This forum...

[Malcolm]

The way this Forum is set up is such that we can have discussions about Society Matters without any non-members joining in, which I think is as it should be. Jim makes a good point that many members can't get to the AGM and whilst sending a letter to the News is one way of raising something it's not a discussion and replies (and thus any discussion) is, by default, very long winded... That is one very good reason for the Forum and I do believe that the "Committee" (or whatever they are called these days) do look in even if they don't become involved which is also as it should be... We have a discussion and then, if people feel strongly enough about it, they write in... In effect it's the same as a local group but on a worldwide basis!

I think the concept of having a Society forum limited to members only is perfectly all right.  The purpose of the forum, as I see it, is for members to seek help and advice from other members. It should not, to my mind, be abused by people with their own hobby horses (sorry Blair, that does NOT mean you!) to go tilting at windmills or airing grievances in public. And it should equally not involve attacks on other members, no matter how veiled.

Rod

I am getting a little confused with what we are "allowed" to discuss on this forum.  I agree with you that the forum is for members to seek help and advice from other members but are you saying we should not discuss Society matters?   Are you saying, to take the recent discussion regarding the Heritage Collection as an example, we should not have had that discussion?   As far as I can see there is nothing in the rules governing this forum that prevents discussion of Society matters as long as we abide by the common rules of respect etc. and do not launch personal attacks.  [Sorry to learn you have been on the receiving end of a very unpleasant personal attack recently]

Would appreciate clarification of the rules.  This may be an appropriate time to say that if the forum is being upgraded it might be an opportune time to review the forum rules.

Malcolm

[rod335]

I was not laying down what can and cannot be discussed here.  But since this is a MEMBERS forum, membership should be restricted to Society members. If procedural matters for the Society are to be raised, the correct way is to address matters to the Society Secretary, not try to publicly start a witch-hunt.

[Malcolm]

Thanks Rod.  Fully agree non members should be excluded.
Malcolm

[Hobby]

I don't think we've ever had a witch hunt, we've had discussions where differing views were expressed but that is not the same thing.

[clayliner]

As I understand it, the majority of the Committee members are not actually interested in the matters that are raised here.

I am surprised that you should suggest that our committee members might not be interested in the contents of an 009 forum, Rod!

David.

[rod335]

Why? Personally I don't often find much of the contents interesting. There are occasionaly items that appeal to me.

[danny]

Why? Personally I don't often find much of the contents interesting.

Some people would say this thread is turning into a case in point...  :) :D

[Malcolm]

On looking into the Prototype section of this forum I was surprised at how many non-prototype threads there are dealing with cancelled exhibitions, the heritage collection etc. and, for that matter, this thread 'This Forum'.  Indeed there is very little actually on prototype information!!   
On this forum there is no particular section for general matters such as exhibition cancellations or for general discussion on Society matters such as the heritage collection or 009 News or any other Society matter members may wish to discuss therefore, as I mentioned in an earlier post, as an upgrade to the forum is being considered now might be an opportune time to review the forum rules and consider expanding the range of subjects allowed to be discussed without having to hide matters away under 'Prototype - General'. I am therefore eating humble pie and agreeing with Rod that the way this Forum is currently configured is to discuss prototypes and modelling items, exhibition and Society announcements and not much else.  I feel a letter to the Hon. Sec. coming on..... :( 
Malcolm

[Hobby]

We had a discussion about the "Exhibitions" section many moons ago where we pointed out that the only way to find out the date of an exhibition in that section was to open the thread which wasn't very useful. We were told that it couldn't be done any other way. Personally i don't bother with that section of the forum at all, I use NGRM, UKModelshops or CM/RM magazines for exhibition info, or even the website, but not this forum. I can understand why people put the cancellations in the "General" section as it's the easier to see that it relates to a current exhibition or one last year or next year. John does a great job in updating the News and Website, but the Forum title entries need changing, I don't want to have to open every thread just to find a date.

[danny]

On some forums they even have a section for discussions on random topics not directly related to railways or modelling, although I'm not sure that's the way to go here. Since it's a specific forum for the Society it might be better to create opportunities and functions that aren't found on other, similar forums.
Danny

[clayliner]

So

[Harry Mantheakis]

You are not the only one who craves affirmation when posting, which is why "Like" buttons are ubiquitous on social media.

And the flip side to that craving is that readers are often sufficiently motivated to click the "Like" button in response to a post, but not motivated enough to post a reply - the result being that many posts remain unacknowledged.

So on a purely practical note, it might worth upgrading the software this forum run ons - presently version 1.1 (see footer of page) whilst the current release is version 2.0: https://download.simplemachines.org/

[rod335]

An upgrading of this forum is one of the things to be dealt with via the improvements to the Society website. But, of course, no matter what upgrading is done, you cannot MAKE members use the forum. As I have remarked before, the forum is not used by many members but those who do use it like and use, it a lot.

[Hobby]

Would agree with much of what David says. But I regard it mainly as a place for us to discuss Society things rather than general Narrow Gauge. I will always plug NGRM Forum over this one, even to members, as the "input" is much greater sdue to the larger member's base and therefore more useful. Lets be honest, even if something is done to update the forum (software?) it will still never compete with another forum which has a much larger remit within our specialised interest.

I once commented on RMWeb about something having suggested asking the same question (NG related) be posted on NGRM and was taken to task by one of their regulars who asked why would anyone want to go elsewhere... I simply replied by quoting the daily number of NG related posts on RMW compared to NGRM. I never heard any more.

That's not to say I'm advocating closure of this one, there have been times when we've needed to discuss Society policy and an outside forum such as NGRM would be entirely inappropriate. Also some people might prefer this forum's "members only" format rather than an "open" one, so there's good reason to keep it open. But I don't think it needs a great deal of money spending on it, perhaps just an update to make it look nicer and be more user friendly.

[Hugh Norwood]

Well...
There are a few main headers "missing" from this forum, which on occasion makes it difficult to post a topic.

And... perhaps we spend more time in the real world? (or in my case on the Discworld?)