Quote:
Originally Posted by Vwbeamer
I think this will drive traffic to this forum, I'm kinda looking forward to it.
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I'll be kind of surprised if it happens.
We've seen two major influxes of new members when gas prices spiked significantly in 2008 and then again in 2011/12.
Going strictly by "hits", EM peaked in 2012. Hits declined pretty steeply each year since then, leveling off in the past few years at roughly 1/6th of 2012 numbers.
But things have changed quite a bit since 2008-2012.
1) The biggest change: the average vehicle's fuel economy today is A LOT better than it was back then.
2) And back then there were no mass market EV's. (Never mind cheap, used EV's!) And far fewer hybrid options. (Never mind cheap used ones!)
3) Also: forums as community/info platforms have been declining for years. People would much rather peck at their phones on InstaFaceTokApp than create a forum account and interact with a website. (We had a member join MirageForum last week who said he was seriously surprised to find an active "old school forum" for the car!)
4) Also also: the usual correlation between gas prices & forum traffic seems to have broken. Despite the sharp rise in gas prices from the lows of 2019 there hasn't been a corresponding increase in membership or visitors lately. (OK, that may be because prices haven't hit psychologically important numbers yet.)
All that said, I'll be genuinely surprised if we see a meaningful up-tick this time. Sure, we'll get a few noobs, and that'll be fun. The place definitely takes on a different vibe when it's not just the hardcore been-there-done-that efficiency nuts hanging around.