[hemanth.anand]

Happy 17th Team-BHP

What I like:
The strict moderation with respect to content and even language - if troll free content is one major highlight, the other one is the language. While some people may call the Moderators as Grammar Nazis, IMO that's what has kept TBHP ahead of other forums. It's so pleasing to read anything on TBHP. Slang free, excessive emoji free posts are a treat to read

Detailed reviews: nothing much to say here...you may see 100s of reviews and videos online but nothing is as satisfying as a TBHP Official review. Period.

Everything under the sun - Discussions from Movies to restaurants to sports Everything is discussed in the shifting gears section.

No politics - my favourite likes of TBHP. Please never allow this.

The top quality merchandise - people have asked me if I work for TBHP. That's mainly because they mostly see me in a TBHP Tshirt (the most comfortable Tee I've ever worn) or the warm TBHP Hoodie or sipping coffee in the TBHP mug

What I don't like:

The age old interface - be it browsing or composing posts or uploading photos and videos...Though it has improved, it is still not what a 17year old of 2021 will like to use.

A new trend of more topics - not to my personal liking

Only 2 emojis - i know that I've written this in likes too but i still feel that instead of a blank 2-emojis only, it should be based on the amount of text in a post. 1 emoji per 200 words or something like that would be good. Also the emojis itself need a rejig (the new set is bad)

[VWAllstar]

Happy 17th Team BHP. Another 2 years and beyond teenage, we expect you to undergo a generation change with respect to UI. Nevertheless, you still make us come back to you every single day.

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

A new trend of more topics - not to my personal liking

Completely agree with the above line. May be it was a leverage by the admins to let new topics come out during the lockdown. Hope to see many more long term ownerships with diverse brands and cars coming up like the newer topics do.

[Hayek]

Happy Birthday Team BHP. When I look at how my social media and Internet use has changed in the last 17 years, the fact that Team BHP has survived in its current format for 2/3rds of the life of the World Wide Web (which I date to the Netflix IPO in 1995) really says something about the passion and commitment to quality that underlies this forum.

Likes

- Quality posts - of course on cars, but also on various other topics like Economics, Aircraft (no Mr Narayan, they are not an extension of cars), Covid et al
- Quality Official and Unofficial Reviews - the fact is that I have spent considerable time on Team BHP for my last 4 car purchases - came across the forum while researching the Superb in 2010, and used it extensively when I bought my Vento, X3 and in my current car hunt
- The Ability to Agree to Disagree - Partly enforced through effective moderation, we prevent discussions from getting over heated - and I for one have not found too many people taking disagreements personally. When I compare this with the conversations one has on Facebook or WhatsApp or Google Groups, even in forums where everyone knows each other personally such as alumni or society groups, this is Almost Heaven
- Virtual Friends - I have never attended a Team BHP meet, but there are several BHPians (hopefully you know who you are) whom I now consider friends - despite in many cases not knowing their real names (or even if they are very competent AI bots). If I were in trouble in some part of India, I do have the confidence that friends from this forum would be as likely to help me out as batchmates from college


Areas for Improvement

- The Time Taken for Official Reviews to Show Up - Yes very often, it becomes an interminable wait. I agree with the commitment to quality, but sometimes being in the flow helps too. The recent move towards putting out short snippets post the test drives immediately is a step in the right direction
- Group Think - This is a problem in most Internet forums or groups of any kind. But we do often see examples on this forum too - Skoda service is always bad (and people look for every opportunity to prove that), Marutis are always unsafe (even if the Brezza scored 4 stars), Higher Fuel Prices are Always Bad, and of course the patriotic armies who defend every move of Tata and Mahindra (I am a fan too, but one needs to be objective in one’s assessments).
- Lack of Video Reviews - Yes, we have some high quality posts by folks like Karan, and some shares of posts by other magazines / You Tubers etc - but video is the future, and having official video reviews would help.
- Poor Searchability - Certainly something that could be much better. A Google Search often finds Team BHP content better than the search function in the forum
- Disappearing / Banned Members - can list quite a few, folks whose posts I liked a lot, but left or were forced to leave for various reasons.

[moralfibre]

Happy 17th birthday Team-BHP. My second home and a community that has given me more friends than my life outside the forum.

What I like:

- Über clean interface! It is a boon for people with OCD like me. Nothing is out of place and the readability of posts and pictures is unlike anything else. I can go that extra mile to say that even Apple's own Q&A board is nowhere close in this aspect.

- The camaraderie of bhpians. Be it helping one to find the right car, the right deal, the right everything. The strong bonding is unmatched.

- Reviews for anything and everything under the sun. While being the best automotive forum is right at the top, one can pretty much get advice on any topic. Be it taxation, love life or the right electrical appliance. You think about it and its there.

- The respect and regard the automotive world has for the community. I often encounter people from the industry who have nothing but praise to share for the forum for its unbiased and clear cut placement in this world. You'll NEVER find an advertorial on the forum. Please help me with any other brand that can stand this test of ethic.

- The growth and maturity of the forum as years progressed. "You'll often hear that it isn't what it was". But look at it this way, you aren't what you were 17 years ago either. We've only evolved from good to better to the best. The transformation has been incredible and only few manage to sustain such growth when the rest of them are fighting for existence.

What I don't:

- Lack of video reviews. It may be a good as well as a bad thing. Although the format is fast catching up and becoming defacto place to go for reviews, it is a crowded market with nothing but terribly placed reviews. The content is more about the reviewer and the car.

- Adoption of tech. The homepage is great and so is the overall interface. But I worry about using out of support software when most of the world is vulnerable to breaches in security of legacy code. Admittedly, the forum has been incrementally getting the right updates for convenience and ease.

- Social media presence. It is a tough choice to make given the diligence the support team has in terms of dishing a review out. You won't find any moderately good review in here. It has to be the best. Therefore you'll never find us to be the first on twitter, instagram or facebook.

- The slow decline of meets. We thrived on it at a point of time but as time went past, personal and professional commitments took priority. But we do enjoy an evening over coffee shooting the breeze with a few set of bhpians once in a while.

[EightSix]

🎂 Happy 17th Birthday, Team-BHP! 🎂

What I like

• The comprehensive reviews that can replace the owner’s manual of the car!
  
• The only forum that I am a part of as a 14 year old. This one appeals to me more than any other could, thanks to the content over here, and members who share a common interest in cars with me.
  
• The sheer amount of car knowledge you get, that you can become everyone’s car-advisor offline after just reading one page of an official review.
  
• The spirit of helping people and the BHPian friendship/camaraderie with those who are anonymous and faceless, as Rehaan said.
  
• The excellent moderation that Team-BHP Mods do in order to make the community a safe place for all.
  
• Travelogues and ownership reviews of high standard as our official reviews that are an important part of car ownership.
  
• The high standards associated with the membership! — call me whatever you want, but I was on cloud 9 when I opened my Team-BHP ‘membership confirmed’ email on the morning of Diwali, and still have treasured that email.
  
  I would even go forth to say that my TBHP membership was one of the only good things that happened in 2020 for me.
  

What I don’t

• Lack of video content on YT! Other than regulars/people like us, nobody wants to read all those 600 pages of a upcoming car, or 10 posts of a car review with 100 images that take 30 odd seconds to load. Rather, there is a huge number of people that watch videos of automobile journalists — 50k views is a minimum. Team-BHP needs to try out professional video reviewing.
  
• GTO mentioned how most of us don’t bother to welcome Newbies. We should be welcoming them and making them feel at home. But, I would like to point out that newbie introductions are getting increasingly short. We would love to know about you, so please take time to introduce yourself.
  
• The interface needs to update! Hopefully, we will see TBHP in a new avatar when it becomes an adult.
  
• Reviews of premium cars. I know that GTO as well as the support team understand this flaw of TBHP. But what good is an enthusiast community if cars for enthusiasts are not reviewed?
  
• More content in the ‘International Car Scene’ section. Like most BHPians above say that the ‘Technical Stuff’ section needs more, umm, Technical Stuff, I say that the International Car Scene is also silent for most of the part. I would like to know more about the International car scene. Perhaps the BHPians from outside India that are part of the community can keep us updated.
  

[DicKy]

Happy Birthday Team!!!

Likes
- Anything car related and beyond, you can find here. If you don't get any info here, then start a thread for it. Cause you are not going to get in anywhere else.
- Like said before, quality and moderation. Sometimes we just take it for granted that the forum hasn't degraded into those sparring, badmouthing cesspools. Have a doubt? Just visit any other forum on the internet.
- Team BHP is and could be international, but I feel the government should award TeamBHP for an unintended side effect. National integration
- Those full blown reviews. Maaahn...You really get spoiled by it. Except for some niche YouTube videos, nothing else will give you this much details.
- The scoop masters!!! Not just scoops, but the inside details that many members give are priceless. And the priceless information given by some senior(age) members regarding bygone eras. Warm feelings.

Dislikes
- Thought it was a covid related setback. Miss the old full-blown reviews!!!! Am aware that some want crisp short reviews. There are plenty elsewhere. An official review used to be something you said down to read. New ones feel watered down. I maybe missing something, am afraid. Fine with new engines or variants or +2seat versions.
But models like the new Honda City and Thar deserves full blown official reviews.
- Shifting gears opens up a world of information. Some threads even make us emotional in ways even a movie can't. But. Seen that some members are all too eager to discuss politics. Ofcourse we can rant all we want about the system. But discussing politics could be a slippery slope to... Ofcourse nothing serious and the Mods are making sure it doesn't happen. But some members do tend to be overeager for politics
- False sense of security - Wait. What? I know. It's not really a dislike. Rather a caution. The quality of the forum and the members lull us into a feeling of a closed group and we open up a little bit more. But we forget the sheer number of visitors.
Am pretty sure if someone wants to know about me, don't bother checking my cold social media accounts. Analyse my posts in here instead.
- Where is the old Smilie list? I miss beating the horse.

Pains - When some people on social media paint TeamBHP as *insert brand* fanboys and being partial.

Reflections - Made me aware of sentence, paragraph structures. Not that my grammar is great now, but my initials posts would be a monolith paragraph that the Mods had to sit and structure properly.

The time spend here. Gawd, the addiction. Unhealthy, I really shouldn't be spending so much time here.

[Miyata]

Happy 17th Birthday. May the body, mind, and spirit of Team-BHP be immortal!

Likes:

• The reviews and the long-tern ownership reviews.
  
• Wide range of topics - books, movies, music, home improvements, gardening, farming, etc and the inputs coming in largely from members' experience.
  
• Largely clean with fairly readable inputs - thanks to the moderation and rules in place

Dislikes:

• At times the focus is more on providing our own views and less on solving an issue / question someone may have raised.
  
• Lack of indexing on some threads - restaurants in cities; places to visit in cities; etc - I understand the challenge in this though.

[rrsteer]

Congratulations GTO, moderators and members on Team-Bhp’s 17th birthday. On the internet, there is no other website I spend more time on than T-Bhp and its the only social platform I am a member of. So thank you for the experience.

Likes

Content: without doubt the best automobile related content, including unbiased views/ reviews exists in T-Bhp.

Moderation: This is a defining feature of T-bhp and i am on the side of even stricter moderation.

Dislikes

4x4 threads: I miss the activity on 4 x 4 threads. I really miss the old days when these threads had a lot of activity.

Shifting gears section: While, i am an active participant of this sub forum, i feel it dilutes the focus on things automotive. There should be a limit or constraint on number of threads/ posts that can be published in the section.

[Doc_Hudson]

Happy 17th Birthday Team BHP !

This forum is like a gold mine of information on Indian Automotive Industry.

[Thermodynamics]

An incredible feat, congratulations to beloved BHPians.

Certainly, one of the honest and cleanest forum. I really admire the swiftness of Mods in addressing suggestions and reports. Sometimes, they even send a token of appreciation, kudos.

Our travelogue section is a treasure trove and probably is the best encyclopedia in India with respect to tourism and travel.

What I wish to improve: This is a great readers forum, but for non-readers it would be better if we can expand our reach in other media.

[PrasannaDhana]

Happy Birthday Team-BHP!

Likes

1. Unbiased reviews

2. First hand knowledge from owners through long term ownership reviews. You face an unique issue with your car that the dealership couldn't sense? Check the ownership threads and you will find it in some other car and also the cause & solution to it.

3. My ownership threads function as a maintenance log of my cars. Every detail including maintenance costs, replacements, issues and fuel efficiency fluctuations are easily recorded and read. If I want to know the exact date of replacement of a certain part, I can get the data easily. When I sold my car, the buyer was so happy to know that the entire maintenance and events have all been recorded and that the mileage on the odo is completely legitimate. He went satisfied driving my ex (his) car.

4. Helped me make some very wise financial decisions like retaining cars beyond 80000 km mark, saving money buying used motorcycles and so on.

5. Got some really genuine friends from the forum.

6. Discussions over varied topics apart from automobiles, - example, the recent borewell thread, weightloss thread, savings and consumerism thread etc

7. Booked my new car thread is a treat to follow. It feels as though I myself have booked a car So are the bad drivers and accident threads, a constant learning experience.

8. New car initial ownership threads, the choices and decision making processes of every individual is unique and interesting. You can enjoy the psychology behind every financial decision, the emotions and their profound effect on purchases, family's influence and the resultant personal compromise/sacrifice towards the car choice, the extent to which opinion of colleagues and friends play in some of the purchases. Pretty fascinating!!

Dislikes

1. Not much, I would like the photo uploading to get easier, and the editing window to be more than 30 minutes. May be a simple video upload option would be great too.

[vb-saan]

Happy Birthday!

Likes

• Its more than 10+ years in the forum and even the same old interface it’s still a joy to login every day, thanks to the content and quality.
• It was fascinating to see how the forum was an avenue of solace for many of our members during the pandemic – just look at the sheer no. of travelogues came up during the lock-down

Dislike

• At times some threads getting way too heavy on political arguments and controversies.

[Alfresco]

Happy Birthday to all of us as we members are what Team-BHP is - passionate!
Congratulations to all moderators and 99% of the members who work to follow and maintain the standards of this forum.

Most things about this forum that I like have already been covered by other members. Just pointing out a few that I feel strongly about.

Likes:
1. The vastness and the depth of knowledge available - everything that moves is covered and we get to gaun insights from people who work in that particular field
2. The willingness of the members to share tidbits that enhance the decision making process of other members.

Dislikes:
1. Little bit of the "cancel culture" has started creeping into some of the posts.
2. Usage of the forum to complain/crib about mundane stuff totally unrelated to machines

[MarverickAni]

Congratulations, Team-BHP!

My membership got approved on the same day Team-BHP turned 17. I wish to thank the entire team and all the members who have kept this forum alive, kicking and most importantly relevant.

Awesome feeling!

[Himanshu809]

Happy Birthday Team-BHP

I'm a relatively new(and young) member here but I've thoroughly enjoyed my experience here since the last couple of years. It's amazing how in this day and age of extreme polarity and political correctness a place exists where few people can get together and have honest non-aggressive (sometimes aggressive is fine too, passion is what we all have ) conversations about cars and yes motorcycles too (because they'll always be my first love) because team-BHP is one of the best online forums for motorcycle enthusiasts too. The other amazing one is xbhp.

I respect all the Mods and GTO of course who started all this, behind all the fun and the amazing cars and scenic travelogues, I'm sure there is a lot of hard work and sweat to make all these exhaustive reviews and maintaining their rides as well.

When I was a fresh member I witnessed first hand the power and influence T-BHP has earned over the years when I posted about a small incident when the Maps SD card was stolen from my Honda City, and the service guy called within a few hours of my post asking me did I write something on a website called T-BHP. It was hilarious.

Thanks to every member here for their spirit and their passion for automobiles.