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Re: Old Forum down

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 11:07 pm
by Chris_R
John-B can correct me if I'm wrong but I think I recall that he did put forward a proposal to the board back in 2016 but nothing was forthcoming.

Re: Old Forum down

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2020 9:30 am
by Sydsmith
My take on this is that a club of this sort has a responsibility as guardian of historic information.

The host of historic information, let alone the huge number of photographs of historic interest on the old forum, render it an important record of things that have happened in the past that will be lost if the old forum is allowed to die.

What ever the cost the old forum should be preserved, to let it just pass into infinity for the sake of relatively small investment would be very wrong and in time wold be much regretted. It does not matter how many are likely to use the information it is still an historic record.

Without doubt there is information on the old forum regarding the repair and maintenance of our cars that has great importance, particularly articles on older cars. There are contributions from old experts like Wilf Stevens that would be lost for ever.

The old forum has been frequently referred back to since it was replaced anyone carrying out a search on this forum will no longer be able to look at those topics if the old forum is lost.

Does it really matter who can see our forums. If the club shows an open attitude to the people who use the forum they will encourage membership. As there is a protected members area it will increase benefits to have the old forum there and encourage potential members to join, that is how I became a DLOC member. Syd

Re: Old Forum down

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2020 10:07 am
by John-B
The old forum could be limited to Club members only and I may consider a change to its permissions when it becomes visible again. However, since many of the old forum posts were by non-Club members who are still not Club members but are members of the new forum, it might be unfair to prevent access to the old forum for them. Preventing old forum access to new non-Club members but not old non-Club members is possible by manually creating another forum group but is something I would rather not do as it means more administration.

As a matter of interest, I've looked at the last ten forum members' details, four are not DLOC members which I think is fairly typical.
Three own a Daimler and presumably will want advice in due course; the other one doesn't say whether he owns a car. Sometimes new members say that they are thinking about buying a club car and want advice.
If we denied this forum membership to these applicants and said that they need to pay a £48 Club subscription before they can ask a question (or even just look at forum posts) they would probably go quickly to another car forum.
We would therefore never get contact with a possible future Club member and more importantly never hear about an unknown car and help repair it. As forum members the Club registrars are able to ask for the car's details and check whether the Club knows it. The forum, if limited to Club members only, would be less busy and we would never get helpful comments from non-Club members. Forums that aren't busy tend to fade away. As forum members the Club at least has a way of contacting non-Club car owners and encouraging them to join the Club.

Re: Old Forum down

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2020 11:28 am
by classiclife
Hello,

I certainly agree with the views posted by others on here. As I said initially, preserving historic information that benefits others - now and in the future is a must do requirement. Indeed, Chris has pointed out it may not cost £1200 to get the old system up & running - if that is the case then all the better for the application to be supported.

Certainly during my time using the Forum, I have benefitted from sage advice not just from DLOC members but also non-members alike - to lose their input would be a serious backward step.

Additionally the Forum also acts as a conduit and "common meeting ground" for members and contributors overseas; again whose input is always significant and of great interest.

Yes there is a cost implication as with much these days, but the logic & common sense for making the application seems to outweigh the financial aspect. It's just a case of selling it further up the food chain.

Regards.

Richard.

Re: Old Forum down

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2020 9:48 pm
by migray
Seems to be back