:46:35 AM
Post by: Spada on July 27, 2022, 09:07:59 AM
Or I know of a backyard that has an awesome looking firepit & pizza oven ... ;D
All going well, the fire pit will undergo a bit of a reno this week-end with the help of a generous myswag member 8).
A Myswag pizza night may not be out of the question in the near future ;)
Post by: 2Strokeit on July 27, 2022, 09:25:02 AM
All going well, the fire pit will undergo a bit of a reno this week-end with the help of a generous myswag member 8).I have an rustic flu and chimney idea rattling around in my head if your interested. Think Yahoo serious in Young Einstein. A flu that funnels the initial smoke up then when the fires hot enough collapses downward to reflect heat to those sitting around it.
A Myswag pizza night may not be out of the question in the near future ;)
I'm in the same suburb.
Post by: GeoffA on July 27, 2022, 11:34:09 AM
All going well, the fire pit will undergo a bit of a reno this week-end with the help of a generous myswag member 8).
A Myswag pizza night may not be out of the question in the near future ;)
:cup: :cup:
Road trip?? ;D
Post by: Bird on July 27, 2022, 12:05:24 PM
Quote from: GeoffA
:cup: :cup:airfares... ;)
Road trip?? ;D
Post by: Spada on July 27, 2022, 12:59:53 PM
I have an rustic flu and chimney idea rattling around in my head if your interested. Think Yahoo serious in Young Einstein. A flu that funnels the initial smoke up then when the fires hot enough collapses downward to reflect heat to those sitting around it.Sounds intriguing, but the reno is about adding a cooking grill plate. I dont usually have any problem with fires not being hot enough >:D
I'm in the same suburb.
Post by: paceman on July 27, 2022, 05:08:02 PM
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220727/d1981612b2ff04165c34cce61c661579.jpg)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Post by: Jillsy on August 02, 2022, 04:10:54 AM
As a member that has arranged many trips in the group, forums have gone backward in a sense. Social media has the benefits for a number of reasons.
You can join groups related to brand or model of your car , camper, caravan etc.
Pictures can upload quicker no matter the size of them.
Replies are simple and quick.
Social media groups have bigger audiences.
You don't have to scroll through endless topics to find things. Yes there is a search function and you can set up notifications but really you need to be on tapatalk to get any quick notifications.
Personally I still hop on now and then but it's now out dated in sense and thats not going against foums as I have met some great friends from here. I also don't see anything that interests me anymore from the group sadly.
Mark
Thanks for your feedback Mark :cheers:
Have to agree with McGirr, the days of interesting trip reports are very few and far between, most things I see are unfortunately not related to the Forums title.
Forums are a two way street:
*Make sure that you are giving as well as taking ie don't just log on and read but also make sure you contribute. If you go on a trip...do a trip report. A trip report doesn't have to be fancy - it can be as simple as a quick summary of where you went, what you saw and a couple of piccies. I'm looking forward to doing a Trip Report regarding our trip to the National Meet - ours will be more like a blog though as we will be doing ours as we go (otherwise I will have to write up 8 weeks in one go :o ). I personally like to add a few extra things into a Trip Report/Blog so that it becomes more informative to others who might be planning a trip - I like to note down the price we paid for fuel, the pro's and con's of the the places we stayed, the fees (if applicable) for places we stayed, any issues we encountered and how we overcame them (in case this might help someone else), what the temperatures were or what the road conditions were like of non sealed roads (so other people can be prepared if they do the same trip at a similar time) etc.
**Start a topic that is related to the Forum title.
***If you know the answer to someone's question...reply with an answer instead of waiting for someone else to do it.
I’m going on a 10 day trip out to western Queensland in September, and don’t really see the need to compile trip reports… can’t see how it would be interesting to more than a couple of people at most. Why wouldn't it be interesting? Someone could be planning a trip to a similar area and trying to get first hand knowledge about certain things. Just because people don't comment on a Trip Report, doesn't mean they don't a) read them or b) use information gleaned from them. Take note of a topics views rather than replies...
Also, a lot of us have never met others on this forum and sometimes it can feel like an outsider looking in, with little groups within groups. Organise a catch up locally and meet other Swaggers face to face. We plan on doing more of this once we get back from Tassie. We haven't done any in the past 12+ months as we haven't had a CT or van (still haven't got our new one and we leave on the 05/09 for the National Meet :o . I for one have really missed a) getting away and b) meeting up with old friends and meeting new ones. Please don't be scared to put your hand up to organise one. Although some Myswaggers have, in the past, organised gatherings that would rival any Guided Tour you would pay thousands for (and done a ripper of a job I might add), your Meet doesn't have to be a complex, complicated or highly organised affair. It's as simple as you choosing a destination/venue that you know and love (or one that you would really love to visit) and creating a thread in the Trips Section saying "I am going camping at ***insert venue name, location and date here***. Anyone care to join me?"
Post by: Jillsy on August 02, 2022, 04:18:04 AM
I have stated this before , the worst thing that has happened to Myswag is the Bookface site , people on Myswag are known by their user name , unlike bookface where you bookface profile is who you are . Just my 2 bobs worth .
Hey duggie,
Thanks for your feedback however I don't think the Myswag FB page is super active. I for one make sure that if I post something on the FB page, I also post it on the Forum - I do that more so to ensure that EVERYONE gets to see it ie there are some people on the Forum who aren't on the FB page and vice-versa.
Forums in general are much, much better for people looking to get good, accurate or detailed information that may have been written many years ago, but is still correct and relevant. I agree...
Facebook is good for killing time, photos and quick answers (of questionable accuracy). <--- THIS!
I signed up here when I was researching specific technical details for an upcoming trailer build I was planning. I read so many build threads, some that were up to 10 years old (or more). I read some threads many times and studied 100s of photos intently.
I didn’t need to ask many questions or comment on other peoples work while researching, I just took everything I needed from the threads that I liked.
To steal a phrase from annoying people at work, this is the forum’s “unique selling point”.
You can’t do that stuff on Facebook. Very true...
Over the years I took heaps of knowledge from this forum, not just for my build, but also camp oven cooking recipes and good spots to camp that I had never heard of before or had driven past and had no idea I missed them.
The biggest thing about forums is members contributing couldn't agree more, so I tried to give back to this knowledge base as much as I could and documented as much of my build as possible.
I also tried to write as many trip reports as I could whenever we did something interesting or different.
Skip forward a bit and we were all in lock-down or severely restricted in where we could go & what we could do, and the general chit-chat lost some relevance as we all progressively went stir crazy. Agree...
With the cycle of life looping back around and members now starting to get back out & about, I suspect normal viewing will resume shortly. This forum has been a great source of info for a lot of people, but I see a few members from past that used to contribute quite a bit have gone real quiet. The user stats show that they are still logging in and reading quite regularly, but they're just not posting like they used to. I suspect thats because we've gone off-topic a bit (thanks to covid). Agree...
Winter will be over in a month or two, so maybe it's time to start thinking about having a few meet & greet weekends in some local campgrounds? That can be as simple as posting a campground that your going to and inviting people to come along and say hi. I have to say that I've met some great people through a few of the Brisbane area Myswag days/weekends that have been done in the past, which then created a personal link to the forum discussions and helps drive the conversation. Ha ha...I literally just finishing saying the same thing in a previous reply ;D
There is nobody on here that doesn't like camping, and I suspect many of us may have first heard about Myswag in a campground? so lets just get back out and around a campfire so we can chat face to face again ;) Yes!!!
Post by: paceman on August 02, 2022, 07:09:49 AM
a couple of followups:
Why wouldn't it be interesting? Someone could be planning a trip to a similar area and trying to get first hand knowledge about certain things. Just because people don't comment on a Trip Report, doesn't mean they don't a) read them or b) use information gleaned from them. Take note of a topics views rather than replies...
perhaps it would be a boost to people who post trip reports, if they actually DO get some feedback on their report? even if it is just a 'thanks for posting' or something of that nature?
Organise a catch up locally and meet other Swaggers face to face. We plan on doing more of this once we get back from Tassie. We haven't done any in the past 12+ months as we haven't had a CT or van (still haven't got our new one and we leave on the 05/09 for the National Meet :o . I for one have really missed a) getting away and b) meeting up with old friends and meeting new ones. Please don't be scared to put your hand up to organise one. Although some Myswaggers have, in the past, organised gatherings that would rival any Guided Tour you would pay thousands for (and done a ripper of a job I might add), your Meet doesn't have to be a complex, complicated or highly organised affair. It's as simple as you choosing a destination/venue that you know and love (or one that you would really love to visit) and creating a thread in the Trips Section saying "I am going camping at ***insert venue name, location and date here***. Anyone care to join me?"
hugely dependant on where you are. not everyone lives in places that have multiple members and is able to travel long distances for camping.
imagine posting that you will be somewhere and no-one responds. not a great feeling.
just my 2c...
i will endeavour to produce a trip report from our upcoming trip in september...
Post by: Fizzie on August 02, 2022, 07:22:16 AM
perhaps it would be a boost to people who post trip reports, if they actually DO get some feedback on their report? even if it is just a 'thanks for posting' or something of that nature?
Certainly, & while my current trip report (which is taking as long & slow to write as the trip was!) has only had a couple of actual comments made (Thanks! ;D), it's been viewed 351 times, so I guess somebody is interested ???
Quote
imagine posting that you will be somewhere and no-one responds. not a great feeling.
Been there, done that, & we still had a good time by ourselves ;D
Quote
i will endeavour to produce a trip report from our upcoming trip in september...
Have fun!
Post by: Harbourmaster on August 02, 2022, 09:48:43 PM
Post by: Jillsy on August 04, 2022, 02:11:40 AM
Hi Jillsy... appreciate you taking the time to respond to feedback, even if the feedback isn't all positive... All feedback is appreciated - good or bad ;D - gives a clearer picture.
a couple of followups:
Why wouldn't it be interesting? Someone could be planning a trip to a similar area and trying to get first hand knowledge about certain things. Just because people don't comment on a Trip Report, doesn't mean they don't a) read them or b) use information gleaned from them. Take note of a topics views rather than replies...
perhaps it would be a boost to people who post trip reports, if they actually DO get some feedback on their report? even if it is just a 'thanks for posting' or something of that nature? Possibly. To some people they might be doing the trip report more as a diary to themselves and to look back on. Others do it for the benefit of others for when they plan a similar trip and so may possibly be anticipating questions or similar from other Members. I do agree that it is nice to receive feedback/comments though...
Organise a catch up locally and meet other Swaggers face to face. We plan on doing more of this once we get back from Tassie. We haven't done any in the past 12+ months as we haven't had a CT or van (still haven't got our new one and we leave on the 05/09 for the National Meet :o . I for one have really missed a) getting away and b) meeting up with old friends and meeting new ones. Please don't be scared to put your hand up to organise one. Although some Myswaggers have, in the past, organised gatherings that would rival any Guided Tour you would pay thousands for (and done a ripper of a job I might add), your Meet doesn't have to be a complex, complicated or highly organised affair. It's as simple as you choosing a destination/venue that you know and love (or one that you would really love to visit) and creating a thread in the Trips Section saying "I am going camping at ***insert venue name, location and date here***. Anyone care to join me?"
hugely dependant on where you are. not everyone lives in places that have multiple members and is able to travel long distances for camping. Whilst not everyone lives in a place that has multiple members, it is not always known how many Members are in fact in a certain area sometimes (especially since the Member map pooped itself) ie some Members are lurkers rather than posters. Never know unless you ask ;D
imagine posting that you will be somewhere and no-one responds. not a great feeling. Depends. If we had already planned to go to a place (just us and our family or us and our neighbours etc) and just thought we'd throw out an invitation for interested Myswag Members to come then I wouldn't be overly worried if no one else came. However if I had specifically planned something for Myswag Members to come together to meet face to face and no one came then that would obviously be disappointing. However I would imagine that if you had tried to create such an event and you had no one confirm that they were attending..you wouldn't go ahead with it. If this were to happen, people shouldn't take it personally. Life is busy. People have other commitments etc. I guess it's one of those situations where you won't know unless you try...
just my 2c...
i will endeavour to produce a trip report from our upcoming trip in september...Please do ;D. Keep an eye out for mine too ;D