Forum Suggestions & User Assistance - youth forum?

would it be possible to create a youth cycling forum for like teens? I am finding it hard to connect with people my age. Not many members post there age
in there profile.

Not many members post there age
in there profile.

that's because all of us here are your at heart..


I am finding it hard to connect with people my age


you do? how come?

It really depends on if there is a real need for a youth forum as a main forum, there could be a subforum though, but I am not the person that is able to do that, bring, the person you would need is Joe for this purpose.

It would be a good idea for teens who would like to talk about music and other stuff which older people dont really talk about that much....

It would be a good idea for teens who would like to talk about music and other stuff which older people dont really talk about that much....

Sure it would be good to talk about that stuff here for teens, but this is BikeForums. There are other forums out there that teens like me can talk about that stuff. But biking intrests me more than music now. :D

-Garrett

If you need to speak about music, we created an entertainment forum there. If you have something to say, if you post it there, chances are that others will follow.

Garrett has a point- if you are more interested in talking about things beyond cycling, there are a lot of other forums out there specifically for teens that can put you in touch with other people your age. My main reason why I would hesitate to endorse creating a sub-forum for teens is that the forums are mainly here to talk about cycling, not off topic, unrelated subject matter. While it would be nice to have a lot of other sub-forums, if they aren't pertaining to cycling, I could see this getting pretty clogged down pretty quickly. There's no reason why we should have a teen forum, then we get asked for an over 65 forum, then we've got the baby boomers forum, etc. I would think it would be a little overwhelming. Besides that, I'm not sure how we can monitor those forums to ensure that only teens would have access, or that the people who have access are really teens. Take a look at the Womens Cycling forum. Men contribute to that forum too, and no one has a problem with that. There was a time when we discussed perhaps restricting it to women only, but then all the valid questions were rasied, so we dropped it.

If we happen to get a whole lot of cycling teens, I say we should really go for it, but as of now, I think there are about 8 contributing teens to the forums, and I think we should wait a bit for demand before creating something along those lines.... just for now.

Just a thought.

Koffee

I was not suggesting creating a forum (or sub-forum) for teens to talk about music and stuff. I was suggesting creating a forum about youth cycling for the purpose of getting in contact and keeping in touch with other youth cycling fans. Beside's youth cycling is a broad subject, I think it will address a little more than 8 people.

Koffee,

I respectfully agree with all your arguments. We don't need a specific forum for youth cycling because all of it is (or should be) covered through the other forums: mountain biking, commuting (to school), road cycling, touring...

However, I must add that I feel exactly the same way about the "Women Cycling" forum: women represent a tiny minority of our population (51%, I think) and therefore should also be served by all the available forums. Besides, most of the issues raised in the Women Cycling forum are also of interest to all non-standard riders (non-standard according to the industry, that is): short males, people with long feet, overweight people, people with back injuries. All the "choosing the proper bike" topics could be more effective if they were bundled with road, commuting or mountain cycling. Yet I bet that some women appreaciate seeing such a Women forum.

There are a few topics which are specific to youth, for instance racing rules for <18 are slightly different, parking at school might be different than parking at work. Whether or not we "need" a complete forum, sub-forums in the Road or Mountain cycling 0r no forums at all is a good question, but I think that adding a Youth forum might help build the community.

Regards,

Michel Gagnon (Montréal, Québec, Canada)
who never was a woman but has been a youth some 25-30 years ago, long time before Internet, and who is now training a 7.5 and a 3.5 year old cyclists.

women represent a tiny minority of our population (51%, I think)

I thought 51% was a majority, not a tiny minority???

Koffee,

I respectfully agree with all your arguments. We don't need a specific forum for youth cycling because all of it is (or should be) covered through the other forums: mountain biking, commuting (to school), road cycling, touring...

However, I must add that I feel exactly the same way about the "Women Cycling" forum: women represent a tiny minority of our population (51%, I think) and therefore should also be served by all the available forums. Besides, most of the issues raised in the Women Cycling forum are also of interest to all non-standard riders (non-standard according to the industry, that is): short males, people with long feet, overweight people, people with back injuries. All the "choosing the proper bike" topics could be more effective if they were bundled with road, commuting or mountain cycling. Yet I bet that some women appreaciate seeing such a Women forum.

There are a few topics which are specific to youth, for instance racing rules for <18 are slightly different, parking at school might be different than parking at work. Whether or not we "need" a complete forum, sub-forums in the Road or Mountain cycling 0r no forums at all is a good question, but I think that adding a Youth forum might help build the community.

Regards,

Michel Gagnon (Montréal, Québec, Canada)
who never was a woman but has been a youth some 25-30 years ago, long time before Internet, and who is now training a 7.5 and a 3.5 year old cyclists.

I feel you, Michel. I wasn't saying that someday there wouldn't be a need for a teen forum for cycling, but I was saying that if there was a teen forum created that was its own entity for entertainment, music, etc., then I don't see the need for it. To that end, the amount of teens we do have on the forums is not that many right now. I'd like to see more teens register and get something going. I don't discount the teens that are here now, but I have to say, a lot of them are scattered throughout the forums (BMX, MTB, Road, and Racing), and with so few of them to begin with, it would be nice to see an increase in the amount of teens first, then perhaps create a forum that has several different topics involved for cycling where they could converge to talk about teen cycling. As of now, I just don't see it, and I've got access to all forums right now and move freely across all forums, not just the ones that the members see or gravitate towards.

I think you're working with the "if you build it, they will come", and I am working with the "as they come we will build it approach". We're on the same page, just coming from opposite ends to get there, that's all. I feel ya.

Much love.

Koffee

Fair enough, Koffee.

Cool. What I think we can do is monitor the newbies and see if we would have enough teens to get something going. It would at least have to be a general cycling forum for the time, since the teens that are online seem to have many varied interests.

You surviving in the snow, Michel?

Koffee