AOPA Forum Dying?

Palmpilot

Palmpilot

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Richard Palm
Is it my imagination, or is activity way down on the AOPA Forum lately?
 
Maybe more folks are tired of getting nothing for their money. Personally I got tired of the weekly emails asking for money or my renewal eight months before it expired.
 
I'm a member and prefer POA,however there are some knowledgable people over there from this forum.
 
Wait...they have a forum?
 
I am an AOPA member and do visit the forum there also. Not sure there is less activity. I think it just runs in cycles.

I also think AOPA is doing quite a bit for GA, most of it behind the scenes. We (pilots) need AOPA if we want to continue to have the freedom to fly.
 
Here at PoA, Hangar Talk seems to be quite active, with busy threads on politics, cars, guns, cole slaw, etc

But how about Controlled Airspace here on PoA? Is activity there growing? Or is it trending like AOPA's forum?

I don't actually know -- just wondering whether GA forum activity in general is a sign of declining GA health. Or just a sign of interest in bulletin boards.
 
Comes and goes. One reason this forum was created was the changes and shutdown of the AOPA board. An part of it involved bicycles.
 
Activity on many of the forums I follow seems to be down lately. In the aviation forums, Henning and Ron Levy were good people to have around if you were looking for volume. Wayne Bower and Bruce Chien used to be prolific posters here and at AOPA too. Wayne took leave of all forums (seemingly), and Bruce took his toys and went home from most of the forums other than AOPA's medical forum.
 
As far as aviation content, I don't think the Red board is that much less than here. I suspect POA gets more noobies, particularly considering you must be a member of AOPA to post over there. Sometimes it's like a never ending September over here, particularly on DUI threads. Still entertaining but not much aviation related learning.

POA has a ton of Hangar talk threads, some amusing, some juvenile, and plenty to make me say W.T...F?

Spin zone? Forget it. I'd rather just read the comments on online CNN & Fox news articles.
 
I am not on the AOPA forum so I don't know how it compares.
But the comraudery(sp) on POA is cool

EdFred is having his fly-in this weekend, Gaston's is coming up, There are little pockets of flying meetups going on here and there. My wife's bday is next weekend and normally I would get her a tie or pair of socks but we are flying out to visit Jay at his hotel.

In between the silliness here, there is a community bound by flight.

I think we just lack students at the moment.
CPO! Where are you???
 
I haven't been over there since it went down yellow and came back up red.
 
Wayne Bower emailed me recently. He's doing fine and staying busy. Just got tired of BS so prevalent on boards. We became friends through Purple Board and met when he was passing through and remain friends. I do miss his input on boards.


Jim R
Collierville, TN

N7155H--1946 Piper J-3 Cub
N3368K--1946 Globe GC-1B Swift
N4WJ--1994 Van's RV-4
 
I visit both here and AOPA, although I do more reading than posting. My biggest complaint with the AOPA board is they seem to be over zealous to close threads over there for the least little thing, which I think stifles participation. "Not aviation related...thread closed," when in reality there was some tie to aviation. Maybe not a strong direct tie but what I would have thought should be sufficient as long as people are not driving it into a spin zone. I try not to complain and just go with the flow and get what I can from that board. Although different, it has its own personality just like POA does.
 
I allowed my membership expire and they shut me off.
 
I occassionally check in their, and post a response if I can contribute, but certainly not what it used to be.
 
They sent me all sorts of emails to join and I just checked out the free offers for hats and bags and deleted them always hoping they would eventually offer me a free Carbon Cub but that never happened. I then received an email that said something along the lines of (paraphrased of course): "Do you even pilot bro?"

So after being accused of possibly not being a "real" pilot I opted out of their solicitations. Been nice and quiet on the email front since.
 
Not that anyone cares, but I have been busy working on and flying helo, helping with an RV-10 under construction, starting condition inspections on 2 planes.

Sadly, I probably only sign on to POA to argue politics. This the season! :rolleyes:
 
Haven't been there since they deleted the theread where the guy was trying to find fuel after hurricane sandy. "Not Aviation Related" they said.

Bu Buy
 
wsuffa said:
Comes and goes. One reason this forum was created was the changes and shutdown of the AOPA board. An part of it involved bicycles.
Click to expand...

Bill, I am pretty sure the bicycle thing was the catalyst for the purpleboard to launch. Since POA's beginning predates my foray into aviation, I have no idea of the history of the start up here.

I drive by POA, AOPA and the Purpleboard...have met folks from all three and am of the opinion that they all have something for someone...
 
Geico266 said:
[snip]
Sadly, I probably only sign on to POA to argue politics. This the season! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

If by season you mean 2+ years leading up to the next election cycle, then, yes. 'tis the season.

John
 
I just re-joined AOPA, since the membership fee was less than the discount I get for being an AOPA member on my very pricey airplane insurance. I logged back on the forums as well. They do seem a bit slower than they used to be. The red board has always been quite a bit more sterile than this, and quite a bit less social.
 
I simply haven't the time for excessive board activity, and I am committed to PoA, and also participate on BeechTalk, so AOPA "loses out."

I would not, however, consider ending my AOPA membership - they are important to us.
 
They locked me out of the red board after Claire got that restraining order against me.

Seriously, I liked it over there even if the mods were a bit heavy-handed.
 
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With all the self proclaimed experts, it's more entertaining here.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I am not on the AOPA forum so I don't know how it compares.
But the comraudery(sp) on POA is cool

EdFred is having his fly-in this weekend, Gaston's is coming up, There are little pockets of flying meetups going on here and there. My wife's bday is next weekend and normally I would get her a tie or pair of socks but we are flying out to visit Jay at his hotel.

In between the silliness here, there is a community bound by flight.

I think we just lack students at the moment.
CPO! Where are you???
Click to expand...

I think a lot of students lurk and read only. I'm surprised when I see a first post, 'just passed my checkride'. I know I read this forum for 6 months probably before I posted anything. Still haven't posted anything relevant! I think POA is great because I don't really know any pilots other than my CFI.

Oh yea and time to change your avatar? Can we get the starbucks cup back? Or the underwater beer perhaps?
 
I think it turns out that if you limit your aviation forum to just aviation, it becomes stale and kind of boring. Just like GA industry has. It's particularly tedious for the folks that have been reading and posting over a decade now. You can only read so many "Which plane should I get..." "What do I do about my DUI..." and hundreds of "Plane down..." crash analysis by armchair NTSB experts before you get pretty bored with the whole thing. Having other silly topics keeps me coming back.

I am still an AOPA member and likely will be as long as I keep flying, but I now only visit the Red Board when I have a question about aviation that I want to get to the broadest audience. That and when there are no threads that interest me here, or on MooneySpace, I will go to the AOPA board in hopes of something. It works sometimes.
 
One must remember AOPA was sued for what they allowed to be Posted on their forums.

Never heard the results of that action.
 
I had been an AOPA member for several years but never used the message board.
 
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