Matt

Over nearly two decades in our market, Titan Racing has earned a reputation as a brand that delivers a lot of bike for your money. The Cypher dual suspension mountain bike is no exception and delivers value across the range that is tough to beat. The Cypher platform is available in two variants: 1) Cypher […] View full article

Another scammer targetting wanted ads. Will either contact directly or push you to WhatsApp on the following number: 071 146 4456

Thanks for reporting this. We’ve picked up the account they’d registered and have flagged it.

@Johan van der Waltplease do not contact or deal with "Craig" who had posted here. This person has been banned as they are a suspected fraudster.

We report on views (someone clicking on your advert to view the details) separately from what we currently refer to as a lead (someone either initiating a chat conversation or clicking to reveal your phone number, presumably with the intent of contacting you). This metric is intended to be a signal of interest/intent You're right that it's not correct to call it a "lead". It's a term we'd used loosely internally with an understanding of what it meant, but it's a bit confusing and unintentionally misleading for end users. We'll put some thought into better labelling it in the new year.

Well spotted... seems this link spammer was flying below the radar. Banned 'em.

I guess it depends a lot on your perspective and what Bike Hub is to you. Forum activity has steadily declined, a little grim? Perhaps. But not unexpected. In 2010 I left a promising career at a great company to pursue the Classifieds opportunity within Bike Hub. With that lens on it's far from grim reading:

A few clicks gets us that view, and it re-affirms what @Nick mentions. The decline in forum activity was occurring well before we began to focus more on Classifieds and before the narrowing of NCR scope. As others have suggested, with more platforms available to do many of the things previously done on Bike Hub it's not surprising. WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Strava, etc. all have a place and are often better suited to specific use cases, e.g. organising a social/club ride, live-streaming or live-tweeting events, or even sharing memes with mates. Forum post data (excluding non-cycling sections) From comparison with earlier "Year in review" articles Non-cycling posts typically made up 25-40% of total annual posts.

Here's a view of the past decade on the Forums and Classifieds (incl. 2022 to date): The forum numbers may disagree with old article totals as these counts will exclude a lot of content that was cleaned out in recent years.

We're on it! It was on the list for this year, but slipped in the push to go live. Spoiler alert: It's worse than last year. 🤬

It's still a thing, but will only show on threads with enough data (>= 3 pages of posts). Should display below the first post on any page.

Is it frowned upon to enjoy the view? 😉 I think there's a bit of something in there for everyone, whatever drives you. Ironically, the writer of that line is a bit of a racing snake. I'd bet she finds relaxation in physical suffering. 😅

Thanks, we'll look into it right away. Last question, was this on a mobile device or desktop? Or both?

This sounds like a bug. Was that a message related to a Classified ad? Unfortunately there is some inherent complexity in dealing with two separate systems: this 3rd party forum platform (and its built in messenger) and our custom Classifieds platform. There is definitely room to simplify and improve this. But if the complexity you mention is more around the scroll issue that's a bug that we can most certainly address. If you or others encounter any issues like this please report it to us. It's the only way we can address any issues. Thanks!

It is admittedly a little confusing... there are two message/chat platforms available: 1) Classifieds messages: These are related to classified ads exclusively - chats can only be initiated from live adverts. https://bikehub.co.za/classifieds/chats/list 2) Forum direct messages: This is the forum messenger you are probably looking for. You can initiate a new conversation with any other member who has it enabled. https://forum.bikehub.co.za/messenger/

@Benky thanks for all the answers already, but they breed more questions.... 😇 There must be a lot of lonely time "in your own head" while turning the pedals on these sorts of events. Do you solve the worlds problems out there? Or have mental tools and tricks to stay focussed and awake? Or just to keep going?

@Benky The race for 1st and 2nd was very close at the end for Rhino Run. How much do you (or can you) pay attention to what others are doing in an event like this? And does that impact your strategy as things progress? Or is it a matter of putting your head down and doing your own thing?

We’ve cleaned up some of the unrelated banter. Mod note: While Hubbers are known for sprawling conversations and topic deviations there’s a time and place where it’s simply not appropriate. This is it. Let’s have a little more respect for what the OP and their family is dealing with.

@Sibo sorry to hear about this. Please log this in our Stolen bikes database here: https://bikehub.co.za/stolen-bikes A forum topic will also be created.

Thanks for sharing your concerns. To answer your question, the only scenario where we'll release a payment without consent from the buyer is where they disappear following delivery. e.g. the courier tracking confirms delivery and after 48 hours the buyer has failed to complete the deal (or log a dispute) and is uncontactable. There risk you highlight does remain. It's not impossible that a difficult buyer may nit-pick in an attempt to either drive the price down or make unreasonable requests. It's important to note that a seller is under no obligation to remedy issues raised by a buyer (e.g. price reduction / part replacement). If the buyer is not happy and the seller is unwilling or unable to address the issues, we'll facilitate a return and refund, but the cost of return shipping is for the buyer's account. While we know that given enough time and scale this will change, in close on 2,000 deals completed to date at R20million in value we've not encountered buyers of this nature.

We've chatted via our Help but for the benefit of the crowd: Currently the primary repercussion is an appropriate rating on their profile (as you've done). We do track these issues internally and repeat offenders may be suspended. e.g. sellers not honouring the deal or buyers repeatedly failing to complete payment. Thankfully it's a tiny fraction of all deals done via Bike Hub Pay, but something we're monitoring nonetheless. As you suggest, part of the problem could simply be the seller not appreciating how the system works and the commitment implied when accepting an offer.

Hi @RobertWhitehead Thanks for the feedback. I've added some follow up questions to your points above that will help us to zero in on the issues and fix them. Additional info on these will be mush appreciated, any any other issues you may find. Matt

Thanks for reporting that. We'll look into it asap.

@Josh Davimes Thanks for sharing. I can confirm that "Graham" didn't contact you via your Bike Hub advert. As a general rule we'd advise against sharing ID documents and ID numbers to avoid falling foul of POPI. It's also very unlikely that any scammer uses their actual ID, but rather either a fake or they use the ID of some innocent third party. In cases like these we find the most useful information to share is the scammer's current alias and phone number. When deals are done using Bike Hub Pay we do verify the ID info of both the buyer and seller.

Was this in response to a Bike Hub ad? Either way sounds very suspect. I’d avoid. Among the other red flags, Scammers like to use a business WhatsApp account. Assume they think it’s a good trust signal.