Hello! Ciao! I'm RAAU from Italy!

This forum is for new members to introduce themselves and tell us how they got started in water rocketry.
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WRA2
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Re: Hello! Ciao! I'm RAAU from Italy!

Post by WRA2 »

RAAU wrote:Hello everyone!
I'm a Italian fan of Water Rockets.
I build Water Rockets since I was 14, now I'm 21.
I hope that here in this great forum, I can get where I need more clarification.

I created a Facebook page on my Water Rockets, which I hope (if you will) follow:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Razzi-Ad ... 912?ref=hl

Thank you, greetings to everyone and see you next!




RAAU (Razzi Ad Acqua Umbria) = UWR (Umbria Water Rockets)
Welcome to the forum.. :W

You also have the distinction of being the 3,000th member to join PH:
Lisa Walker,
:WRA2: Forum Administrator. :WRA2:
:WRA2:The Water Rocket Achievement World Record Association :WRA2:
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RaketfuedRockets
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Re: Hello! Ciao! I'm RAAU from Italy!

Post by RaketfuedRockets »

Hello RAAU,
:W in the water rocket forum, it's great to see some more europeans here. :)
We follow your Facebook page, I'm looking forward to see your further projects.
Nice to see that you joined the german forum as well :)
Cheers
Julian from Raketfued
RaketfuedRockets - Building water rockets since 2011
Check out our YouTube-Channel: www.youtube.com/Raketfued
Check out our website: www.raketfuedrockets.com
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/RaketfuedRockets
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RaketfuedRockets
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Re: Hello! Ciao! I'm RAAU from Italy!

Post by RaketfuedRockets »

RAAU wrote:For years I have followed the Italian forum, then for a while I gave up the Water Rockets, and now that I'm back I saw that unfortunately the Italian forum is very proactive. It 'a disappointment!
So I created my page on Facebook, trying to know, befriend, and aggregate multiple enthusiasts water rockets, Italian and not, lest we get lost and we can always exchange opinions and ideas.
It's such a shame to see more and more rocketry forums disappearing or just getting inactive.
The german water rocket forum isn't very active anymore too.
Have you considered to create a YouTube channel?
It's great to communicate at YouTube with water rocketeers from all over the world.
Cheers
Julian
RaketfuedRockets - Building water rockets since 2011
Check out our YouTube-Channel: www.youtube.com/Raketfued
Check out our website: www.raketfuedrockets.com
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/RaketfuedRockets
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WRA2
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Re: Hello! Ciao! I'm RAAU from Italy!

Post by WRA2 »

RaketfuedRockets wrote:
RAAU wrote:For years I have followed the Italian forum, then for a while I gave up the Water Rockets, and now that I'm back I saw that unfortunately the Italian forum is very proactive. It 'a disappointment!
So I created my page on Facebook, trying to know, befriend, and aggregate multiple enthusiasts water rockets, Italian and not, lest we get lost and we can always exchange opinions and ideas.
It's such a shame to see more and more rocketry forums disappearing or just getting inactive.
The german water rocket forum isn't very active anymore too.
Have you considered to create a YouTube channel?
It's great to communicate at YouTube with water rocketeers from all over the world.
Cheers
Julian
I think that youtube and other personal social media sites have damaged the close knit communities that forums are and created and environment of "every one for themselves" attitude. Everyone establishes their own little kingdom and then there is no incentive to participate in forum communities any more. Everyone is busy trying to attract the "most subscribers" to "their channel". When people can also monetize their channel the incentive is even less to participate anywhere but on their channel.

I have seen it here before where a new user will register and post a total of one post with a link to their "channel" never to be herd from again. It happens all the time.
Lisa Walker,
:WRA2: Forum Administrator. :WRA2:
:WRA2:The Water Rocket Achievement World Record Association :WRA2:
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RaketfuedRockets
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Re: Hello! Ciao! I'm RAAU from Italy!

Post by RaketfuedRockets »

WRA2 wrote: I think that youtube and other personal social media sites have damaged the close knit communities that forums are and created and environment of "every one for themselves" attitude. Everyone establishes their own little kingdom and then there is no incentive to participate in forum communities any more. Everyone is busy trying to attract the "most subscribers" to "their channel". When people can also monetize their channel the incentive is even less to participate anywhere but on their channel.
I have seen it here before where a new user will register and post a total of one post with a link to their "channel" never to be herd from again. It happens all the time.
Hello Lisa,
I definately have to agree that YouTube and similar sites have damaged the forums at some point.
It's, like I've said, a shame and I personally really like the forums.
However, we have to consider that the majority of todays youth, including our team, is searching mainly on sites like YouTube.
We started our channel in 2011, even before we created our website.
We are not interested in generating clicks and subscriptions mainly, it's just about reaching more people and helping them to get involved.
This helps the whole community. I think the most YouTube channels aren't creating YouTube videos only for clicks.
Furthermore, the monetization isn't that effective because not many people are interested in water rocketry.
If the main reason would be to earn some money there would be a lot better subjects than water rockets.
We really enjoy the YouTube water rocket community and we support other YouTube rocketry channels as well.
For example, we worked together with USWR for our latest tutorial and we have a great partnership with another german water rocket team.
YouTube isn't a bad thing for rocketeers at all. It just shouldn't be the only plattform.
For example, we are very active on YouTube, but we also love the german and the international water rocket forums.

I'm sorry if it seemed like I wanted to dump the importance of this forum.
Best regards
Julian

As always, sorry for my english. Im 16 years old and it's quite hard to write something like this in english.
RaketfuedRockets - Building water rockets since 2011
Check out our YouTube-Channel: www.youtube.com/Raketfued
Check out our website: www.raketfuedrockets.com
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/RaketfuedRockets
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WRA2
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Re: Hello! Ciao! I'm RAAU from Italy!

Post by WRA2 »

RaketfuedRockets wrote:
WRA2 wrote: I think that youtube and other personal social media sites have damaged the close knit communities that forums are and created and environment of "every one for themselves" attitude. Everyone establishes their own little kingdom and then there is no incentive to participate in forum communities any more. Everyone is busy trying to attract the "most subscribers" to "their channel". When people can also monetize their channel the incentive is even less to participate anywhere but on their channel.
I have seen it here before where a new user will register and post a total of one post with a link to their "channel" never to be herd from again. It happens all the time.
Hello Lisa,
I definately have to agree that YouTube and similar sites have damaged the forums at some point.
It's, like I've said, a shame and I personally really like the forums.
However, we have to consider that the majority of todays youth, including our team, is searching mainly on sites like YouTube.
We started our channel in 2011, even before we created our website.
We are not interested in generating clicks and subscriptions mainly, it's just about reaching more people and helping them to get involved.
This helps the whole community. I think the most YouTube channels aren't creating YouTube videos only for clicks.
Furthermore, the monetization isn't that effective because not many people are interested in water rocketry.
If the main reason would be to earn some money there would be a lot better subjects than water rockets.
We really enjoy the YouTube water rocket community and we support other YouTube rocketry channels as well.
For example, we worked together with USWR for our latest tutorial and we have a great partnership with another german water rocket team.
YouTube isn't a bad thing for rocketeers at all. It just shouldn't be the only plattform.
For example, we are very active on YouTube, but we also love the german and the international water rocket forums.

I'm sorry if it seemed like I wanted to dump the importance of this forum.
Best regards
Julian

As always, sorry for my english. Im 16 years old and it's quite hard to write something like this in english.
Not a problem, it wasn't directed at you as you participate here regularly and I was merely stating a possible reason for the decline in the German and Italian forums. Fortunately for us, we were well established and have good search rankings that we aren't hurt as badly as others were.

My main complaint is with people who simply use the forum to post a link to their personal channel to simply improve their own ranking and do not participate.

Here is an example:

http://www.wra2.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=2582

I am aware that this hobby is only practiced by a small number of people (3000 members in 8 years shows that). The hobby has also matured quite a bit over the last 10 years. There used to be discussions on devising ways to eject a parachute but now everyone simply uses one of the tried and true methods out there. I can remember when a parachute deployment system that worked more than 20% of the time was considered "black magic". SC:

I guess the thing I want to say is that we all need to come up with ways to get more people involved with water rocketry and to get them to join and participate in the community and the competitions.

TC: One problem we have is that there is a lot of "drive by" traffic. Someone gets introduced to water rocketry through a school project, they punch "water rocket parachute deployment" into Google, go directly to the posts one of our members made about it, grab the material and leave. Same goes for your site or other member's sites as well. They used to join and ask questions and a few would become long time members. That happens less frequently now. TC:

You did a really good job with your channel and site TI:
Lisa Walker,
:WRA2: Forum Administrator. :WRA2:
:WRA2:The Water Rocket Achievement World Record Association :WRA2:
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RaketfuedRockets
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Re: Hello! Ciao! I'm RAAU from Italy!

Post by RaketfuedRockets »

Thanks Lisa! :)
It's true that there is much "drive by traffic", we also noticed that on our tutorials.
Many people watch them, but only a small part of them is really interested in water rocketry.
I think the most effective way to bring new people in the community is to be represented on every possible plattform and to offer workshops or something like that.
Cheers
Julian
RaketfuedRockets - Building water rockets since 2011
Check out our YouTube-Channel: www.youtube.com/Raketfued
Check out our website: www.raketfuedrockets.com
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/RaketfuedRockets