Garden Railway Forum

And me Peter.....I have been logged in for hours....

Hi all,

It looks like we're pretty unanimous in our gratitude to Steve and desire to see him keep up Tom's good work.

In the interest of transparency and fairness, but bearing in mind the need to keep things moving, let's say that the poll will close today at 7pm GMT.

Speak now, or forever hold your peace...

Cheers,

Andrew.

Steve, keeping this forum moving forward with a transfer would be the best for it [IMHO], so if this achievable please go for it

Have you voted Jimmy..The more the better...

I voted earlier....But I forgot to click the flipping submit button......

...the more the better...

Indeed (and yes, I have voted as well), but... let's be realistic.

As mentioned by philipy:

...only just over 200 had actually logged in from 1st June until now...

even fewer have voted so far

Patient is rather poorly and prognosis is not good...

Just transferring ownership doesn't solve the underlaying problem of poor numbers,
What can be done to improve it?

Terrific. Well done.

BertieB wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 7:46 pm Terrific. Well done.

Indeed! We seem to have reached a verdict - I'm sure Steve will update us in due course...

Andrew wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 8:12 pm

BertieB wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 7:46 pm Terrific. Well done.

Indeed! We seem to have reached a verdict - I'm sure Steve will update us in due course...

Thanks Andrew, I will start proceedings with Tom about getting it transferred

bambuko wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 5:56 pm

Just transferring ownership doesn't solve the underlaying problem of poor numbers,
What can be done to improve it?

Reality is that we are an excusive club and its active members gain much from it. I have tried to point out that visitors far outnumber members and appealed for them to join, so we have to wait and see.
As long as the regular users continue to post, and are willing to pay for the privilege, we can manage.
Bigger is not necessarily better.

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 9:50 pm

bambuko wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 5:56 pm

Just transferring ownership doesn't solve the underlaying problem of poor numbers,
What can be done to improve it?

Reality is that we are an excusive club and its active members gain much from it. I have tried to point out that visitors far outnumber members and appealed for them to join, so we have to wait and see.
As long as the regular users continue to post, and are willing to pay for the privilege, we can manage.
Bigger is not necessarily better.

Very true Peter, quality can be far better than quantity.

As for guests, I am guessing the majority of those are bots, things like google bot that scan the forum for new content and then they can present it in searches. There are a lot of these, last time I think around 40 to 50 and they distort real guest number dramatically.

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 9:50 pm

bambuko wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 5:56 pm

Just transferring ownership doesn't solve the underlaying problem of poor numbers,
What can be done to improve it?

Reality is that we are an excusive club and its active members gain much from it. I have tried to point out that visitors far outnumber members and appealed for them to join, so we have to wait and see.
As long as the regular users continue to post, and are willing to pay for the privilege, we can manage.
Bigger is not necessarily better.

Just a thought, could we restrict some access to none members, ergo give them a "taster" and if they want more, would need to joint, just a thought.

Jimmyb wrote: ↑Fri Nov 20, 2020 4:46 pm Just a thought, could we restrict some access to none members, ergo give them a "taster" and if they want more, would need to joint, just a thought.

To some extent we do that already, the off topic section for example isn't available for guests to view. However, if we restrict too much access then we might fail to entice guests to want to join us. Non members can only read - they have to register to write replies.

Rik

Rik, many thanks, I didn't realise these restrictions already existed

Just to add that even members can't see everything unless they login.
That includes this thread and various others to do with the forum transfer and funding. Which in turn quite probably means that a lot of people have no idea what is going on!

Restrictions are not the way forward. When I looked at the forum, I immediately found the threads and the post were so friendly and helpful so much, that I joined there and then so I could start to enjoy more and more the help and encouragement the forum was giving to other members.

Well done Steve and we will now have a forum we can still be so proud of... I will do all I can to help and encourage members and hopefully newbies to keep on enjoying our hobby with such a friendly and helpful, well run forum.

Silly question I'm sure but how does one vote?

The transfer of the forum domain name and the forum itself is complete, Steve is now running the show.

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Tue Nov 24, 2020 10:46 pm The transfer of the forum domain name and the forum itself is complete, Steve is now running the show.

Thanks Tom

You have done a fantastic job over the years, I hope I can continue your good work

invicta280 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 24, 2020 9:00 pm Silly question I'm sure but how does one vote?

Too late I'm afraid, the poll ended on Mondy evening! However since Steve got 100% of the votes cast it doesn't much matter anyway.