[Killer]

Originally Posted by chinoy

We should have a beer and swap stories about the Trolls and Hypocrites we have had to deal with with over the years.

ah yes the stories, i need to start telling those myself, good idea

[GTO]

The Other Forum Thread reminded me of this one.

How is XBHP today as a forum? Anyone active there? What are they doing right? And wrong?

[deepfreak15]

Originally Posted by GTO

How is XBHP today as a forum? Anyone active there? What are they doing right? And wrong?

Treasure trove of knowledge and information on Indian motorcycles but the website layout is not very user friendly and not intuitive to use. Also I guess lack of moderation makes it a bit difficult to sort through the good advice and the "bro" advice. I actually signed up on Xbhp long before I signed up here but have 0 posts on that platform. I normally spend a long time on the sidelines before plunging in with my thoughts and comments but haven't got comfortable on that platform yet. Though it's a good place to keep up to date on the Indian biking scene and Indian made safety gear scene. It did help me when I had the D390 but don't think it's that great a place for information on larger bikes (my humble opinion).

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by GTO

How is XBHP today as a forum? Anyone active there? What are they doing right? And wrong?

XBHP used to be very good a couple of years ago, now it’s not up to the mark. I am a member but stopped viewing it around 6 months back. Information is there but it lacks proper formatting.

The main reason for the drop in quality is the lack of robust supervision. The moderators are not really on the ball. Discipline is almost non-existent, content is littered with sms lingo and people are allowed to post anything without proper checks.

Cheers

[ashwinprakas]

Originally Posted by GTO

How is XBHP today as a forum? Anyone active there? What are they doing right? And wrong?

Still an active member(Mostly in WA Groups) as I've spent most of my time with fellow xBhpians on and off the road.

We still do offline meetup for interstate/tri-state events annually and its all heaps of fun, but that's about it.

As far as the forum goes it is mostly abandoned with only promotional content and random stuff being posted, some posts are approved as independent threads blindly without any moderation what so ever, which is quite sad as at one time the forum did have a rep for being the cleanest as far as motorcycle ownership experiences went.

Also moderation is quite pathetic nowadays, seems the top brass are busy with other things which they obviously are, taking into account the extra curricular events(IIRC Rap Music Battle!? ) and namesake promotional rides etc which they religiously conduct. Basic stuff such as media uploads, content formatting, glitches with editing posts etc are not even being looked into, its like they've actually forgotten about the Forum.

As for the things they do/did right:

The feeling of 'brotherhood' was well propagated(back in the day itself) which pays its dividend even now.

Most notable is that they do still manage to attract anyone and everyone who gravitates towards motorcycles even though eventually only the hobbyists stay, period.

All considered, if an acquaintance is really passionate about motorcycles and seeks my recommendation in 2020, The xBhp Forum would not be in my list.

Regards,
A.P.

[BANDHAV]

I used to ride a Passion (Motorcycle), I learnt riding on it, it taught me great many things. Then I moved to bigger, better things e.g Karizma (still talking about motorcycle), cars etc. Now that Passion, which was my stepping stone lies, covered with dust, full of spiderwebs in that dark corner of my garage with other stuff, which were important at one point of time.

This is life.

[Mik]

Was an active xbhpian from 2007 to 2014. Eventually realised that as I matured, many of the folks I knew had logged off or were on team-bhp and the discussions were more engaging here.
I owe a lot of the riding gear, route planning and touring tips to xbhp but as I evolved, the platform didn't.

Here is one of my last posts on the forum which summed up my feelings.

"
When I started off, i had zilch idea about gears apart from a helmet. Met up with some folks on the forum and connected with many offline and learned stuff and planned rides. Putting my arse on a bike for 22 hours was possible only because I saw examples like LoveMax and KurtRules. The romanticism of biking was kindled by reading OldFox (A personal favorite "We all are technically speeding towards our death at 60 minutes an hour � motorcycling or no motorcycling. The point is to ride and live and not ride and die") and I found some good people to ride with. Many of us have moved on - to different forums, different means or have become tied up with family stuff.
-------
So what is the big deal. Xbhp is a platform and we are the journeymen. A newer breed comes along with all its shenanigans and hopefully converts itself into mature motorcyclists through the platform. As long as this keeps on happening I wish more power,good vibes and success to the team.

"

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Well, its going to be hard to write about xBHP. I feel I don't have words to express how grateful I am to xBHP, because it made an impact to who I am today as a Car/Bike enthusiast and most of which is because of people I met on xBHP. Some of those people are my closest friends today and I can never be grateful enough to xBHP for this. I have learned so much from them and still continue to do so.

As an online forum though, I think it lacks a few things today in my opinion. When I am working for office, I always have the xBHP Tracker and the Team BHP new posts section open at the background which I will keep checking every now and then.
But I know I am one of those few people that still checks xBHP everyday.

But I will always wish for the best for the community because it has given me so much.

Rachit

[neil.jericho]

A lot of motorcycle enthusiasts on this forum did move here after years on the Xbhp forum, including me.

I feel a forum is only as good as it's
1. content
2. moderation

There is still some good content on the xbhp forum, thanks to a handful of old members who continue to post quality stuff. I must mention the riding gear thread in particular because it is frequently updated and has a lot of activity. But for most threads, you need to go through pages on each thread to arrive at useful information, which points to the moderation, or rather lack of it.

What it did so well was promote safe riding in India, arguably nobody / no other forum has done more to do so in our country than xbhp. The introduction of state / city wise chapters (I use this term loosely, xbhpians will know what I mean) which may or may not have been a planned move, was something that really strengthened the ties to the forum. In south India we have the annual tri state (sometimes more!) officially christened inter state get togethers (ISG2G) which are really fun events, I have been to 4, maybe 5 of them over the last 11 years.

It still is a good forum for motorcyclists, albeit a shell of what it used to be.

Sometimes I feel like it is that old high school friend who changed so much once he went to college, but he didnt exactly turn out the way we all thought he would.

[srini1785]

As @AP and other members have pointed out, xBHP is mostly defunct in technical discussions. Its mostly a promotional forum now concentrating mainly on meets, promotions and riding accessories of which its quite a good repository of information. Besides , there is a lot of cross posts between here and xBHP by the same members (Going by same handles) so why go there now?.

[bigron]

Xbhp is a skeleton of what it used to be. It was the default go to forum for bikes in India more than a decade ago. Met some great fellow bikers there, and some are still friends.

Unfortunate that a great forum like that has died a slow death.

[aghate]

I had registered as a member but never posted anything. And is long forgotten now, to be honest it isn't even the first thing in my head now for Bikes. When new to the internet, I got to know that Team-BHP = Cars and XBhp = Bikes. It is not the case now. Team-BHP has evolved and continues to do so every day with the quality of content with regards to so many things (Watches, Gadgets, Pets, COVID19, etc). Also, is now one of the go to forums for Motorbikes and Bicycles.

As an example, I visited the XBhp website after 'n' number of years to check and the home page looks too busy. One cannot focus on the important bits. Tried to read one forum and did find some useful information. But that's about it, 4-5 minutes and then I am back here. After getting used to the layout here the one on XBhp felt too cluttered. No, I am not bashing the forum, just trying to explain what might be the problem. Take a look at the Home page on both Team-BHP and XBhp and you will know what I am trying to explain.

I still hope that it regains the level it used to be. Wishing all the best!

[mohansrides]

Guys... all of you have made excellent points. It is correct that the quality of content in any forum is entirely dependent on the members. It is also 100% true that without effective moderation and supervision, any forum is bound to fall of a cliff.

But, by far the biggest differentiator between Team BHP and xBHP is the basic premise.

Team BHP is a forum that is stubbornly independent. They do not do any promotional content. They do not merge, or have tie-ups, with any automotive brands or OEMs. All content here is by actual owners who are 100% free to post what they think of their vehicles, or even of others’ vehicles. Sure, you cannot be rude and a conversation cannot degenerate into a melee. But, you are certainly free to express your point of view.

Yes, most owners will talk about their rides in glowing terms. But there are plenty here who will readily point out the shortcomings of their own choices.

The other major aspect is the choice of members. Team BHP membership requires some effort on part of the applying candidates. So, the rigour in selection translates to a better and more mature crowd. That makes all the difference. (If anything, I think that our forum’s selection criteria has become a bit diluted. In my opinion, it is time for the entry criteria to get more stringent.)

I too am a member of xBHP. I made a couple of posts there. But I quickly realised that any useful information that the forum had was buried too deep for me. The ROI in terms of time spent was not worth it. Also, with membership being so accessible, practically anyone can become a member there, and entire threads start reading like WhatsApp group discussions. Lots of non-value adding “Congrats”, “Cool bike” and such. Completely useless.

Cheers

[GTO]

Look what I came across on YouTube! A Ted Talk by Sunny:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUXnODyNEsU

[payeng]

I Stopped checking out xBhp about 5-6 years back.

It used to be sort of vibrant a decade back.. find it quite dull now.