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Post by lotusanne on Dec 20, 2012 9:35:18 GMT
well i think that has been the source of a long standing argument already! so many agree with you, I have never been a member of another forum before so cant really comment, i know FF has not incurred costs but it may depend on the way you run it, how much time it takes, if you need to spend hours a day answering queries so that you cant hold down a full time job , that sort of thing.
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Post by Etienne Le Croq on Dec 20, 2012 10:18:39 GMT
I don't mind paying to be on forums,but I feel that the big W has become too commercial and has moved from being a Wildcamping site to a motorhomers Facebook site.I must admit that there are a few good threads and some very knowledgeable people,but most of it is just tosh and you'd be on Facebook if you wanted that .Anyway I'm going to have to get out and about in the New Year and find some mor locations as this is my number one Wildcamping site now
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Post by Firefox on Dec 20, 2012 11:08:10 GMT
Yes we won't acquire any costs and will always be free!
I might buy a domain and link it but that's only £80 for 10 years. Less than the price of a night in a posh hotel!
Phil puts a lot of time into the big W, and like Anne says it's mainly the time that costs. You can incur hosting and software costs but you don't need to ... it's all free here for example and we can do pretty much here what they do there. He will do well to make business out of wild camping though, there isn't the market.
The big myth that places like motorhome facts and motorhome fun like to put out is that their members need to pay for "bandwith and hosting" etc when in fact those things can be free or minimal. Basically the owners are trying to make money off their members. Fair enough, but they may as well be honest about it! You'll also find they censor links to other websites and forums.
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Post by whitevanwoman on Dec 20, 2012 15:44:08 GMT
I don't go on the big W much these days and after the responses I had to the questions I recently asked about gas heaters, I probably won't be posting much from now on. There's just too many people ready to pick a fight and the problem is that if I'm a bit stressed or tired or frustrated, I react and if I'm not careful I end up getting into arguments. Also I have noticed that the number of views on "argumentative" threads tends to be very high and it does seem to take admin quite a while to respond to requests to close threads (it took 24 hours for admin to action my request to close the thread I'd started during which time the argument was continued by people drawing new people into it unnecessarily), so I can't help wondering whether it's not in that forum's best interests to close disagreeable threads. Purely conjecture on my part. I am about a week off my membership renewal date and I won't be renewing as when I have looked at the wild camping locations I've used over the past year, the vast majority have been locations that I've found for myself and very few have been from the POI database. Also until recently, I couldn't get Google Earth on my mobile, so the only way to access the POI when not at home was through my laptop and dongle, which didn't always work if I didn't have a signal, so I had to preplan a route and overnight locations at home, then add them to a Google Map and make that available offline before leaving home, as I don't have a sat nav, I use Google Maps on my mobile. So I don't think it's worth paying for any future updates to the POI. And as I've just deleted a load of unread PMs I won't miss not being able to PM anybody on there. Most of the people I am friendly with through the big W are either members here or are FB friends. I've also chosen not to receive emails from admin as I don't want to get unwanted mail to the address I signed up with which I try to keep spam free - I have a different email address which I usually use to sign up for things which may possibly generate spam and that address doesn't send messages to my mobile so that I don't waste my data allowance on spam and I know that emails which go to my mobile are "serious" ones only. Also I don't really want to receive details about Admin's other business interests. It's also too big for me now, I like this forum at the moment as it's so small and personal but it's quite lively with at least several different threads moving at the same time, rather like a FB group, although if Firefox promotes it too much and it grows too big too, I'll have to find a new small forum to join, or start my own! No idea what I'd call it though, as all the relevant domain names have all been snapped up. I might have a look and see if CloudCuckooLand is available as a domain
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Post by Firefox on Dec 20, 2012 15:55:40 GMT
We can always cap the membership here if people want - Robmac suggested it I think - so that idea is up for grabs if the majority want it. But we would probably need a membership of about 500 and a core of 100-200 who were regular posters to survive the stagnation trap ? We're very lucky that small crowd we have at the moment are mostly exceptionally good posters so we're punching above our weight
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Post by Etienne Le Croq on Dec 20, 2012 16:13:01 GMT
I agree with that women who drives the white van Cap is a good idea.
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Post by Firefox on Dec 21, 2012 19:26:26 GMT
I see they were debating likes V. thanks yet again on the big W today. The old thanks system was awful. Xyz says thank you for this useful post. Abc was thanked 1542 times in 847 posts... like spaghetti! Heavens knows why they are trying to reinvent the wheel again.
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Post by n brown on Dec 21, 2012 20:14:00 GMT
i must say i agree with wvw about the poi thing,i couldn't use them if i wanted to,no laptop in the van and very simple phone,never thought i'd use them to be honest. i suppose i joined WC for a bit of banter and to encourage where poss,also i know a fair bit about fitting vans out and am happy to advise,but i find myself telling people to pack in the boring sniping.can't quite grasp being so snotty that i'd argue with an invisible stranger over some trivisl point.as for the poi s,i've managed this far without them,and i'm kind of chary of sharing anyway.remember that guy moaning his holiday was ruined by trying to follow them religiously.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2012 21:52:20 GMT
I see they were debating likes V. thanks yet again on the big W today. The old thanks system was awful. Xyz says thank you for this useful post. Abc was thanked 1542 times in 847 posts... like spaghetti! Heavens knows why they are trying to reinvent the wheel again. I think you will find it's an exercise in being democratic. Why they even have a poll up. How good is that? Where did that idea come from? Just wundrin'
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Post by robmac on Dec 21, 2012 21:59:20 GMT
I think the idea came from Grath.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2012 22:22:04 GMT
Or from here?
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Post by Firefox on Dec 21, 2012 22:29:50 GMT
No problem being democratic, but they had the likes and thanks debate thing a year or so ago. The thanks system was a mess. Oh well, it's no big deal I guess
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Post by whitevanwoman on Dec 21, 2012 22:45:01 GMT
When has the big W ever been democratic? It's an autocracy with all decisions made by one person, and I have big problems with autocracy. Autocracy means that people feel unvalued, insignificant and absolutely powerless. That's why I felt that this forum should be a community with decisions being made by everyone, or at the very least by a number of moderators so that no one person is responsible for any decision making. Not only does this protect decision makers as no one person can be accused of letting their personal feelings influence their decision, but it also means that all members can feel a part of something that is "theirs" and not a forum which belongs to one person.
In this way, should the time come when any of the original founders of this forum want to step down, others can be nominated to take their place, ensuring that the forum will continue, as it's not dependent on just one person, and it should never get to the point where everything is falling onto the shoulders of one person and becomes too much for them.
I fear that if Phil decides he's had enough of running the big W, there is a real risk that the forum may simply close, unless he is able to find a buyer to take it over.
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Post by robmac on Dec 22, 2012 0:18:16 GMT
I think that this was one of the main reasons that this forum started. If the big W came to a sudden demise, then the membership would have been scattered to the 4 corners and it would have been so difficult to re-establish contact with old friends. The fact that this forum has started so well is a real bonus and I am sure it will continue to do well.
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Post by Etienne Le Croq on Dec 22, 2012 8:40:00 GMT
The big W has turned into a monster,there seems to be more arguing posts than constructive ones now.
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Post by Firefox on Dec 22, 2012 8:55:57 GMT
Although there's a lot of people nominally "online" at the big W there's not that many new posts, Most people are just either reading or not even at the computer.
For example today I counted only 8 new topics with posts in there today. The same number as here. Most threads there trundle along similar to here. It's only when they have an argument that everyone starts piling in and posting. I noticed that when I was moderating and trying to keep on top of all the new posts - there weren't that many more per day than here.
Remarkable considering our small relative size at present!
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Post by lotusanne on Dec 22, 2012 11:10:41 GMT
Could be all the noisy ones on here?!
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Post by kangooroo on Dec 22, 2012 12:20:37 GMT
The big W has turned into a monster,there seems to be more arguing posts than constructive ones now. That's precisely the reason I seldom bothered to log on in the past few months. Nothing changes...!
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Post by Etienne Le Croq on Dec 23, 2012 18:09:28 GMT
Anyone heard from Morgan,he's not posted since the 21st,not like him.
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Post by robmac on Dec 23, 2012 18:15:34 GMT
I wondered myself. Maybe he's away for Crimbo!
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Post by n brown on Dec 23, 2012 18:35:07 GMT
and herbenny and MSG
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Post by robmac on Dec 23, 2012 18:46:02 GMT
I spoke with Jac (herbenny) the other day on the 'phone. She is a bit behind with the forums after her recent operation, but she is OK. Dunno about the Goose though?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2012 20:15:14 GMT
Marie has been having leccy probs. She pops up every now and then on FaceBook. She is fine.
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Post by n brown on Dec 23, 2012 20:24:24 GMT
good !just a missing welshman then
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Post by Oldish Hippy on Dec 23, 2012 20:38:27 GMT
Marie has been having leccy probs. She pops up every now and then on FaceBook. She is fine. leccy what van problems
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2012 20:45:48 GMT
Marie has been having leccy probs. She pops up every now and then on FaceBook. She is fine. leccy what van problems No .. Water got into her home electrics.
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Post by Oldish Hippy on Dec 23, 2012 22:52:45 GMT
oh dear me wish iwas closer soon sort that out
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