MEMBERS DECLINING

[Colin62]

I'm on the tablet, and won't be quoting the points I'm replying to, so here goes.

I'm comfortable with the look of the forums. I don't keep coming back for pretty graphics, I come for the content, discussion and interaction with like-minded people, and to learn from the ones whose minds are a little superior

I agree with comments that a simple like or agree can be conveyed with a button, but that to disagree meaningfully, you really should explain why (hopefully respectfully).

I access the forums from WinXP (not in a while though), Win7, Android 2, Android 4, IOS 7 and Blackberry 7. I've avoided Tapatalk, and this is just about the only site I know of which is easily navigable and legible across all those platforms. Except for Internet Explorer of course. I have seen too many systems broken by trying to add unnecessary frills, and I'd hate to see that happen here.

To reiterate, I don't come here because of the technology, I come here because of the people and what we can teach each other.

To Neil and his moderators, thanks for what you do for us, your efforts are appreciated.

[ubeaut]

Just thinking, I've never thought about how much this site costs to run.
Maybe an idea would be to go head on into developing the mobile area and integrating small ads to the bottom of each screen?

Not enough hours in the day days in the week or months in the year to develop a mobile site. Hense the reason I'm usually on here around midnight and into the wee small hours. Anyway it probably wouldn't work any better than the Tapatalk or our Default Mobile Style.

Tapatalk up until recently didn't allow ads and I believe we have to pay Tapatalk a monthly fee to have ads on their app and then only get what they offer which you can just about bet wouldn't include any more than a handful of Aussie ads. This may have changed or may change in the future as their policy of no ads probably stopped many forums from using them.

Our Default Mobile style does allow Google Ads and we have a couple on there. But the revenue generated from mobile ads would barely cover the fee to Tapatalk for having ads on the site.

Steven and I have actually had discussions in the past about designing our own mobile application.... Haven't gone any further than that but it could be something for the future. Big problem is with mobile phone use and the fact that a forum will probably never work very well on a phone, no matter what.

Using a tablet is a different kettle of fish and most tablet users shouldn't need to use a mobile app to view the full forums.

More of us are using mobile devices over desktops. (But can u please make the auction site more mobile friendly?!!

Love to but there is absolutely nothing that can be done to get them to work on a mobile using an app. They like many other things were never designed to work on a mobile phone.

If you use an iPad or and half decent Android tablet then there should be no need for a mobile application to be used as the full forums will work fine and the market place will be fully functional.

If you have a good tablet you should be able to use it in landscape mode rather than portrait and view an entire page width without the need to scroll from side to side. I certainly can view all as well on my tablet as on the desktop or laptop. Not quite as good as on the really big screen at the office but well enough to be able to read and see everything without need to enlarge the font.

Cheers - Neil

[johnredl]

Thanks for the reply Neil.

Also, I called UBeaut recently to get advice on which product to finish pens with. The man I spoke to was quite friendly and very helpful and knowledgable on the products. A great customer service experience despite what sounded quite hectic in the background.

[ubeaut]

G'day John - You must have called the wrong place that guy's a really grumpy old bastard and it's never hectic unless he set himself on fire again.

Cheers - Neil

PS We try to be helpful and pleasent to everyone. Even say thank you to phone spammers before hanging up on them mid sentence.

[johnredl]

PS We try to be helpful and pleasent to everyone. Even say thank you to phone spammers before hanging up on them mid sentence.

Did u now that if u don't hang up, just put the phone on the counter for a while, they can't hang up their end? Apparently the system doesn't allow hanging up first. These people have to make x amount of calls (performance based), and by not hanging up ur messing with their stats!

[Chesand]

G'day John - You must have called the wrong place that guy's a really grumpy old bastard and it's never hectic unless he set himself on fire again.

That sounds like Neil.

[DaveTTC]

The new "thanks for the post" and "like" buttons will have cut the number of posts as you don't have to post to say .


Attachment 304492
Regards

I cant see anything like those buttons on tapatalk, NOw I have to post to let replonica know I am still watching and enjoying his marathon bike build


Dave the turning cowboy

turning wood into art

[Groggy]

I've a few mixed feelings about this one. Firstly, Facebook is a leaker of personal information and they keep saying they will do better whilst changing their terms to allow them to collect more data. Why do they want to host chat rooms? So they can see what topics are 'trending' and manipulate that data into information they can sell. Not necessarily personal data, but aggregate data. They are there for profit, not altruistic motives.

These forums add value to my life as it is a record I can scroll through and follow a discussion days later, or a project years later, then use that information to help satisfy my curiosity or to put it to practice in my own projects.

When I was a moderator I would have liked a chat function (eg, click the user's name and pop up a chat window) to assist with communicating with other mods mostly but occasionally to help a member. Usually a phone call was made to sort out tricky stuff; I suspect that hasn't changed much.

As a general member I like to use the forums for learning and not active engagement as it would change the demands it makes on my time. With posting like this I can take my time, in a chat I would feel obligated to respond and be 'bound' to the discussion. I use chats on a few games and other sites and try to avoid them unless necessary.

After a number of years here I have seen the quiet and busy times ebb and flow. As Neil said earlier a drop in numbers can be seasonal and also related to a particular forum but they seem to recover.

A good discussion this one.

As an aside, the irony of Zuckerberg complaining to Obama about invasion of privacy by government agencies was priceless.

[Christos]

On the subject of the OP, i seem to notice less activity on the weekends, is it just me or not?

Ew

I try to spend time in the shed on the weekends, unless when I am at work.

[Vaper]

I joined a while ago but havent been active lately ... family life takes over ... especially if you have kids, then mix that in with the hot weather we have had and I dont much feel like doing anything wood related or even sitting in front of a computer to be honest.
this is no reflection on the forum just the way it goes some times ... all websites have trends on posting counts ...even facebook.
Live chat is not a bad idea but again its not something we cant live without ... the beauty of forum posting is we can read it at our own leisure ... not have to try and keep up with 15 to 20 people in live chat all at once and your scrolling backwards and forwards trying to see who's saying what about what subject ... some are talking projects others are talking what they had for dinner last night while others are telling people they are full of crap and it goes on and on ...
I moderated chat rooms years and years ago when they were huge (MSN chat rooms etc) and its a royal pain ... Im not saying it would need moderating here ... most of the posts I read here have mature answers and opinions and dont result in juvenile hating ... but it happens, those posts can be ignored or even deleted ...live chat its not so easy.

one thing I am curious about ...is there a way to only see new posts from one sub forum ...like woodwork ...instead of getting every single new post from all forums ... I would find that a more useful tool then live chat for Myself.

Thanks

Vaper

[Timless Timber]

I don't bother trying to "contribute anything (advice) worthwhile" to help others now.

Too many posts deleted and bannings etc - I'm over it.

If I can get help from others for whatever need I have at the time, by posting a question - then I'll "use" the place, (to my benefit) otherwise I read and naff off.

Driving members away seems to be the whole purpose of the place, attract them so we can drive them away.

I can't work it out and I'm past bothering to try - there's other forums less anal... about mooderating people out of participation.

There's a "balance" and this place can't find it.

Just coz someones a mooderator - they think their not doing their job if they aren't pushing the delete button or the ban button.

Rather than edit objectionable content...(and leave the main thrust / body of the post - which took effort to create and contains intellectual property of the poster) the "easy way out is to just delete it" because it breached some obscure rule (in the Sheldon-esque 10,000 page "room mates agreement" that constitutes "the rules" around here), and if there is no rule breach but we just don't like what you say or how you say it, we reserve the right to delete it anyway and ban just coz we feel like it!

Well people value their intellectual property - when you disrespect that in return, they cease contributing to assist others & usually leave.

So numbers fall - less people get helped = less then post, and traffic drops off, and more leave etc.

Having a forum on the net doesn't guarantee people will post...

It's how you treat people.....treat them bad (disrespect their intellectual property in their contributions which after all were only trying to help someone else out) and they vote with their mouse to go elsewhere!.

It's not rocket science.

Owning a forum doesn't make you "a good people person" to build a forum community.

Think of a moderator - as the bloke who arrives at your favorite drinking hole, where you've been going for years because your accepted there among the community.

If the new Mooderator keeps excessively flexing his muscles and abusing his authority - the group just find somewhere else to drink and your pub becomes non viable to keep trading because the new bouncer p!ssed off all the regulars.

It takes ability and skill to build an accepting group of participants that continues to grow into a supportive forum community.

Drive enough contributors away (deleting and banning) and things start to decline.

Not that this will stay - even in a discussion / feed back thread - you can't say what the problems are, coz that's against the rules - so therefore no one can fix whats wrong.

It's a self fulfilling prophecy - of doom.

You can't trust the people here who run the place with your contributions - so the obvious answer is - don't make any!

Take what you can get for free, and contribute nothing helpful in return, that will only be disrespected and deleted and get you banned for saying it.

That's the unwritten rules of the game round here...

My 2c...

Cheers!

[Darklord]

What a tosser.



Darky

[Colin62]

My 2c...

Cheers!

There's obviously some history there that I'm not aware of, but, for the record, my experience of these forums is very different to yours.

i like the fact that all the little fights and spats aren't left for prosperity - there is a forum I belong to where I've allowed myself to become embroiled in a few off-topic fights, and when I come across some of those threads years later I am embarrassed by how strongly I reacted.

[plantagenon]

I wish the thread was deleted. It has gone beyond what I intended.

[gawdelpus]

Hey Greg! not your fault if someones 2cents worth is just a diatribe of ill feelings I am sure there is a large preponderance of useful and helpful info to all involved in the rest of the thread ,once the Geni is out of the bottle who knows where it will end up .As in the real world forums are apt to draw out differing opinions , some useful, some not ,the trick is to see the whole and not worry about the oddballs cheers ~ John