Swallow Boats Association?

Tony · 18 Mar 2012, 13:16

Hi, Claus.
Sorry to say I HAVE been seen dead on Facebook.
Joined some years ago at the behest of daughter No 3 who was on her travels, with lots of pictures to share. Damn programme sent a "Fwend Wequest" to everyone on the computer address book, (it seems I hadnt asked it not to!), including the teenage friends of daughter No. 4 who now all regard me with a certain amount of suspicion.
Within hours I received dozens of replies – the one from my bank manager was especially charming – and over 60 "friend requests" from ex-pupils, work colleagues and other disreputable persons, thus showing the power and reach of this medium.
The thing scares me to death, particularly as it seems to change the look of the control panel every month making it impossible to be sure that I havent just sent photos of the girls night out in Prague to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury.
I'm sure Charlotte will keep it all under control and use it to widen the SwallowBoats market presence but quite understand anyone who would rather not sign up to it.

However, the replacement for this forum, what ever it might be, is a different matter.
You, Claus, will lose nothing by staying away...... but the rest of us will lose the experience and practical know how of an enthusiast who has made a great contribution to the forum and, in fact, to the boats themselves. Please reconsider.

Steve Joyce · 18 Mar 2012, 17:32

Quote from: Michael Rogers on 16 Mar 2012, 20:41
Could we be the StormTroupers please!

Sorry Michael, quite right. They do say ignorance is bliss

Tony · 19 Mar 2012, 10:17

Two quotes:-

From Jonathan Reply #65 on: March 14, 2012, 02:00:43 pm

"Tony - Just to be clear, all I know is that the SB site is to be replaced and I dont know when that will happen or what it will look like."

From Matt Reply #69 on: March 17, 2012, 10:03:17 pm

"We would like to hive off this forum and put it (with updated software) on a new Swallow Boats Owners Association website.
Jonathan Stuart has kindly offered to host and admin this which is a real help to us."

-ooOoo-

Wow!
What great news!
I'd like to wish him the best of luck in hosting the new forum and hope he can bring in a fresh approach and new ideas to widen the coverage of topics relevant to all Swallowboat enthusiasts.
I look forward to the Swallowboats DailyShow Global Edition with some anticipation!

(Bit of a coup, that Matt. How on earth did you get him? )

What?
Say again?
He spells it with an "ew "not a "u" ?
Different bloke is it?
Oh!

Sorry.

John Davis · 22 Mar 2012, 05:46

Can't think of a post that has generated so much reaction, so quickly! Thought I would throw in my penny's worth because I probably represent the silent majority, ie. those that are sailing their Swallowboat (in their dreams or waking moments!) and avidly reading these posts whilst staying quietly in the background. Someone did mentioned evidence of this reality from the Drascombe Association. What's key for me are just two things: the forum for advice and some idea about events or gatherings. You can forget about everything else in the interests of simplicity, costs and time to manage. So if a new site is set up to aid maintenance, durability etc., which certainly makes sense, my plea is that an effort is made to ensure a transfer of ALL the useful material in this forum. A particular request to Craic too, as his posts have been so much help over the years.
Regards, John

Graham W · 22 Mar 2012, 06:36

Quote from: John Davis on 22 Mar 2012, 05:46
So if a new site is set up to aid maintenance, durability etc., which certainly makes sense, my plea is that an effort is made to ensure a transfer of ALL the useful material in this forum. A particular request to Craic too, as his posts have been so much help over the years.

Seconded: the site should help us get the most out of our boats; and Claus has generated dozens of interesting ideas on how to do so.

The simpering ninnies who invade the forum under false pretences, vainly trying to sell us Oakley sunglasses, industrial vacuum cleaners and rustic Mexican furniture, should be cast into the outer darkness with a wailing and gnashing of teeth. And quickly.

Jonathan Stuart · 22 Mar 2012, 21:52

John, Graham,

Absolutely agree with what you've said....this is about sharing information and ideas and helping people get together. The original idea was to setup an association site and what happens about forums hadn't been thought about too much. Matt has kindly said we can take this forum to the new site so the information will be preserved. That does give us a few technical challenges so that, plus work commitments, means there won't be much to see for a while but the new site is moving forward. I'll post a link here when there's something to see.

Lee Cartwright · 24 Mar 2012, 11:38

It is definitely possible to run an non-association association with a good forum that is not reliant on manufacturer support or legions of clipboard wielding appointed officialdom type people.

A good example is here: http://www.ukgser.com/forums/index.php these guys (I'm one of them) exist with no official structure, rideouts, weekend rallies and off-road meetings all take place without onerous 'official' sanction and the site is divvied up into sections that are Modded by volunteers. Works well. UKGSer is a big site - but it shows what can be achieved.

The forum software is simple to set up and the basic version is free (but still quite good)

Matthew P · 25 Mar 2012, 23:06

The UKGSer site is certainly lively and may have a lot of useful features but maybe I am getting old and grumpy - it does seem slightly garish and are the adverts a necessary part of it being a free site?

I am enthusiastic about a forum based alternative to a formal associaton but I hope that any replacement or development of the current Swallowboats forum will retain its current style of genteel (mostly) wit and wisdom. Must dash, a good programme is being broadcast on the home service - I mean Radio 4.

Matthew

Lee Cartwright · 27 Mar 2012, 21:17

The ads are all paying adverts, UKGSer is a massive site and wouldn't be a direct comparison to what is being considered here. But it gives an idea of what can be achieved - the basic site software is free and is relatively easily managed.
The style and colours can be changed at will and it's easy to add content as you grow.

The main software provider is these guys: http://www.phpbb.com/ you don't even need a direct domain address to get started.

I have no connection....blah, blah....etc, etc....

BTW, I'm a R4 Extra kinda guy :0)

Lee Cartwright · 27 Mar 2012, 21:20

Forgot: Nope, you don't have to have any ads on the site at all if you choose not to.

Jonathan Stuart · 16 Apr 2012, 14:44

We have now completed a couple of test runs copying this forum to the new website and I think that has been successful. We need to do a bit more testing but if there aren't any issues then we can move the "live" forum in a few weeks. As part of the move the forum software is also upgraded to the latest version. Claus's posts have been removed as requested.

If anyone is interested in having a look at the copied forum then you can access it via the following link:

http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/

All usernames and passwords will be as on this site last Thursday. Email addresses have been removed so that emails are not sent from the copied forum. Apart from that everything else should be unchanged.

Feel free to take a look and let me know if you find any issues or have any suggestions.

Jonathan.

Peter Cockerton · 16 Apr 2012, 15:10

Jonathon

The new forum format makes easy reading and the search facility on keywords works very well on the examples i have entered.

I have noticed some of the images not displaying, see Andy Dingle post in the Rutland Waters posting, the link is displayed but no images.

Reading the help file it mentions a calender can be enabled, are you considering this or perhaps another calender method.

The ability to send messages directly to members could also be useful along with seeing all the members names.

Keep up the good work

Peter

Jonathan Stuart · 16 Apr 2012, 16:14

Peter,

Thanks for that.

I have uploaded the missing attachments and they now display. The thumbnails are still not available in the post but that is because the attachments were missing before the forum was upgraded. I will ensure any new attachments are uploaded before we do this for real and then the thumbnails will also be recreated.

I wasn't aware of the SMF calendar so will have a look at that. One way or another we should have a calendar but at the moment I haven't spent much time looking at that.

The private messages function should be available and working. With regard to seeing a full list of members, there are currently in excess of 20,000 members because of all the spammers so I need to find a way to remove all of the spammers without impacting genuine members! Again, I think that will be straightforward but I need time to look at how to do it.

Steve Joyce · 16 Apr 2012, 20:20

Good job Jonathan. Its usually easy to underestimate the work behind this sort of task. Hope it hasnt been too onerous.

Could not login but as my login is my email address, I guess this will work once the email addresses have been put back in.

Graham W · 17 Apr 2012, 08:52

Well done Jonathan. It is great to see an absence of extraneous on the new site. And no messages about limited support for Safari for those of us with iPads and no real choice of browser. Best of all, Oakley Canada et al will be barred, although I see that they are currently still listed as a member. A shame that Claus has had his contributions removed but you win some, lose some.