I won't be losing sleep over a trader commenting that they are losing marketing opportunities to promote new products or whatever by not having their commercial announcements broadcast permanently in the popular,
Electric Bicycles forum.
By browsing this forum, I already have to tolerate a quarter of my 32" horizontal screen being taken up by an Electric Bike Retailers vertical ad banner winking and blinking at me with a myriad of companies broadcasting to sell me something or other.
On a 2nd vertical monitor, (right of my main 32" screen), the Electric Bike Retailers ad actually consumes nearly a third of the real estate of my screen down one side.
But hey, that reality is just a microcosm of the big, bad commercial world we all have to tolerate these days whenever we browse online anywhere. (Not just here at Pedelecs).
I appreciate any site's need or desire to monetize their own, particular unique web based resource.
It galls me though, to witness a benefactor of Pedelecs.co.uk, choosing to bite the hand that feeds them by negatively reacting to an initiative by the site owners to make the site more appealing to existing or new potential Pedelec members.
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The O.P appears to be envious of the viewing figures achieved by the Pedelec common room style
Electric Bicycles forum.
Well, that's just tough, isn't it?
If I want or need to investigate any commercially related issue, I see there is a Pedelec forum specifically for such things. It is called ...
Manufacturer/Dealer News and Offers
"This sub-forum is intended for dealers to announce their news/promotions and any current discounted offers. This is to ensure that the general 'electric bicycles' category remains free of sales-based threads."
It appears there is also a
Dealer Directory forum as well ... and I bet traders also have a field day in the
Which electric bike should I buy? forum.
Hang on. Let me check ... (Pause)
Goodness ... Why am I not surprised?
It is quite apparent and obvious that opinion of certain sections of the Pedelec merchant community is far from objective.
Here is a fictional account to infer the sort of exchanges I've just read in the
Which electric bike should I buy? forum.
"We have the eBike, model number XXXX" enthuses one trader in answering a question by the poster. "Check out our website" (A link is pasted).
"Our bike will do that", utters another ... and a third, supposedly helpful business, states, "Try ours ...We can lend you a demo".
This is in a public forum where users or potential users might welcome objective comments from everyday owners of an electric bicycle and sure, being fair to our commercial eBike traders, some merchants resist the urge to be as crass or blatant as others and, at least, many other comments and posts are diluted with real,
Joe Public, accounts of their own experience of a particular brand or genre of machine.
I made the above comments regarding insensitive dealer / merchant quotes quite vague so as to spare any particular trader personal embarrassment, (though I wonder why I should be so thoughtful), and am paraphrasing and have made quotes loosely based on one of the first threads I clicked on in that forum, though not, necessarily, the first I came across. Nevertheless, as anyone can view for themselves, many comments followed the same predictable format I have outlined above.
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There is little personal dialogue or genuine interest in some comment from some traders responding to genuine queries from potential eBike buyers.
A rhinoceros, mounting its mate, probably engages in more small talk, grunts or genuine interest than is shown by some, (though not all), traders responding to a Pedelec member's question or post on this forum.
Some traders on here are not that considerate, subtle or discreet in hiding their self serving interests, are they?
"Oh. Hi. I'm new here at Pedelecs. I'd welcome any objective views regarding my own, specific, unique, individual requirements as to the best type and genre of eBike I might consider purchasing ... new or second hand."
"Were you EVER listening to my words? Did you even hear my comments specifically related to my own personal requirements? Do you actually care about my own aspirations or reasons to own an electric bicycle?"
This is how it is ...
Commercial adverts take up to a third of the page, traders have their own trade forum, they have another forum as a directory ... and some traders view a question from another member as a legitimate invitation to bombard a poor poster with sales spiel ... no matter what an actual poster's particular, personal requirements are likely to be.
Like shooting fish in a barrel, eh?
Oh yeah ... And the site
, a trader's shop window in some ways, gets a fab makeover to attract new members like me, (which it did), BUT it appears that some traders, (certainly the O.P), are quite ungrateful, even selfish, in describing such site changes other than in some negative fashion!
And here is the rub ...
I think the trade / technical / clinical side of Pedelecs is way too chilly an atmosphere to encourage and inspire new folk like me to actually wish to stay and communicate for very long.
"Fair enough, Beach. You can always jog on and find somewhere else if this site doesn't meet your expectations".
Yep. Sure I can but, as a newly enrolled member, (articulate, thoughtful and passionate about my own newly acquired pastime),
you know and I know that my perception of Pedelec.co.uk offers a valuable insight into how others may view these forums.
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Will someone please do me a big favour? Will someone explain just what the demographic definition of the Pedelec forum is right now?
With regard to the forums themselves ... not the whole site ...
I mean ... So many of you have been here for years and years and years ...
Are you all retired? Sorry. Shouldn't generalise. Rather ... Is the Pedelec forum largely a senior citizen based site? Or is there more a techie, nerdy core to the contributors who post? Or will you claim it attracts all age ranges and all interest groups?
I also get a feeling the forums are largely just male based. Am I wrong about that? I've noted the occasional female contributor but ... there is something I just can't put my finger on ...
The site doesn't seem to gel ... socially.
Sure. You old timers with your thousands and thousands of posts amongst each other, obviously gel and jest and josh with each other ... but I bet you also get in the way as well.
I don't think you lifers spoil the site though. Rather, I think it is the trade thing!
It keeps the atmosphere of the site too cold, too technical, too ... well ... too cynical ... with a scent and smell of self commercial interest never very far away.
Was Pedelecc.co.uk always meant and planned to be a commercial venture or was it a hobby style site that started taking trader ads?
Whatever the answer, I applaud Pedelecs, (the site owners and managers), for creating such a fab repository of useful, eBike related knowledge and information.
If you, (Pedelec.co.uk), actually have to pay a wage or wages to keep the show on the road then the trade thing is just something all of us have to take with a pinch of salt
and, to your credit, you do warn visitors and members that the site does indeed have a commercial, trade, merchant based contingent.
I mean. I don't mind the impersonal nature of online sites such as Ebay. Heck. We all know the nature of such commercial enterprises. We should expect a hard sell, (via text, graphics, videos or other means), to promote a particular product.
But ... should we expect potential eBike traders to engage in urgent, instant "You know you want it" style invasions of our sensibilities ... just because some of us choose, naively or innocently, to ask a public form what sort of eBike might suit our particular, individual needs?
The front end of Pedelecs.co.uk is a fantastic portal for the inquisitive new, (or seasoned), eBiker and
does take on the mantle of a fully fledged consumer based tool to be explored and utilised ... and it
does represent a fab, professional and slick introduction to any eBike browsing visitor.
The graphics, the text, the layout and the whole atmosphere of visiting the front end of Pedelec.co.uk is breathtaking and so, so cool! ... But the predatory nature of some,
not all, eBike traders, is a huge turn off ... to this particular new eBiker anyway.
I won't be writing anything like this again. I've laid out my particular view here and I'm nobody. I'm just a man who has discovered a fabulous new diversion and from this moment onwards, if I choose to stay, I intend to write about t
he human stuff.
The adventures, the joys, the best kept secret of those of us who have discovered just how liberating the ownership of an eBike actually is.
Sure. I may need and seek technical guidance ... and may post questions accordingly, but, generally, if you see any future 'Beach' thread, I want you to be able to view and treat it as a
trader free zone*, more focused on the simple joy of sharing, utilizing and enjoying the wonders an eBike can bring.
*Traders, like anyone, can obviously contribute to any future thread I present and their views will be welcome and responded to by myself ... unless they are promoting some product or service.
