Getting Word Out

[greasybear]

I don't know what efforts have been made to publicize this forum, but obviously we need more people. There are more than enough cyclists in San Francisco to keep an SF cycling forum lively, and if there is already a general purpose forum for us then I don't know about it.

Perhaps the SF Bicycle Coalition would be willing to publicize this forum? It's worth asking them, as they've got thousands of members. Ditto for other groups with lots of cyclists. Craigslist has a bike forum, too, but far more primitive than this setup--perhaps that would be a good place to advertise as well?

[peter]

good ideas. i'll try craigslist, and we do have at least a link from the Bike Coalition (http://www.sfbike.org/?links) ,though nothing specific about the forums. i'm not sure they'd be able to do more than that - if only because that could get risky for them by essentially, more explicitly 'endorsing' a particular site/resource. i don't know, but I'm guessing they're pretty careful about political nuances. maybe worth a try to ask them at least.

p.s. also wanted to add the small things we've done which should help. the rss feed will help just by making it available. then i syndicated the most recent forum posts to the front page, so it's very prominent. i also tried to lower the 'cache duration' of the rss feed, so new forum posts should get to the homepage/sidebar a bit quicker - i haven't really tested this yet. i also added a little nag to the bottom of each post, reminding folks about the forums.

i'm also hoping that word of mouth starts kicking in.