things you hear in the VS office about WTF happened to PBB and its members

[carslut]

I was thinking with all the pearls of wisdom left over on PBB about the downgrade there has to be some chat going around the great sticky office of the north about key things members posted and overall shock to them about not becoming elbow deep in thick cut bacon riches over night.

what kinds of things do you guys feel are being chatted up around the ol swamp water cooler?

 

[Deuce 40s]

I think they're used to it. They bought NCgunowners.com a few years ago and I left shortly after. I told the fuckers running the joint that VS would send it straight to the ground. No one listened to me. I was more mad at the owners of the site for selling out.

 

[trampas]

They're not sweating a god damned thing.


Why would they chatter about something as commonplace as deserting forums? It's their old norm, not the new norm.

 

[scooter2374]

They're not sweating a god damned thing.


Why would they chatter about something as commonplace as deserting forums? It's their old norm, not the new norm.

This. From what I've read this has been their MO for years, they don't even think about feeling bad about it anymore. It's just what they do.

 

[Romogo]

They don't give a shit. They now OWN ALL the content that's been posted for 20+ years. I've googled random shit about other vehicles and inevitably end up with links to the PBB. That will continue to happen for years to come even if no one regularly visits and posts on the site.

 

[Blugreenformula]

Question for those who were on other boards that sold out. Was there the amount of blowback including the creation of a new / old school version of their forum, like we had here?

 

[Johann]

This. From what I've read this has been their MO for years, they don't even think about feeling bad about it anymore. It's just what they do.

One of Admins posts was pretty telling. Something about there being uproar for 60-90 days then it calms down. And from their perspective it probably does. All the old core users leave and as new people find it and settle in they don't miss the old forum because they weren't part of it and all the ads are normal and not newly imposed.

Still, I don't think they realize how rare it was. Broadest cross section of knowledge on the planet as far as I was concerned. Don't know if their new normal can replace the comradery of 20 years of shared experiences. I certainly am done caring and trying as much as I did about That place. AND I will not be adding new content since I don't get to control it per their TOS.

 

[plym49v2]

They don't give a shit. They now OWN ALL the content that's been posted for 20+ years. I've googled random shit about other vehicles and inevitably end up with links to the PBB. That will continue to happen for years to come even if no one regularly visits and posts on the site.

Hmmm - what about 'the right to be forgotten' from search engines? I wonder what the rules are on that.

 

[Blugreenformula]

Question for those who were on other boards that sold out. Was there the amount of blowback including the creation of a new / old school version of their forum, like we had here?

 

[CDA 455 II]

They don't give a shit. They now OWN ALL the content that's been posted for 20+ years. I've googled random shit about other vehicles and inevitably end up with links to the PBB. That will continue to happen for years to come even if no one regularly visits and posts on the site.

That's how I perceived it when it was explained to me.

 

[Paragon]

They don't give a shit. They now OWN ALL the content that's been posted for 20+ years. I've googled random shit about other vehicles and inevitably end up with links to the PBB. That will continue to happen for years to come even if no one regularly visits and posts on the site.

This is their novel advertising business model. The amount of money that is wasted on advertising is astonishing.

Someone googles certain words and the click on a PBB link, there are car manufacturers paying to have their ads at those links. They are owning collections of words that other people are likely to search for. In a sense, this is what google has become. It's less about serving content as it is about serving up ads based on content that already exists. They are the modern day billboard people

 

[Chevy_man]

The ones I've seen simply died. Last I looked full-size Chevy was completely gone and dead. Gmfullsize is nearly there. Last time I went back to check on an old write-up there was nothing new for years.


The thing is, you let people sort shit out and they either stay or leave. The ones that stay tend to be the more productive and lasting personalities to build the community. The sites that have mods running around policing everything drive out the generally productive members with their bullshit.


Pirate was pirate because it was just people being people. As the rules were piled on and changes made it wasn't pirate anymore.

 

[trampas]

Hmmm - what about 'the right to be forgotten' from search engines? I wonder what the rules are on that.

EU only iirc

 

[3Cs]

Question for those who were on other boards that sold out. Was there the amount of blowback including the creation of a new / old school version of their forum, like we had here?

YellowBullet went through the same thing, everybody threw a hissy fit but after a while it seemed to be forgotten. The change at PBB has the forum looking exactly like YB, so much so that I sometimes forget which one I have open. I'm a Techno-Doofus, I don't use many of the bells and whistles, so it doesn't make that much of a difference to me. Changing to Dark Mode made it a LOT nicer IMO. I do miss the unique appearance of Pirate, but to me it's just the internet, no big deal. I've got a pretty full "Real" life with a lot of great friends and family so a web site going away doesn't mean that much to me.

 

[makemeknowit]

If other forums they revamped had mass exodus on a grand scale and withered on the vine, then where is the money sense in such actions?

 

[Paragon]

If other forums they revamped had mass exodus on a grand scale and withered on the vine, then where is the money sense in such actions?

it's the content already typed out. new content isn't necessary and is just gravy.

think of the forum as a book. they get paid advertising dollars when someone googles some words that line up with what's in the book. they don't have to keep writing in the book, as the book is so big, it has plenty of food to offer the search engines. Advertisers pay VS to stick their ads on those pages so that when someone searches for those words, bam, a hit

 

[CDA 455 II]

If other forums they revamped had mass exodus on a grand scale and withered on the vine, then where is the money sense in such actions?

I believe it's all in the existing tech.

Existing tech that will sit there forever surrounded by ads.

 

[Paragon]

I believe it's all in the existing tech.

Existing tech that will sit there forever surrounded by ads.

it's a bunch of adholes

 

[Stingray]

The soul sucking for me is just too much to navigate, not seeing the full signatures seems small thing, but it bugged me, on YB not seeing the full quoted text or image bugged me.
I am a member of a Chevrolet SS sedan forum, and was reasonably active, but VS took over and it's the exact format.
Same story, things won't change, we want to work with you. It was a friendly place, you type HELL in a post and it was edited so they got steamrolled.

Trophy's, Likes, Badges, I don't get any of that bs.
I'd never been on a forum where Bleach, Chainsaws, and shotguns were passed around without a blink of an eye

So if I go searching on Google and it links me to back that place, I'll come here and take the abuse and ask the question.

 

[Johann]

Question for those who were on other boards that sold out. Was there the amount of blowback including the creation of a new / old school version of their forum, like we had here?

It wasn't as sharp a rebellion. Some people were pissed enough to delete their content.

A lot of people faded away but mostly it coincided with the rise of Face Book and it seemed like most went to the groups created by ex pirates there.

 

[Stingray]

oh ya, and 50% of the space covered in ads

 

[trampas]

It wasn't as sharp a rebellion. Some people were pissed enough to delete their content.

A lot of people faded away but mostly it coincided with the rise of Face Book and it seemed like most went to the groups created by ex pirates there.

I scanned the user names (here) a bit ago. Clicked on every 5th page up until page 103, which was the last page at the time. I was surprised to see a lot of pbb users registered here, that haven't been seen on pbb in yrs...

Lurkers.

 

[total newb]

No service ever give a flying fuck about existing members. All they ever care about is new member sign ups. Cable phn car dealers forums fb aps gyms it doesnt matter to them

 

[Motorcharge]

They don't care, it's a small subsidiary for a Canadian conglomerate whose sole business model is to purchase high traffic forums solely for ad traffic.

 

[Paragon]

They don't care, it's a small subsidiary for a Canadian conglomerate whose sole business model is to purchase high traffic forums solely for ad traffic.

Pirate is actually one of their noted signature ownerships

 

[Johann]

I scanned the user names (here) a bit ago. Clicked on every 5th page up until page 103, which was the last page at the time. I was surprised to see a lot of pbb users registered here, that haven't been seen on pbb in yrs...

Lurkers.

Not surprising at all. I still visit a forum that changed after some drama and leadership turnover but that conflict really took my interest to participate away. Before that I had been working really hard to create new content for "us" but when it changed it felt like "them". So fawk um.

I hope this place will be a new beginning for those that felt that Pirate had failed them in some way.

 

[Motorcharge]

Pirate is actually one of their noted signature ownerships

It's one of the most recent acquisitions, meaning one of the most high traffic because they already killed everything else. They don't care, it's 100% about traffic and collecting ad money. The forum is a dying/dead format, they're cashing in while they can.

 

[Paragon]

It's one of the most recent acquisitions, meaning one of the most high traffic because they already killed everything else. They don't care, it's 100% about traffic and collecting ad money. The forum is a dying/dead format, they're cashing in while they can.

It was over 8 years ago

 

[What?]

It's one of the most recent acquisitions, meaning one of the most high traffic because they already killed everything else. They don't care, it's 100% about traffic and collecting ad money. The forum is a dying/dead format, they're cashing in while they can.

Though they started much sooner than people realize. Just took time for tech to progress to make format same all around for ease of use unlike the competition.

Ex.
How often members ask for another forum like pirate4x4? Frequent. These guys pretty much will have major forum accessible to anyone for any hobby relate and continue to grow regardless.

 

[Clb]

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