You really should. But isn’t there already something similar?
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I was thinking more of a manually granted badge when someone let us know they have publicly (or not) communicated about the forum 
Something a bit like this
That won’t boost the forum activity, it’s just an additional small quirk that users can proudly display as their title. 
There would be no way to automate such a badge anyway.
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Hey @Setonix, could it be that you performed an exaggerated market analysis when you bought your ultimate wheels?
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yeah I’ve been posting the pleasure I get from the Ultimate Wheels on all the social media platforms I could find and under different user names….
Not sure Roger can do much about the US shop, they are different entities. Surely they know each other, but that’s probably about it.
I looked at that graph for unicycle and thought “oh that’s not too bad really, down 50% but not to nothing”. Then I looked at it against the graph for electric unicycle and the peaks and dips align up almost entirely, so a lot of that remaining search interest is not for the types of unicycles that we care about.
Still I dont think you can really compare EUC with unicycling. They require very different skills and the selfbalancing does make it a lot easier to learn. But then there are countries like Germany and The Netherlands where they arent allowed on the road.
But possibly because they are relatively new , people are more interested as wel. A small transportation device where you can just stand still is of course something anybody is interested in
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Just found out about this forum today from Josh at UDC. Happy to have access. Agree with posts here saying forums are coming back because people are ditching fb. Wouldn’t mind an app for a uni social platform. How to attract users? Advertise on FB and insta. Several comments about discord - not a fan. Cheers!
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I’m on the Discord as well, but it’s a very different platform and certainly no good for long term informational storage, the likes of which is on here.
Casual chats yes, serious discussion no.
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Spot on Double Dave.
There are hundreds, thousands of “wannabe” unicyclists in the world. Let’s get them on a 20” torker and turn them into unicycle riders!!!
There’s also thousands of “quitters” who tried but failed. Just tried/tried and stopped. Maybe broke bones. They might have even logged onto this forum, but got intimidated by free wheel, ultimate wheel, crank length, 36’s inch talk. Found no real advice beyond “balance/timing” or “just do it” or “everybody has to find what works for them”….etc.
Let’s figure out a way to allow more “interested/beginners” a starting point for this hobby. Separated form all the experts topics that they could care less about.
Get back to basics = beginners = x10000 = unicycle becoming a mainstream sport!!!
…slam
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You point out something important here. Could it be an idea to pin some beginners material/Faq on how to learn/get a unicycle? To attract beginners. At least for new users or unregistered users.
Maybe we should ask a couple of the AIs trawling the forum to make a beginners FAQ? 
Then again, the forum needs to stay alive as well, with focus on content for experienced users.
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In that vein, would it make sense to have a dedicated “Beginners” or “New Unicyclists” category at the top-level with a sticky post inviting folk to join and post? It might seem a bit more welcoming and perhaps less intimidating.
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I like this idea
Newcomers often ask their first questions in their Introduce Yourself topic tho.
Having to introduce yourself THEN create a new topic in another category is an additional level of friction.
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Surely, but there would be nothing to force people to post in either of the categories, and to be fair some people might not actually want to introduce themselves, that might actually be a barrier, it seems like a bit more of a commitment. Someone might just want a bit of advice – if they get something useful, they might want to stick around and then introduce themselves….
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Some thoughts:
I spent a lot of time reading the forum before becoming a user - I only did that when I was ready to ask a question that I couldn’t find an answer to already. So how the site appears to non-users is arguably more important than to new users - they’ve already committed, but non-users are still just checking it out.
That also means you can’t wait until the new user welcome message to give some prominent guide about how to use the site - people unfamiliar with (now very old school) forums may never get that far. This is where skill- or experience-level grouping of topics in an easily visible way (while not losing their original categories) could be good for the default view.
Once someone is a user and is able to post, there may be a case for drawing a distinction between the social media posting style of liberally asking ‘new’ questions because old posts are very hard to search and new posts don’t seem to hang around long or clutter things up, and the forum approach of checking for past answers first using search, and only asking new questions if old posts don’t cover it, or there’s need for more up to date info. Even then there is a question of whether to resurrect an old post or start a new one - how does a new user (or even a regular user) decide which is best?
True. Introductions are encouraged, but not mandatory. I myself usually don’t like to introduce myself on forums. I shared this here: Introduction / Welcome Topic -- examples? - #6 by Canapin - Community - Discourse Meta
Newly registered users see this banner on top of the site:
It was set when I had difficulties fighting spam, but it’s not an issue anymore.
I might alter this banner and make it more welcoming.
Note that it doesn’t appear for unregistered users.
Having a dedicated banner for visitors (as said previously in this topic) with photos would be a nice touch.
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And all the community has been posting is pictograms but no fancy unicycle photo’s.
I reckon you can just nip some from the “Pictures of your latest ride“ thread. I don’t consider myself a very experienced rider, even after 10 years. I just ride distance on different wheel sizes, but no hopping or freestyle tricks, which I like watchin in awe. Those should be the pictures for the banner to draw people in.
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I think I’ll create a new topic to gather people’s attention.
For a start, we can use only 3 pictures (random pictures could be possible, but let’s start with something simple).
Does representing muni, freestyle and touring/racing seem a good illustration of how diverse unicycle discipines are? Feel free to suggest others.
When we agree on 3 (seems about the right number because there will not be much space) disciplines to show off, I’ll create the topic so people can propose pictures.
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I think people who are really interested in their hobby, they happily create a login on a forum or other application that gives them the information they are after.
Besides there are now many messages from facebook that community chats will go away. Beats me why they decided that. That will be in favor of forums.
Yes, many people already have Facebook accounts.
Logging on to the forum via Facebook was possible in the past, but I removed the feature:
But even so, Facebook logins were almost not used on the forum at this time (I’d say less than 5 accounts were linked to FB).
We can still register via Google, which is way more popular, but also with Discord or Twitter/X.
It doesn’t skip the “register an account” step tho, it’s just easier and faster than creating an account without relying on a third-party authentication.
I think the major reason why people would look for info on Facebook rather than somewhere else is the path dependence.
I think the first good step to make the forum more appealing (which doesn’t impact discovery) would be to have a more welcoming home page for visitors.
The current home page is bland and filled with (mostly) technical topics, which can feel intimidating (?). I’d be happy to be wrong 
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