Can we have a Discussion About the forum .

So, Forum Only Members.
Straighten up and fly right, do the right thing, say unto others as you would have them say unto you, post lots of pictures and if you don't have something nice/ constructive/ interesting or at least entertaining to say, shut your expletive deleted mouth, go away, and bother someone else you don't know.

cya

-b[/quote]


Ive said it before and I'll say it again you should right fortune cookies

Paul

Just had a real close look at the figures for the forum

1235 people have more than 5 posts
149 people have 4 posts
238 people have 3 posts
380 people have 2 posts
635 people have 1 post
1367 people have no posts.

So really only 1235 and any new contributors in the other areas have really contributed.

I would go thru and clean out all 1367 people who haven't posted anything(non contributor) then I would go thru and delete anyone who hasn't contributed for the last 5 years first then next month clean out anyone who hasn't contributed for 4 years and so on until you make it the last 12 months.

I would take a guess and say by the end of that process there might only be about 1000 members and maybe less.

Then I would tidy it up every 12 months with anyone who doesn't make at least 5-10 posts per year gone. Sometimes you have to be ruthless and it would get rid of all the takers and you would be left with the givers.

Trevor

now this is very interesting Trev as they say the figures dont lie

Paul

I could post more BUT I have found that if I do the post it stops dead I have a couple up there now and I know if the same post was by one of the bigger names there would be lots of comments

Yes I know this feeling as well but I guess you only get out of it what you put in so to speak I used to just post and post and after a while I started to get responses so I guess it takes people time to get the feel of people

Paul

Just had a real close look at the figures for the forum

1235 people have more than 5 posts
149 people have 4 posts
238 people have 3 posts
380 people have 2 posts
635 people have 1 post
1367 people have no posts.

So really only 1235 and any new contributors in the other areas have really contributed.

I would go thru and clean out all 1367 people who haven't posted anything(non contributor) then I would go thru and delete anyone who hasn't contributed for the last 5 years first then next month clean out anyone who hasn't contributed for 4 years and so on until you make it the last 12 months.

I would take a guess and say by the end of that process there might only be about 1000 members and maybe less.

Then I would tidy it up every 12 months with anyone who doesn't make at least 5-10 posts per year gone. Sometimes you have to be ruthless and it would get rid of all the takers and you would be left with the givers.

Trevor

I don't know that getting rid of non-posters is such a good idea, as there are lots of members that just like to read and not post for whatever reason- it's kind of like saying that people cannot go to a old truck show because they are not an exhibitor. Where would we be then?

Perhaps it would be better to delete those that have not logged on in over 12 months....

4) Eliminate from the new forum the 4 current categories
General Board, Challenges and quizzes, tractors and other old stuff and the model section.

I cannot agree with this, as it was my Google search for "Chamberlain Industrial Tractors" that led to this brilliant forum. And if I had not had come across this forum, I wouldn't have bought my old Kenworth, nor had three youngsters that will one day, keep the dream alive for old trucks...

I know there are other forums for old tractors and machinery but in reality, they are slow. Sometimes you can wait days for a new post, or a reply to a question. And if you really want to sought out the fly poop from the pepper, tractors are a commercial vehicle- they carry a load for reward or payment, an agricultural truck so to speak.

hello all i am only a small time poster i would happily pay a small/medium fee to access the forum because amongst some of the tooing and froing i have found some genuinely helpful tips services idea's that in the long run have saved me some $$$$ and time. on this forum i can see events, vehicles, 'characters', projects, history etc etc it is a one stop shop. cheers whale

A member's contribution to the forum cannot simply be measured in number of posts.

Some members might only have 20 posts. Is this less preferable to 120 opinionated, ill informed posts full of irrelevant pictures?

Also, and possibly more importantly, weight of numbers is useful when looking for a market for your 'for sale' items. 5000 members who don't post very often might very well contain the buyer of the item in your next 'truck for sale' advertisement. If you really are fishing for data on forum users, don't worry about the number of posts, check out how often they visit the site.

People come and go on all forums for all sorts of reasons. The best thing we can do is keep it relevant and friendly. Most of the rest will take care of itself.

Firstly let me thank people for the civil way this has been discussed. As the 2nd administrator enlisted just before the forum went public let me clarify a couple of things.
1) The forum has moved to a new server. Yes the first attempt failed but copied about 80% of the content across. A way was then found to copy most of the rest of the content then we planned an outage from 10am to 4pm on a Tuesday (the forum's quietest time) and completed the move in a couple of hours.
2) the HCVC doesn't own it's own infrastructure (servers, Internet connections etc) but uses shared infrastructure owned by the service provider. We moved to one of their higher capacity servers but it is still shared. I suspect other sites have been put on that server as I am seeing the same Resource Errors that you have seen. As I don't know who the provider is I can't chase it up. .
3) one of the reasons for the move was to get the space to allow upgrades to be tested. Unfortunately in the move the necessary access to be able to upgrade the server was not given to the main administrator or myself. That made upgrade testing impossible and the problem still has not been resolved.
4) as a result to get to modern versions requires several upgrades in quick succession with testing to be performed after each to make sure nothing has been lost.

I hope that explains the server issue now for the others

4) the problem with abuse on the for sale section is also evident (and complained about) on Facebook sites as well. I am not sure if it's because people feel anonymous behind a keyboard or if they are having a few of their favorite drinks and their guard is dropping

5) yes the photos are painful and are a hangover from the original tiny server where it was thought the forum would get 3 or 4 posts a week and storage was expensive. If we can upgrade to current versions we will look at the picture issue. Before then will complicate any upgrades

6) I have yet to see any forum (and I am on several as a member) which can upload photos as easily as Facebook. If you look on Facebook most of the event photos are taken on a phone or tablet and uploaded instantly. If someone knows of forum software that does it please let me know.

7) the original sections were added after the original 2 administrators decided on a starting point. The ITractors and other stuff section was added after a request at a club meeting was voted on. There had been a series of articles in "The Monitor" about other collections members had. At the meeting it was discovered that about 70% of those present had other collections as well as trucks and a further 25% liked reading about them. That left 5% not interested so if you want it removed then move a motion at a club meeting and when I see the minute saying that a motion is passed to remove it I will.

The only other section added has been personal announcements after assessing that most of the Forum members wanted somewhere to keep all those sorts of announcements together future reference.

Remember it is a club site not a truck site so the site should reflect the interests of club members. The HCVCA has members who are only truck fanatics and others who like a variety of old equipment including commercial vehicles of all types. The forum needs to cater for both groups.

9) by looking at the last 10, 25, 50 or 1000 posts (or whatever number) the person is requesting that the forum show them everything. Some people don't realize that the bullet beside the group (eg personal announcements) flashes if there are new posts since you last logged in. Likewise pressing new beside the topic takes you to the new posts(although it doesn't work as well in topics with lots of photos as they push the new post down off the screen). The other issue is that if people use the last whatever posts is they can miss a post that sets the context. That can then lead to inappropriate replies which inflame situations.

10) the change to registration was made after it was found that the process was taking up most of the computers processing power. The workload is about the same as removing spammers before then but I found removing spammers more fun particularly after a bad day at the office!

11) Having those people that never posted on the list doesn't cause any problems but is a load of work to remove as it has to be done one at a time. Being a manual process it is open to error and personally I don't have the time to do it. I know from removing spammers it would take about 2 minutes each so that makes it 2470 minutes (or over 41 hours) without sleep, food or comfort stops.

12) Finally participation. This is a hobby. It doesn't earn money for the contributers, moderators or administrators. Ss such we all do what we can when we can. It's also a bigger issue then just the forum. Ask most club newsletter editors as they struggle to find articles. Eg when chasing articles for the current yearbook I was told on more than one occasion "the photos are on my Facebook page, download them write the story and put my name on it." Those people's pictures and stories didn't make the yearbook.


I know this is long. It's taken me a couple of hours to research and write but I hope it explains some of the stuff behind the issues.

Bruce, bparo thanks for your time spent clarifying to us the couple of things.

I don't have any great complaints about the forum,


ianoz and chocs as for photo posting it's no harder now to post than 2 years ago, so that's not why there are no photos of the event in question
Colin

Chocs ,,By the way .It was not a demand for Members to Post photos from the event .It was more asking the powers that be, to think about making the task of posting photos Easier for all concerned .
One thing I take in from the replies so far ,Is everyone has their own likes , and yes dislikes of the forum .
I must say,I disaggree with Trevor ,Wanting to remove the tractor and other stuff section from the forum .
I asked moderators for that section to be added .I can't recall any major disaggreements happening there .
Many members here have other interests . A good Forum ,is like a good rally A Combination of various interests .
Do HCVC events ban Tractors and stationary engines from events ,Does the club stop members from other clubs displaying at their events ?The answer is {I hope } no .So why would you want to stop these things being on the forum .