User:Arnoha/Bay Area Riders Forum

The Bay Area Riders Forum (usually abbreviated BARF) is an internet forum dedicated to motorcycling in the San Francisco Bay Area.



History
The forum was originally set up by Steve Cole on October 29, 2001 and was used by him and friends for fun and communication. However, they soon lost interest and stopped using it. In December 2001 it was announced that a popular motorcycle forum, Sports Bike Forum aka SBN would be closing. Members in its Northern California section who wanted to keep in touch decided to start a forum of their own. Mr. Cole, realizing he had a forum set up with exactly the same software that SBN was using, posted a link on SBN on January 3rd, 2002 for people to register. At that time it was just an IP address to the server it was hosted on.

The new forum's name was discussed by the initial members and the majority leaned toward calling it BayAreaRidersForum.com or BARF. Although Mr. Cole was reluctant about the name he registered the URL on January 31st, 2002 anyway.

In the absence of other major motorcycling forum catering to the Northern California motorcyclists, BARF began an exponential growth which was evident when more than 250 people attending the first ever BARF bash in Milpitas in January of 2003. During that first year BARF created the "Racers Corner" Forum and Steve Cole enlisted Dennis Kobza, who had raced motocross and roadraced in the 80’s, as a moderator. Soon the AFM racers began to discuss racing in a big way on BARF.

In 2004 BARF started a race team and began to support the passion for racing in the local community. Mikey Judkins and Calvin Reuter would be BARF's first racers. 2004 also brought Dennis Kobza in as a partner in BARF and with two energetic moto enthusiasts at the front with different talents, the site began to really pick up steam as a major moto chat site. Part of that success was the enthusiastic members who created BARF meets all over the Bay Area and the ability for the members to not only chat, but also get together socially and go on group rides. This gave the website a very human interface. Many friendships began to flourish.

In 2005 after some tough times with servers the BARF’s members (colloquially called BARFers) began a fundraising effort to make the site function properly. The dollars raised help Dennis Kobza purchase new servers and brought those to a local hosting company and soon the site was running smoothly. The site transferred ownership to Dennis Kobza and continued to grow quickly. 2006 brought a young gun racer to the Race Team and they won their first championships in AFM Road Racing claiming three. Bobby Fong now races in the AMA series.

BARF also started to reach out to High Schools in the area and provided lunch time visits to the students. BARF members have continued to visit local schools to provide basic safety information to students who plan to ride.

2007 brought BARF increased traffic and increased efforts in several areas. Sponsorship for other types of racing started with the addition of Anthony Alonso who became a multiple mini bike road racing champion and still receives support from BARF.

BARF also became more than a chat room with new forums being added.
 * A LEO forum allowed law enforcement professionals to interact with members.
 * Training forums brought CMSP Riders coaches to the membership to discuss training for motorcyclist.
 * New sub forums were created for more specific types of riding. Motards, dirt bikes, mini bikes and more gave these types of rider’s specific areas to discuss their rides.

By 2010 BARF was now a large forum with almost 40,000 members and being large the site was hit with a series of tragedies in the spring. Motorcycle crashes were taking a toll on the membership. Dennis Kobza and volunteers started the 1Rider Motorcycle Safety Campaign. This brought 1Rider volunteers into the hills where the message of riding smart, getting the right gear and training could be brought directly to the riding public. 1Rider also became the name for the High School visits and a specific forum was created on BARF where newer riders could find good information from veteran riders. Later in that year Dennis Kobza was invited to a Motorcycle Safety program that was being put together by the Office of Traffic Safety thanks to “Silversvs” one of BARF’s LEO Moderators and the man that also has provided so much support for the High School programs.

In 2009 Dennis Kobza was invited to give a presentation at the first ever Motorcycle Safety Summit in San Francisco, CA. Dennis Kobza created a movie for the presentation that also outlined suggestions to the attendees on what could be done to increase awareness and reduce crashes and fatalities. Later that year Dennis Kobza was invited to join the CMSP committee for reviewing the training efforts that the California Highway Patrol administers in California. He also joined the California Mission 12 Motorcycle Safety Committee that includes the OTS, DMV, Cal Trans and other agencies. His task was to bring the man on the street view. This committee was responsible for the Amber alert signs that have been showing up on the State’s freeway signs in 2010. 1Rider has also joined in many CHP and other agency events to promote Moto Safety.

BARF also has increased sponsorship for other racers as well all while keeping the site clean of major advertising that clutters the vision of what Dennis Kobza believes BARF should be. BARF has also sponsored the Novice classes (Clubman) in the AFM for the last two years and wants to help support the sport in anyway it can. Dennis Kobza turned down offers to sell the site when many others did just that. Taking money for what he believed was a public service in many ways did not make sense to him.

Membership
With close to 40,000 members, BARF now has forums dedicated to some regional areas outside of San Francisco Bay Area, for example, Southern California, the Central Valley, New York and the Pacific Northwest. BARF continues to grow at a steady, but controlled pace. Many of the most popular threads have been shared around the world and BARF has members from many countries. BARF has also stepped in to many situations that are important to members or the community where it can. Many members give from themselves to help others in the community or BARF itself. In many ways the site has created an extended family for many of the active users.

Administration
BARF is governed by their “Terms of Service” and has a core group of Moderators that try to keep the site respectful. The challenge of doing that is often difficult and by using a voting system on enforcement give as fair as possible outcome to the membership. This reason this works well is because it gets different views of many types of people before acting. BARF does not allow porn and its goal is to keep the site work safe and a fun environment for all types of riders.

BARF continues to support the sport, support the community and create a place where great friendships in a common interests can develop.

The moderators are well known for their Fairness, Good Nature, and Tenacious perseverance.

LIVE 105 Woody show incident
January 2006: Live 105 morning radio host DJ Woody (Jeff Fife) stated on the air that "One of my pet-peeves is people on motorcycles who think they don’t have to wait in traffic like everybody else… Nothing would make me happier than to watch somebody, and I’ve actually seen this happen, somebody open a door and take you out as you are trying to squeeze through…" This caused an uproar which lead to a protest outside the Live 105 studios calling for an apology. DJ woody later sent an apology to BARF owner Dennis Kobza which he posted on the site.

Motorcyclist Safety Campaign
February 2010: Through the encouragement of Bud Kobza and others the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) updated the overhead freeway signs around the San Francisco Bay Area to read "Share the road. Look twice for motorcyclists".

April 2010: To help further BARF's goal of motorcycle safety and awareness owner Bud Kobza recorded a podcast with local radio station Live 105 DJ Menace.

Notable members

 * Keith Code, motorcycle racer and instructor
 * Rich Oliver, motorcycle racer and instructor
 * Danny Walker, owner, American Supercamp
 * Dan Kyle
 * Dennis Kobza (barf owner /member CA motorcycle Safety Committee/Member CMSP Advisory Committee)