I see the same here, with the same cars all around. You can go to a different show each each day of the week in the spring-fall months and see half the same cars at each. The big Mustang show here at Ford HQ got nearly 700 cars last year. For a one-day event, that's amazing.
Back when I was in the Northeast, I did an annual 3.5 hour trip to NJ and 2 hour trip to NH for FFW, did 3 5-7 hour trips to PA for NMRA, and similar stuff because that was all there was for big Mustang events. And, sad as it may seem, the number of cars in attendance in the shows were put to shame by the 3x-per-year Mustang shows at Mustangs Unlimited which was under 40 minutes away. That's a huge undertaking for many to spend that much on gas money for a trip when they have a gas hog, and the time involved for a 2-day event (plus hotel costs, etc.). Many of us still did it, but after a while it gets old. Still, we did it. But also after a while you start to see disinterest in car attendance at the events, changes in the ways the shows were held, lack of racing participants making for awful race spectating, etc. With that, people stop wanting to invest so much time and money to go to a crapshoot. If it's local, that's different, but when it's not it's another story all together. Back in the Northeast, if I didn't go to those shows I was stuck w/the M.U. shows if I wanted a good Ford show. Let's just say those were run by an infamous club who saw the show's attendance drop nearly 50% in a matter of a few years likely because people were fed up with it all. At least that's what many people I knew said. Seems over the past few years after I stopped going to them, they picked up a bit. That's nice to see but I doubt anything changed except the influx of new people w/new Mustangs and a more popular scene overall. Anyway, out here in Detroit, I can throw a rock and hit 5 cars hows. The quality of cars is never lacking, unlike back home where every goddamn cruise night seemed like a Billy Bob BBQ Party where nobody cared about anything except old ratty Mullet Mobiles and Corvettes. I would sooner drive through rain (and I did) on that 7-hour trip to NMRA in PA than drive 10 minutes and spend the night at that one of those bull
events with all the hicks. Here, there's just everything everywhere and I've come to not have a want or need to go elsewhere.
Regarding the popularity of the guys on SEFB setting up FFW, NMRA, etc. trips, again I say it just comes down to numbers. How many of those guys were on Stangnet? Let's say 50% of them for a conservative guess. 100% of them are still on their own local site. The people here are so spread throughout the country that it makes about zero sense to stay in touch for local reasons. I know years ago we had a 'big' meet-up of some people who didn't know each other, at one of those shows at Mustangs Unlimited. I think 3 showed up.
On another note, and I'm sure this can relate to other specific interests, but you have sites like foureyedpride that all the 4-eye fans go to. Here, the topics on them are so minimal that it again almost makes zero sense to keep checking here daily/weekly to see if anything pops up in regards to them. Sure half of that can be blamed on those people themselves for not starting such threads in the first place, but some people just like to tether themselves into conversations
