I teach two sections of advanced critical thinking at a university in Philadelphia. This semester I have several students who have never participated in on line discussions. I suggested they visit the Bike Forums and browse through several of the sub-forums to get a sense of the ebb and flow of how on line discussion work. Thought you might be interested in dome of their reactions:

"There are some big egos on the Road Forum."

"Those Road people can get rude and nasty with each other."

"People on the Mechanic Forum either have too much time on their hands or are much smarter than I'll ever be."

"What's a recumbent, and why would someone want to ride one?"

"I like the attitude and vibe on the 50+ Forum.

"The people in the 50+ seem to be the nicest."

"What's the deal with Brooks?"

I find it interesting how it doesn't take very long for folks to start attacking each other in the road forum.

Maybe you could ask your students to provide some thoughts on why the different subforums take on different personalities.......might be an interesting discussion.

Very interesting but not surprising. Thanks for posting this.

As said, the comments on the 50+ forum are what I would expect, great people here. I have seen and read a few snippy and sharp replies in the Road forum but so far my questions have been answered or directions given. I guess they aren't ready for the technical info in the mechanics forum. I personally love and recommend this forum to anyone I talk to, bike related.

Bill

Hey.......you kids...............get off the lawn!

Thanks for sharing. The road forum has insecurity and manhood issues. A couple of the more mature members behave like kids and it reminds me of the movie Animal House where all the brothers are smart-alecks and failing in college. Since most of them are young and on very limited budgets, they discuss technology they cannot afford and make up crazy stuff as advice.

There is another syndrome in many of the forums which is "use the search engine to get your questions answered and do not bother us with anything that is not cool." In this forum, we can discuss clipless pedals and Brooks saddles once a week if someone starts a post. This forum is a more social where members are interested in others than an equipment / Q and A forum.

I prefer the let's discuss it again approach. We have new members all the time and even though the archives are rich in content, they are in fact history not current thinking. History is interesting but not as much fun as making history

For me, BF is partly about giving and receiving information and partly about socializing and hanging out in cyberspace with a great group of guys and gals.

Plus, guys over 50 make great tandem stokers, even though some of us don't always wear helmets like we should. (Nice likeness of ChipCom, though...

No comment on Foo?

I dunno, would commenting on Foo mean this thread would get moved to Foo?

Seems like the replies to this thread are a composite of the picture of the people in the 50+ forum. Seems to sum up our crowd as well as the others. And I am just a newbie.

Bill

+1 on the Road Forum behavior. I hesitated posting anything for a long time, afraid they'd tell me to HTFU and other rude remarks.

I'd be interested in reading the results, too, if BS were to assign his classes the task as you propose.

Me, too.

Those comment are just about precisely on point.

I'm in my thirties, but I come here to lurk sometimes because I like the vibe, too.

Old age and cunning can overcome youth and exuberance anytime.

The 50+ always demonstrates a large degree of friendly ambiance combined with some very knowledgeable replies / posts. The Road thread seems to be made up of more testosterone than Floyd Landis supposedly tested positive for.

How old are these Students? They enjoy the inane banter of a bunch of elders?

It must your influence that is turning them old before their time. First the mind set- then the Body- then the Brain. Better get them out riding before they lose the body- The mind set they have- but if they start analysing this forum- it will do their heads in.

I think cinema studies should figure more prominently into the current University curriculum...

What, nothing on Alt Bikes? They have heart and the most interesting bikes.

Actually, no. In the assignment to them I indicated that Foo, in general, was for stuff that didn't especially relate to a topic within the current sturcture of sub discussions. And, the assignment was in part to see how you could take a topic and approach it from different interests.

Good question. These are students preparing to go into a challenging graduate program. Hence, the youngest must be mid to late 20 something. Additionally, all of them have life experience beyond just school. They've all held professional positions for a few years.

One person did actually comment about the Alt Bikes. She did not visit the threads, but rather commented that there didn't seem to be too many people on that topic. So, she looked elsewhere.

It has been a long time since I was in college, but I still remember my formula for success.

1- Figure out what the professor wants to see.
2- Put that into discussions and on paper at every opportunity.

In the working world I see that too many people use that formula to too great an extent, resulting in "management by buzzwords" that is so prevalent in companies.

If they had problems with the Road forum, what did they make of A&S?

Paul

Hey! I think that I dated that stoker's sister.