Hey - we all know it's tough in the world of corporate magazines to come up with anything that's even slightly edgey. I mean, just look at the contact info on this thing - you got corporate VPs up the butt climbing all over the place, most of which have never even greased a bearing, yet they're the guys who call the shots. This site is clearly the corporate cookie cutter variety created by an unholy union of IT, Marketing and Editorial. The fact that there are only 3 posts tells ya where it's at. I saw a page in the mag that has a survey asking the readers what they want - and that's a good start. But, as publishers, you should KNOW what they want. Anyway - how about getting rid of the annoying pop-up ads that happen everytime you move on this site? It would be start.

Just call me Warren from ChoppersRule.com  

Yeah - it's pretty slow around here. I guess the real issue is "voice" - a publication (especially an online publication) has to have a voice. When you think of The Horse Backstreet Choppers you think of a certain crew or editorial style, when you think of ChoppersRule.com you (hopefully) think of me. What comes to mind when you think of "streetchopperweb" (I mean, other than the fact the URL streetchopperweb is so clearly second choice - come on, who uses "web" in a URL?) what actually comes to mind? Pretty much nothing except maybe three or four old articles and a whole bunch of corporate / google ads that don't always apply to the subject at hand. But it could be so much more, that's the real shame. A site that's tied to a major publication could (and should) rock, but this one doesn't. I mean, if I'm the most controversial poster on this forum - how lame is THAT? Just call me Warren at Choppersrule.com  

Boy - I must be the only guy checking out these boards. Hmmm, that's ok - I've got plenty to say. And speaking of plenty - you guys should check out my site ChoppersRule dot com (they won't allow any code in this box so I'm just spelling it out) I got a bunch of new stuff up from Europe. It's kinda like Street Chopper, but my featured bikes are more like the stuff most of you probably build in your garage. You know, used parts from eBay, stuff you made on a grinder with old lawnmower parts and your old lady is yelling through the door that you gotta stop wrenching and get cleaned up because her Parents are coming over. You know, real life chopping.  

Hey - here's an idea! Why not get rid of that thing at the top of the forum with the pull down menus that give you insurance rates that DOESN"T EVEN HAVE motorcyles in it. Pretty lame. Shows nothing but disrespect and a lack of understanding about your readership to have that up there. Sheesh -at least it could say "get quotes for motorcycle insurance" I'm not interested in price quotes on insurance for BMWs - and I don't think anybody else here reading this is either.  

Let's get a moderator on these boards that knows something about choppers. These guys are all street bike punks. Hey, no disrespect - you gotta love a guy who likes to drag his knee on the asphalt at 130mph - but that ain't what Street Chopper is about. Hell, it started in 1969 before there WERE any street race bikes from the land of the rising sun. Guys, seriously now - get some gearheads who know how to field-strip a panhead with nothing but a pair of pliers while they're blindfolded or this whole thing is going nowhere!  

This web site needs more readers so people dont have to answer there own posts like some of these guys are doing. Hint Hint. The point of a forum is to chat with people not only with the same interest but be able to learn about something they are new at. Not attack them.  

I'm not attacking - I'm stating the obvious. Well, the topic of this thread is Making Street Chopper Web Better - because if you make it better, more people will come and then there will be more posts on the forum. It's funny because I see these are getting read a lot, but nobody (except Doug) has any response - which would make me think that folks tend to agree with me. Hey - I've got an idea, let's remove those annoying pop-up ads from this site. That'll increase traffic because I know nothing puts me off more than one of those idiot flash discount mortgage ads when I first come to a site. Anybody agree with me?  

I am not the moderator for this site. I try and answer questions not based on my knowledge but from someone who does? Our systems have pop up blockers preventing those but I can imagine how annoying that is. By the way there are only a handful of people registered to this site so I am one of the only ones that will read your topics. So I wouldnt say they feel the same way when there is no one to view them.  

as a Chopper site owner my self (choppercrossroads.com)?,. I know the start up pains your getting,. give it time and improve the look and usability,. I for one am going to post this site on Crossroads with a recomendation to visit it and usher in some more REAL chopping,. not the billit trash talking cheese muffins found on Club Chopper with 7 digit income go build me 3 at a time wannabies,...

fight on!  

Not much going on around here. Is the forum / blog thing really as boring as all this? I'm going to the garage to build something then ride it around.  

Warren ...if ya get board .....pop in at my board
bigwildpanheadsalooncom put in www and . where they go......we are a bit older than this new board it..... no pop ups ....in fact no ads unless you look in parts ....choppers are the *** !!!!........pan  

no cuss words.......ouch been censored.......no cussing biker???....doesn't seem right!!!.......Pan  

This site sucks. Just like the one at Hot Bike.

No wonder the American Iron Magazine (www.aimag.com) is so much more popular.

And what's with all the ads here for cars and trucks? I though this site was for Harley choppers.  

Yeah - well, this is what's known as a corporate website. It's not built by a guy who loves bikes, it's "managed" by the new media department at Primedia. They have a few web guys and some content management software that they bought from a big vendor. When they want to make changes to the site, they put in a "change request form" then they read these requests at the weekly website / IT / Dev meeting. That meeting has the web guys, a dude or two from IT (internet technology) and the VP of marketing is supposed to show up, but usually he sends his weasily second in command. If it's a she, then the second in command is the daughter of one of the Board of Directors. They talk about stuff like "user experience" and "capturing eyeballs" and other junk they read in Wired magazine. Once a year they all go to Internet World and walk around the tradeshow booths and look at new content management systems and add-ons. The see which will fit in the annual budget. The reason there are car ads is they run their own ad server which breaks ads into content areas. This site is part of "automotive / motorcycle / powersports" that's why you get the ads for stuff that's not supposed to be here. If you look at all the powersport websites (like www.hotbikeweb.com) you'll notice that the site looks just like this one in terms of overall layout, but the graphic "areas" are different. Those are what's known as user customizable sections in the template they've chosen for that particular site. All the information and pictures flow from a central database managed by the IT department. Why am I telling you all this? Because - this is the kind of stuff that will replace Choppersrule.com and all the other cool, small guy sites. This is corporate America eating your (and my) lunch. They finally figured out that bikers weren't idiots and now they've built all these big, expensive corporate sites to capture advertising dollars from guys like me and the guys at Horse and all the other guys who were building chopper sites before it was cool and these guys were still pounding out tech articles about dressers. Anyway, there's no way I guy like me (or any other small site owner) can compete against this kind of site. They buy keywords for placement on Google and Yahoo so when you type anything even close to the word "motorcycle" you get their site. You think these guys like bikes? Guess again - you know the score, these guys like their paychecks. I would wager money half of the guys who work on these sites have never even turned a wrench let alone built a bike from scratch. This is about money, big corporate money and advertising. This is about the little guy gettin' stomped and I gotta tell you, it hurts. For seven years when you did a search on "Choppers" on Yahoo I came up number one. Not now. Why? These guys and guys like them figured out the game and did what we will never be able to do - spend big gameshow bucks on their websites. Oh yeah, we'll still be around (if you can find us on page 156 of the search engines) but never NEVER mistake stuff like this for a motorcycle site. This is a corporate content site - it just happens to be about motorcycles. I'll be over at YOUR chatroom in a minute because I'll meet something there I'll never meet here - bikers.  

let's go riding warren- we can talk all about it.

you have some valid points and many that are offbase and uninformed.

what national publications do you put out again?

we try and inspire people to build, wrench, and ride. it's hard to consistently keep the talent, readers, and the folks that pay our bills happy. it's a delicate balance.