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Data on BARF newcomers

NorCalBusa

NorCalBusa

Member #294
Joined
Apr 28, 2002
Location
.
Moto(s)
.
Is there a report that can be run that shows the trend line of new BARF subscribers by year since 2000? Please post it if available.
 
Flock image of the graph is fine- good idea!

Looking for:
- Membership count, year to year.
Consider making some reasonable "Active/Not" criteria would be helpful- something along the lines of had to have posted 6 times in the year (or pick a number).
We growing or shrinking?
- Similar ask would be total posts- more or less year to year?
 
sniff_test.jpg
 
Not sure I can come up with that. I think so but...... I do know I would have to pay to gather it and as of right now I am continuing to lose money by doing this. In ways anyway. I suppose I am breaking even, but I do know I pass on almost all things that are tax deductible because keeping BARF in the black seems to be a smart deal IRS wise.

I can tell you we are shrinking when it comes to people posting. Forums are like the moto industry. The young kids like other stuff. IG, Twix or whatever the other shit is.

We see some younger generation join us... but most do not engage in a old skool verbal way. Probably 5 - 8 new members a week. Maybe 1 blabs a bit.

IMO part of that could be fixed if more people engaged in welcoming newbs.

A lot of BARF OG's are surfing, but most are not posting much. I have zero clue how to change that.
 
bcj said:
View attachment 598126
Click to expand...
FYI.

I smell every one. I would say 1/2 do not pass the smell test. We ditched the old school joining protocols to do a human review of each.

You should note the way less spammers being here. Most of the ones we do get are hackers that grabbed a not so active account to provide dating opportunities. :laughing
 
budman said:
I can tell you we are shrinking when it comes to people posting. Forums are like the moto industry. The young kids like other stuff. IG, Twix or whatever the other shit is.

We see some younger generation join us... but most do not engage in a old skool verbal way. Probably 5 - 8 new members a week. Maybe 1 blabs a bit.
Click to expand...

This is the rallying cry. I know that the internet is different since 2002, but people are still the same. Is there a place to:

1) build the welcome document. AI pushed me hard on this for my own blog -> how do I orient new people and surface the most important content along the way. Answer all the questions of:
  • How to get started
  • Key rides for beginners
  • Where to see how to meet and connect with people
  • Motorcycle shops in each region we like.
  • etc.
2) Build relationships with key leaders might consider crossposting back to BARF so we've got buy-in that this is the place to be.

3) Align the mod team on what is ok/not ok. We've had this discussion over the years and I don't think there is much to action here, but worth calling out if there is an item here.
 
I hear you Dan.

Welcome document huh?? I don't think it would be hard. I guess I have stuff in certain threads that can be grabbed.
Who is Al guy?? :twofinger :laughing

There are things that could be done. Some folks do chip in to help with some things which is great.
I have a captured life style meaning I am not just free to run around and do whatever I want so it makes a lot of stuff hard to do.
And I am old now. Sad but true there.

Thanks to Enchanter we do have some membership #s.
Year: Membership # / # of those that joined that year that have logged in since 2025
  • 2002: 1833 / 182
  • 2003: 5300 / 192
  • 2004: 9678 / 183
  • 2005: 14026 / 139
  • 2006: 18380 / 175
  • 2007: 22960 / 161
  • 2008: 29309 / 181
  • 2009: 35264 / 148
  • 2010: 38841 / 91
  • 2011: 43608 / 126
  • 2012: 47947 / 122
  • 2013: 50356 / 94
  • 2014: 52800 / 89
  • 2015: 55153 / 87
  • 2016: 57552 / 91
  • 2017: 59551 / 60
  • 2018: 61004 / 57
  • 2019: 62094 / 55
  • 2020: 62978 / 54
  • 2021: 63668 / 64
  • 2022: 64037 / 33
  • 2023: 64287 / 34
  • 2024: 64779 / 94
  • 2025: 65625 / 845
  • 2026: 66129 / 504
 
budman said:
I hear you Dan.

Welcome document huh?? I don't think it would be hard. I guess I have stuff in certain threads that can be grabbed.
Who is Al guy?? :twofinger :laughing

There are things that could be done. Some folks do chip in to help with some things which is great.
I have a captured life style meaning I am not just free to run around and do whatever I want so it makes a lot of stuff hard to do.
And I am old now. Sad but true there.

Thanks to Enchanter we do have some membership #s.
Year: Membership # / # of those that joined that year that have logged in since 2025
  • 2002: 1833 / 182
  • 2003: 5300 / 192
  • 2004: 9678 / 183
  • 2005: 14026 / 139
  • 2006: 18380 / 175
  • 2007: 22960 / 161
  • 2008: 29309 / 181
  • 2009: 35264 / 148
  • 2010: 38841 / 91
  • 2011: 43608 / 126
  • 2012: 47947 / 122
  • 2013: 50356 / 94
  • 2014: 52800 / 89
  • 2015: 55153 / 87
  • 2016: 57552 / 91
  • 2017: 59551 / 60
  • 2018: 61004 / 57
  • 2019: 62094 / 55
  • 2020: 62978 / 54
  • 2021: 63668 / 64
  • 2022: 64037 / 33
  • 2023: 64287 / 34
  • 2024: 64779 / 94
  • 2025: 65625 / 845
  • 2026: 66129 / 504
Click to expand...
Wow, what sparked 2025 & 2026 increase? I would have guessed COVID would have jacked up new members, bored folks looking for some entertainment. What happened (in the world) in 2010 that made the curve fall so much?
 
AI - use at own risk

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
from collections import Counter
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import time

# Updated target URL matching XenForo's structural routing
BASE_URL = "https://bayarearidersforum.com"
headers = {"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64)"}
join_years = []

# Scrape a 5-page sample of the member directory
for page in range(1, 6):
params = {"page": page}
response = requests.get(BASE_URL, headers=headers, params=params)

if response.status_code != 200:
print(f"Failed to fetch page {page}")
continue

soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')

# XenForo groups member statistics in lists with subtle styling classes
# Locating list elements containing user metadata fragments
member_details = soup.find_all('div', class_='userBlurb')

for detail in member_details:
text_content = detail.get_text()
if "Joined" in text_content:
# Splits text to isolate the registration year out of strings like 'Joined: Oct 15, 2024'
parts = text_content.replace(',', '').split()
if parts:
year = parts[-1]
if year.isdigit() and len(year) == 4:
join_years.append(int(year))

time.sleep(2) # Anti-ban politeness delay

# Aggregate data for visualization
year_counts = Counter(join_years)
sorted_years = sorted(year_counts.keys())
cumulative_members = []
running_total = 0

for y in sorted_years:
running_total += year_counts[y]
cumulative_members.append(running_total)

# Build trend visualization
plt.figure(figsize=(10, 5))
plt.plot(sorted_years, cumulative_members, marker='o', color='g', label='Cumulative Members (XenForo Data)')
plt.title('Bay Area Riders Forum Membership Growth (XenForo Source)')
plt.xlabel('Year')
plt.ylabel('Total Accounts')
plt.grid(True)
plt.legend()
plt.show()
 
budman said:
I hear you Dan.

Welcome document huh?? I don't think it would be hard. I guess I have stuff in certain threads that can be grabbed.
Who is Al guy?? :twofinger :laughing

There are things that could be done. Some folks do chip in to help with some things which is great.
I have a captured life style meaning I am not just free to run around and do whatever I want so it makes a lot of stuff hard to do.
And I am old now. Sad but true there.

Thanks to Enchanter we do have some membership #s.
Year: Membership # / # of those that joined that year that have logged in since 2025
  • 2002: 1833 / 182
  • 2003: 5300 / 192
  • 2004: 9678 / 183
  • 2005: 14026 / 139
  • 2006: 18380 / 175
  • 2007: 22960 / 161
  • 2008: 29309 / 181
  • 2009: 35264 / 148
  • 2010: 38841 / 91
  • 2011: 43608 / 126
  • 2012: 47947 / 122
  • 2013: 50356 / 94
  • 2014: 52800 / 89
  • 2015: 55153 / 87
  • 2016: 57552 / 91
  • 2017: 59551 / 60
  • 2018: 61004 / 57
  • 2019: 62094 / 55
  • 2020: 62978 / 54
  • 2021: 63668 / 64
  • 2022: 64037 / 33
  • 2023: 64287 / 34
  • 2024: 64779 / 94
  • 2025: 65625 / 845
  • 2026: 66129 / 504
Click to expand...
Thanks for this data. I would love to see the detail behind the differences 2023 through 2026 in terms of "# of those that joined that year that have logged in since 2025".

If we look at 2020, the "54" figure, does that mean that 54 people who joined in 2020 have logged in since 2025?

Same with 2025, is it accurate to say: 845 people that joined in 2025 have logged in between 2025 and today?

I would love an additional column with the # of new users who joined that year, but you may have to pay $$$ to get that; if so, forget it
 
Beyond academic exercise of visualizing and trend analysis, what action are people wanting to take with the data - after it is available?
Is the data even actionable?
 
Das MotorRad said:
Thanks for this data. I would love to see the detail behind the differences 2023 through 2026 in terms of "# of those that joined that year that have logged in since 2025".

If we look at 2020, the "54" figure, does that mean that 54 people who joined in 2020 have logged in since 2025?

Same with 2025, is it accurate to say: 845 people that joined in 2025 have logged in between 2025 and today?

I would love an additional column with the # of new users who joined that year, but you may have to pay $$$ to get that; if so, forget it
Click to expand...
Yes. 54 people that joined in 2020 have logged in at least once after 1/1/2025.

For number of people that joined, subtract the previous year from the year in question:
  • 2007: 22960
  • 2008: 29309
6,349 people joined in 2008
 
Now if you could post the total new threads, and new posts, for each year...

yearmemberslogged in since 2025new members
20021,833182
1,833​
20035,300192
3,467​
20049,678183
4,378​
200514,026139
4,348​
200618,380175
4,354​
200722,960161
4,580​
200829,309181
6,349​
200935,264148
5,955​
201038,84191
3,577​
201143,608126
4,767​
201247,947122
4,339​
201350,35694
2,409​
201452,80089
2,444​
201555,15387
2,353​
201657,55291
2,399​
201759,55160
1,999​
201861,00457
1,453​
201962,09455
1,090​
202062,97854
884​
202163,66864
690​
202264,03733
369​
202364,28734
250​
202464,77994
492​
202565,625845
846​
202666,129504
504​
 
We did an "assessment" of BARF using AI a couple months ago.
To sum it up, BARF's challenge is: Converting casual riders and search visitors into participating members.

I think the challenge all forums face is the types of content and the response in engagement is much different than FB, IG, YT, and X. Topics are generally introduce via short format video, hosted on site, not linked to other places. You also have to tolerate "braindead n00b" content on those sites. Where on forums, there tends to be knowledgeable veterans, with the good and bad that can come with that type of user. So us "experienced" folks also need to remember that being encouraging and welcoming is important in maintaining our community.

I think that high quality, engaging contact and real world community social experiences would encourage more our of younger motorcyclists no matter what the data might imply. Bike nights, rallies, half-day group rides, garage maintenance meetups, etc. That is the way.



IMHO.
 
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