Demise of Ultra Enduro Race Threads

[Canbaroo]

As CTR14 and TDR14 draw to a close I'm curious as to the demise of conversation and viewing numbers on the respective race forum threads.

TDR14         66 pages       1313 replies       89,206 views
TDR13          97 pages      1937 replies       241,232 views

CTR14          15 pages       292 replies        14,076 views
CTR13           27 pages       525 replies        70,666 views

No doubt the shift to twitter, instagram, WhatsApp etc accounts for some of the drift but there are some massive swings in these figures. The 'forum' as a place for people to come together and share their news, views, emotions and pain seems to be in decline as a hub......... where have they all gone?


  

[mountainjah]

No idea on TD but some gut reactions to CTR data....

13 CTR was headed in "new direction"
13 CTR had "new detour" (Taryall) which actually had it's own thread over the winter- additional buzz?
13 CTR seemed to be the apex of racer participation in recent years- based on numbers alone, maybe more friends/family associated with higher number of racers were clicking thru?
14 CTR had few "big names" and only one "triple Crown" contented- Many of the mutants sat 2014 out. Some have indirectly suggested that the caliber of this year's racer was sub-par.....maybe the folks on course were not as "sexy" to watch as in years past?

14 CTR/TD had folks fastpacking/touring....although they may have believed that were racing...did this corrupt the spectators' experience this year? not sure...

Both 14 TD and CTR had Joe Polk/MTBcast on the ground covering the race- also, he gave racers more incentive to call in this year- free SWAG!!! Maybe folks felt like they were having their questions answered and needs met thru more in depth, field base coverage? Between the dots/facebook/bikepacker mag and mtbcast, were folks satisfied/saturated?

Also, I noticed folks taking their real-time commentary over to other personal sites- their blogs/FB pages/shop threads/ etc....For example, I was psyched to discover Joey's (JoeyDurango)here: http://www.velorutioncycles.com/blog/
Maybe the increased number of online resources diluted interest and engagement with race thread on bp.net?

All of this is ignorant, anecdotal conjecture on my part- these ideas and a nickel will get you a five cent cup of coffee....just what popped into my mind. Love looking at the data....

[pro_out]

Last year there was tons of spam slipping through the filters. That could account for quite a few.

[bikpdlr]

Scott Thigpen started a Facebook Group page (Endurance racing and Bike packing).  It has more than 2,500 members and there are tons of posts to that page daily.  That's likely part of the issue.   I'm constantly getting notifications of new posts on that page,  but I'm not sure if it is being used for real-time race discussions.

[mtbcast]

FB could be part of it but I think far more actual discussion happens here. Maybe people are gravitating to other pages, though. I'd say link back to the discussions here if/when you post elsewhere. I think by far this is where the meat and potatoes of the discussion happens.