Axminster at Rycotewood

[lurker]

As the "read first" is loccked, forgive me if I ask here. I trust, and hope, Charley is not "not contactable" due to illness ?

I'd just assumed he has discovered women :twisted: :twisted:

Rob,
Please don't take offence!
I said "huff" to illustrate what goes wrong when people critise an altuisic gesture

 

[big soft moose]

I think what people fail to understand about this forum is that it's a private business, not a public society. Whilst the members make it, they don't actualy have any say about how things are run. The moderators wouldn't normally have any power other than to moderate posts. Which is why we've all been frustrated trying to get hold of Charley when he's handed control over to a 'team' of mods. They are unpaid and largely unthanked, so it's understandable how things become complacent and stagnant.

As I say, something could be setup to run along side this forum to provide all the additional community functions that we need (and that all the other forums have on the net).

its the same on every forum that ive been involved in - its not a democracy , but a benign dictatorship because someone has to be in charge and be liable for the server costs etc , and that person natural enough then becomes brand owner and final arbiter of decisions.

If you set up a sister site that person would be you - but you'd face exactly the same type of problem that anyone else does - for example who makes the decisions while you are in hospital having your back domino'd together , or while you are at work, playing with your daugher, away with swimbo etc etc

and secondly as i said a sister site would need official sanction - setting up such a site without official sanction is essentially a rival not sibling - like what happened back in the mists of time with woodworkuk

IMO to an extent we are suffering from SLOPS here (severe loss of proprtion syndrome ) the site isnt about to vanish and 90% of the time its fine - theres the ocasional blip but the way forward is to just talk with noel, philly when we have ideas etc not to take a slesdge hammer to kill an ant

 

[Chems]

Personally I think its a good idea, we could have been UKW and Customers of Axminster stand. We would have had the same position at the event that we do on the internet, able to give impartial advice and generally chat and meet. People often say when they come back from shows they didn't meet any UKW'ers, at least this way we'd have a base. Could have even asked Ian if the people that got involved could have had a 20% off voucher as a show of good will for attending.

Would have been good, I would have put my hand up had it been based at the Neunaton center.

 

[wizer]

Pete, I'm not talking about setting up a forum. So it would not be a rival in any way.

 

[Nick Gibbs]

IMO to an extent we are suffering from SLOPS here (severe loss of proprtion syndrome ) the site isnt about to vanish and 90% of the time its fine - theres the ocasional blip but the way forward is to just talk with noel, philly when we have ideas etc not to take a slesdge hammer to kill an ant

I tend to agree. The trouble with any non-Forum element of a website is finding the content and being able to afford the time and finance to manage that content. From the little I've seen, only the big players like Taunton and PW are able to do this well because they have such a huge market and lots of resources. They can offer video etc... (wouldn't we all love that). I'm sure UKW Forum could be even better, and attract more members, if it had an improved shopwindow, but the ways of achieving that are complex and risky, and you could throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Nick

 

[woodbloke]

It just needs someone to get in a huff much like Rob has done

Me sir...how very dare you sir :lol: :lol: ...but I was last night :twisted: :twisted: Even keel now though, sort of :roll: - Rob

 

[OPJ]

Going back to Rycotewood... :wink:

If Ian is prepared to offer us a stand as woodworkers (rather than the UKW forum) then, I think we could look at this differently.

What else is going to be demonstrated at this show and what isn't?

People on here, after visiting a show, will often state there is 'something' they were disappointed not to have seen; something they may have seen and liked at a previous show but, for some reason, it wasn't available this time... I'm drawing a blank on ideas but, you get the point.

I see this as an opportunity for us to fill that void as woodworkers so, could we start kicking some ideas about perhaps?

 

[wizer]

I'm drawing a blank on ideas but, you get the point.

What about turning ?

 

[big soft moose]

Pete, I'm not talking about setting up a forum. So it would not be a rival in any way.

yeah but without a forum how is it going to have any community aspect ?

It seems that what we are missing here is the ability to make quick decisions about competitions, merchandise, events etc - but these decisions need to be made here, because the forum is here and its this brand that people are commited to - they cant be made on an independent site that doesnt share the same brand.

Your commitment to UKW is admirable , and i share it - though life doesnt permit me 10-12 hours per day, but i dont underastand how setting up an independent resource site will help the underlying issues here.

The bottom line here is probably mod time ,as they all have lives too, so have you thought of volunteering as an aditional mod ? or even proposing yourself as a mod with special responsibility for "merchandise/comunity" etc decisions

 

[Noel]

.....................edit : and very quick action from noel there , tis now a point in the read this first

As the "read first" is loccked, forgive me if I ask here. I trust, and hope, Charley is not "not contactable" due to illness ?

No, he's just got other things on his plate at the moment, daresay we'll see him soon enough. He does pop in the odd time. In the mean time the place will not die, fade away, collapse or anything else. As long as there are members and members continue to contribute there shouldn't be a problem.

 

[wizer]

The bottom line here is probably mod time ,as they all have lives too, so have you thought of volunteering as an aditional mod ? or even proposing yourself as a mod with special responsibility for "merchandise/comunity" etc decisions

As it happens, I have, sort of. But it's not my place to ask to be a mod. Plus there appears to be enough of them. I'd help out with the rest of the site if that was possible. It just depends how Charley has set things up and whether he's prepared to have a slap head back whinger nosing around his server (despite my formal qualifications in web design).

 

[lurker]

its not a democracy , but a benign dictatorship

OOh nail on the head!!
Critics here confuse it with a democracy which of course would not work.

.............but back to the real subject...................

sorry sorry !!

 

[lurker]

have you thought of volunteering as an aditional mod ?

Nooooooooooooooo - I'll get banned for life :wink:

 

[Nick Gibbs]

I still don't understand why a few of you, if the offer is still there, don't stand behind a bench at Rycotewood, wearing UKW badges with a laptop to show what the Forum can do? You won't all agree on how it should be run (as is true in any organisation), but you all want it to thrive. Work out a rota, and find a bit of kit. You can borrow one of our laptops if you like, if there's Internet access.

Nick

 

[big soft moose]

I still don't understand why a few of you, if the offer is still there, don't stand behind a bench at Rycotewood, wearing UKW badges with a laptop to show what the Forum can do? You won't all agree on how it should be run (as is true in any organisation), but you all want it to thrive. Work out a rota, and find a bit of kit. You can borrow one of our laptops if you like, if there's Internet access.

Nick

Because it hasnt been given official UKW sanction (yet) ](*,) ](*,) and thus we cant plan to do anything like this on behalf of the forum without the nod from the mod team.

how would you feel if someone decided to run a stand branded as british woodworking without your consent ?

 

[wizer]

Because it hasnt been given official UKW sanction (yet) ](*,) ](*,) and thus we cant plan to do anything like this on behalf of the forum without the nod from the mod team.

..and this was the point I was trying to make from the beginning. This sort of thing should be organised by the owner of the site we are allowed to use. Ian Styles should have gone to Charley. By going to Rob he has dropped a hot potato in his lap which wasn't for Rob to handle.

I still think that Rob should go along and demonstrate. That is the solution to this problem IMHO. No one can stop him wearing a UKW badge and talking about the forum if that is what he wants to do. As long as he's not there as a representative of someone else's company.

 

[Nick Gibbs]

Because it hasnt been given official UKW sanction (yet) ](*,) ](*,) and thus we cant plan to do anything like this on behalf of the forum without the nod from the mod team.

how would you feel if someone decided to run a stand branded as british woodworking without your consent ?

Of course that's a fair point, the difference being, surely, that a Forum is set up to be a vehicle for open discussion, with soft management undertaken by mods? It's meant to be open-ended. It's meant to create its own community. That some of you wearing UKW badges choose to stand behind a laptop showing how the Forum works and how it's benefitted you hardly seems to be going to hurt anyone. Rather the opposite.

People represent my business all the time, usually with our permission. I'd be sad if someone tried to use our name to make money/advantage without our authoritiy and without our benefit, but that's unusual, and certainly not the situation in your case.

Nick

 

[Noel]

Because it hasnt been given official UKW sanction (yet) ](*,) ](*,) and thus we cant plan to do anything like this on behalf of the forum without the nod from the mod team.

..and this was the point I was trying to make from the beginning. This sort of thing should be organised by the owner of the site we are allowed to use. Ian Styles should have gone to Charley. By going to Rob he has dropped a hot potato in his lap which wasn't for Rob to handle.

I still think that Rob should go along and demonstrate. That is the solution to this problem IMHO. No one can stop him wearing a UKW badge and talking about the forum if that is what he wants to do. As long as he's not there as a representative of someone else's company.

As things stand there isn't a problem as such. If enough show interest that a bench can be manned and run effectively then it would make good sense to go ahead and organise it. If the venture becomes UKW official all and good, if it doesn't I don't think it's a big deal, it'll simply be an outdoor bash so to speak. The important part is that Ian Styles offer is taken up and that people can enjoy themselves. I daresay it would be enjoyable to go to a show ostensibly as an exhibitor rather than a paying customer.
So please, organise something and if needed I'll talk to Ian Styles about it and you can all nominate somebody to liase with Axminster, perhaps Rob, assuming he would like to join in again..

 

[woodbloke]

you can all nominate somebody to liase with Axminster, perhaps Rob, assuming he would like to join in again..

Assuming that this is the official 'nod' I'm happy to do the leg work on this one if the forum would like me to go ahead and provided we can get a quorum together - Rob

 

[Nick Gibbs]

Great. See you there.

Nick