How did the OcUK Forums get so Big?

Montala said:
Somehow I sort of have this picture in my head of a 'typical' OcUK Forum member as being a 25-35 year old male, with a fairly high disposable income each month, and who drives a high end BMW or a Porche!
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You and I have very different images of the typical forum member. Many of them can barely dress themselves.

The forums are big because the site is well designed in that there's no flashing sigs or other things to clutter the screen, the mods are good (if not always consistent), and there is a great variety of sub forums to cover a number of different interests.
 
The first thing that I notice whenever I post on another forum is just how messy it is. Gigantic sigs, animated avatars, dodgy themes that make navigation a chore. Probably seems like a little thing but the 'cleanliness' of ocuk is one of the things I like most about it.
 
I think it would be interesting to see a poll for why everyone joined the forum.

Eg a) free shipping biatch
B) via the shop
C) a friend recommended it
D) googling something lead me here

Etc
 
Originally from Aus: I think I thought there was a bit of a 'network' of overclockers sites many many years ago and went looking about - OCAU, OCUK, and the US plain OC. Now I live in the UK so stay.

It wasn't until several years later that I realised there was a shop.
 
Devrij said:
I think it would be interesting to see a poll for why everyone joined the forum.
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Got my first system through OcUK in 2001 and lurked on the original forum and read about over clocking. When I needed some help with programming I finally joined up.

It's so big as it initially provide a relatively niche idea, but that help was ongoing so people had to stay to keep up with tech and over clocking. It then expanded as more general stuff was posted. Helped by as people have said the moderation and cleanliness of the site and more recently free shipping and members market. Also as it is linked to the shop, it helps click through rate to the forum. Where people find out they can ask for help.

I would bet that almost all people initially signed up for computer related help. Or at least until free shipping was introduced.
 
I'm a member of various other forums, but always seem to keep coming back here as it's one of the saner corners of the internet!

From what I recall I found it initially by searching for 'UK forums' or something similar. I was a member of AGN3D and then Anandtech forums way back in the day, but found them a bit to American. Searched for something UK based back in about 2000 and have hung around here since.

To be honest I don't think I even realised there was a shop attached to the forums initially. Obviously found out soon enough though and even ordered some stuff from them in the end!
 
I actually joined in 2002.... had a long sabbatical and came back a lot later.

I'm sure I was looking to build my first PC at the time (remember the Coolermaster BlackWidow case anyone?) and was looking for a parts website. This one was perfect and given I needed some advice on which parts to get I spent many weeks perusing the forums and asking various questions before getting everything together.

I now run a PC repairs business (since 2008) so I don't have to spend as much time (if any) in the hardware forums and just frequent the GD and Motorsport forums these days.
 
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