Getting more people involved

Might as well throw my tupenceworth in

I'm a big fan of the site, don't comment on everything because I quite often (well pretty much all the time in truth) don't know what I'm on about. This is particularly true of the fantasy cycling element which i'm clueless about. If I've got an opinion on a subject I'll quite happily share it.

I completely understand the use of Schwag for the growth of traffic through the site and think its a good idea tbh. I didn't enter this month as I try and avoid zooport most of the time and the thought of vomiting all over the velodrome didn't make it any more appealing

Not everyone is going to stop for a chat most will be browsing the site after being lured in by the bright lights of sunny Newport. Some will get get involved the vast majority won't

Hello, new to the site, looks great!

Thanks Nick. I am sure I had seen your name somewhere and as a bit of reading fanatic when it comes to cycling mags I thought you could help narrow it down for me.

@ Nick - can you say who you wrote for? (magazine) Your name seems to ring a bell.

Another point regarding usage, I am used more to forums so end up commenting on threads far more than news stories for eg. Guess its what you are used to doing.

My mum always told me that if I couldn't say anything nice or useful, to shut up!
More seriously, I'll usually only really comment on stuff that I either feel pretty strongly about or know a lot about, which really narrows it down for me, but thats just me.

For the first two years of road.cc's existence I was writing for a certain other publisher's cycling magazines and websites and was immediately impressed not so much by the numbers of comments on road.cc's stories but the quality and mutual respect of the users' comments. That tone was set by the attitude of the founders and is indeed one of the reasons why I'm glad to be here now. The fact that road.cc is getting the numbers now as well without compromising the original principles is a sign that word is spreading and the nascent market is maturing. The 33 comments attached to the recent story about Graeme Obree's response to the death of Gary Speed are a case in point: http://road.cc/content/news/48491-graeme-obree-speaks-about-depression-a...

It's entirely possible now the first flush of enthusiasm for forums has passed and that people are now so bombarded with distracting choices in life not least the internet that they're starting to discriminate. And it's probably fair to say that the perkier and busier the cyclist and the more riding they do which surely can't be a bad thing the less likely they are to chat on a forum. But they will have questions and observations for their peers and they will need news in a form that respects its readers along with a twist of humour, or indeed anger, when it's appropriate.

I dropped out of the loop for a few months tbh.
Back on track now as per my post in the bike section.

All credit to Tony and David.

I lurk a bit, but discuss bike stuff more on another forum, with a few people i know very well.

Love road.cc for the news stuff though.

As someone who doesn't really get that involved in the fantasy game, I think it can dominate a little, particularly when its Grand Tour time. Many of the posts relate to the racing (there's been plenty to talk about this past year) and would be better off in the forum on a separate thread. Encouraging news about the number of posts though - onwards and upwards.

Good data on page hits!

I remember when the Tea Shop forum launched for topics away from cycling and that was a leap of faith.

It ebbs and flows. Just wait until we put another helmet story on

in all seriousness though, the site (and the forum) are young. we've only been going three years, and we're growing fast. to give you an idea of how fast, users have posted 42,284 comments so far this year, compared to 24,404 last year. so, nearly twice as many.

The schwag gets a lot of love because it's easy to enter and you can win stuff. no surprise there. The first one we ran only got eight entries though. so, y'know, progress...

Its a subject that has been raised a couple of times in the past. The forum has plenty of competition from the likes of cyclechat and BikeRadar and has never really been the main focus of the site (as I see it, the gaffers may have a different view).

Dave and Tony have worked hard on getting the content split right between videos, news & racing and leisure. To compensate for the lack of forum posts there used to be a lot of comments posted on the news items.

Your image above seems to be challenging that a little

Maybe those who were here for the fantasy cycling season are now lying low until next time? or the content of the site is that comprehensive no comment can be added ? !

The Schwag is an important tool for the site but maybe there could be an incentive for giving away a prize for best forum post of the week in a topic set by site staff?