How does this compare to other Forums or is that a question of “How long is a piece of string?”
Still seems like yesterday you and David started EuroGa but your Forum is over 2.5 years old already. I raise my glass to another 50 years of continued success. I will of course be long gone by then. 
I think 70k posts on EuroGA is an amazing achievement, given that
Clearly the basic “formula” (particularly the non aggression bit) is the right one but as always David and I are listening to any suggestions.
The EuroGA software is IMHO also really good. It is clear, concise, uncluttered, encourages a readable posting format, and the great support for image uploads makes illustrations really nice and worthwhile. And it has not (yet!) been hacked… during the 2.5 years almost every other forum I know has been infected, usually non-obviously, and usually by infecting the advert feeds.
Well done Peter and David, a great achievement. For me, it is the lack of clique, and the zero aggression that does it, as well as the very informative and constructive comment dialogue. The site is also easy to use, which is always a great bonus. To often, forums degenerate into the usual willy waving format, the – I agree with you XXXX, format, leaving XXXX, to spout more useless rubbish, egged on by his forum – ‘mates’. This certainly does not appear to have happened here, long may it continue.
Peter wrote:
I think 70k posts on EuroGA is an amazing achievement, given that
Moreover, people have moved massively to social networks and lot of forums have lost their place in digital world. That makes EuroGA success more impressive.
Emir wrote:
people have moved massively to social networks
I’m a member of several Facebook flying groups. You won’t find any in-depth discussions there.
It’s just too casual. Very hard to find archived discussions back, so you see the same topics (like “What’s the best navigation app”) over and over again.
I use it to share flights with local people.
The groups are badly moderated so there’s a lot of waste. People posting links to all GA accidents worldwide, etc.
Yes, there has been a big shift to social networks but, as stated, these are shallow, have poor archive features (searching in past stuff), and currently (see below) have “zero” search engine exposure so a google on something isn’t going to turn up a post on FB for example. Also a lot of FB groups are private even to other FB users and thus deliver close to zero informational value to the wider community.
And a large % of people who fly for real (however you define that) are not on social networks. Or they are “on” them (usually FB) but rarely go there.
The other thing which is highly relevant to aviation discussion is that the tendency on FB is a lack of anonymity. If you want to maintain X “friends” (where X is more than 1 or 2) you have to use your full name. That instantly takes out the most interesting/informative posts, and that’s equally true in a forum behind a paywall (since obviously anybody can join in the future). Also a good policy for anyone with a slightly unusual name is to keep it off the public internet.
And if google ever do a deal with FB like they have just done with Twitter, that would dynamite privacy since FB is a goldmine of peoples’ full names tied to massive amounts of personal info and, since their takeover of Whatsapp, their phone numbers too. I imagine that FB will never do it, and are just worth too much, but you never quite know… Myspace/Beebo anyone?
Great job and totally deserved.
Today this forum definitly is the one I frequent most.
While I hope this forum will continue to thrive I also hope that we will keep to a high quality of posters rather than attracting the usual aviation crowd. I have seen too many good places go to the dogs with unrestricted growth.
Thank you all for making this place what it is.
Best regards
Urs
Near LBPR
I think you’re hitting a nice niche that attracts people with experience, or aircraft owners, but not the “airline” professionals.
Another forum I used to frequent has so much “wannabe’s” that you never quite knew whether you were talking to someone who came from experience, or from thinking he could talk like someone who had experience. Then they had another group of users which were the (bored with their job) airline professionals. It didn’t quite work together, and the atmosphere got really negative. I left.
And Peter is doing a good job of finding interesting topics to discuss 
