This forum is very quiet these days. Why?
 

This is diesel discussion related, please do not remove.

A few years ago, this forum would fill up the front page with new posts within 24 hours, easily.

Now, it seems that less than 30% of the front page is posts from that day.

What do you think is going on here?


I was talking with another diesel friend recently and he was pretty sure it was due to the economy and fuel prices.

Me, I am more concerned that people are not willing to 'deal' with these ancient beasts and the newer diesels are much less serviceable. -are the fixable diesels disappearing? It does tie in with economic factors since there is less incentive to fix your own car and use alt. fuels if things are going well.

You could go to any junkyard on the west coast any given day 7 years ago and find a w123..... not the case anymore.


What do you all see across the country and abroad?

Fuel economy has a lot to do with it. The prices on the diesels have been falling along with fuel prices in my area. That, and as you also mentioned, most of the local wreckers around me have closed up shop with the low scrap prices. So there is virtually no used parts market are any more, making the prospect of keeping a 20 year old diesel on the road a bitterly expensive one....

I participate actively in six forums besides this one.

Two metal shaping

Two metal casting - I am the administrator of one of these.

One sculpture

One metal polishing

I have seen a posting decline in all of them. It's mostly blue collar types of guys who mess with old cars and with metal. I don't think they have the money or the time they used to have. When your factory closes and you have to work two McJobs to keep breathing, life is harder.

Richard

Yeah... I'm a mod on three sites, and I have seen a LOT of decline on all three forums. The trash can mentality has some to do with it, but I feel it's computer use online in general...


As for the diesel side... Of course it is due to such indestructible vehicles not needing repairs!

The Second car takes them to work and back ,the mb diesel is in the garage wanting to get out on the weekend ,the fact that the car will do a million miles and only gets a weekend of mileage at a time could be a reason.In my case I get to drive one daily and have to look after mechanic gremlins that creep up .Ive had alot of comments from a much younger crowd lately ,it seems chrome is cool ,you just dont see that on any cars anymore was one comment.

None of my diesels has any issues currently....but whenever I need to deal with something I always post! :D

I've lost a lot of interest in this forum in particular because of the overwhelming amounts of "open discussion " or the general political threads. I actually have to search for threads related to mb , or just cars in general.

A lot of the really smart people have left. People like MB doc, Arthur Dalton, Brian Carlton to name a few.

In the end, this site has less useful automotive info and is cluttered with political arguments.

There's a ton of info here (I skip the political) and I find the info timeless, still pertinent to my 34 year old rig, but since you mentioned it whatever happened to Brian Carlton anyway, he had some good input over the years on a LOT of posts..

They Banned him.

Brian was a moderator at one time, and ruled with an iron fist. Everyone stayed on topic, and no insulting.

He was dethroned for being "too harsh" (I believe), and a few months later was permanently banned for making a comment that was not even really inappropriate.

Brian Carlton was the best mod technically on DD. I think it was a big mistake to ban him, as the forum slowly declined since his banning. Wasn't he banned on open discussion? How ironic.

Are those forums also auto repair related?


Definitely no need for repairs here.....

ahem.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...d-p1010031.jpg

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...d-p1010032.jpg

He got too focused on OD bickering and baiting mods that followed him. Im not surprised he was banned.

Didn't know that since I didn't follow what was going on in OD. I seldom go there. If there was no OD, would he still have been banned?

What is it with OD anyway with so many posts that rivals DD. Is it helping Pelican sell parts though?

election year. Watch it die down after november. Still, OD activity is not really representative of a lot of people. There are maybe 15 to 20 people who chat, and of that group, a small group of less than 5 who endlessly post threads daily. Makes it seem like a lot of activity.

Every year these diesels get older and less of them exist. Interest will not die, but it will be reduced to die hard fans who keep them alive. I imagine things will level out eventually, but the forum won't be huge like it was during the early 2000s

Im on a van forum that in the last 5 years the same thing has happened.