Is there anybody there?

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Fri Apr 26, 2019 9:55 am

Hi Robert,
Looks like we're the only people here.

I'm sorry to greet the new forum with complaints, but the default font is clearly far too small given the age profile of the users. Also only seeing two lines of one's draft post is pretty unsettling. And furthermore, where have all the pictures gone? We've all spent hours uploading those and they seem to have disappeared.

I can't access the new forum from my phone which used to be my default.

What would Laurie make of all this? Can we have the old forum back please?

Peter Boxer · Post by **Peter Boxer** » Fri Apr 26, 2019 2:31 pm

Yes, Stephen, it's all a bit strange - unnecessarily wide, and much too shallow (too much space taken up by the 'header')...and as you say, no pictures, and odd font-size choices (e.g. here, above, the font for 'Default' and 'Normal' are enormous, while none of the 'clicks' in the row above these are centred; and the typed-text font-size is miniscule!

Hrrmmpphhh!!

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Fri Apr 26, 2019 3:00 pm

Hi Peter. I'm pleased a few more posters are managing to break in. I'm spared what is referred to in equestrian circles as "separation anxiety".

The update looks like the work of a hawk-eyed twenty-something. A far better use of resources would have been to add a spell checker to the old forum and then leave well alone.

The big grey circle nearly gives me a heart attack when it flashes up on the screen. Perhaps they thought we needed livening up a bit?

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Fri Apr 26, 2019 3:40 pm

I've just read Full Throttle 114, noted the need for patience and followed the intructions which got me to this screen;
At this point, I would like to show you a screenshot of The Porsche GB website, however the forum currently has no image directory to upload it into. Luckily I am, as our second Relate counsellor observed, "a very patient man".

Paul Bennett · Post by **Paul Bennett** » Fri Apr 26, 2019 5:52 pm

I have always found others' technical photos, (going back years on the forum) to be a useful reference source.

Suddenly, none of the pictures seem to accompany the previous posts.
Does this mean that some geek has accidentally deleted them all, or is there a secret mode of access?

Also, this dialogue box is frustratingly small to compose in and why do I have to log in twice every time now?

I much preferred the Laurie Fox version.

This is not the club I joined!

Paul Bennett · Post by **Paul Bennett** » Fri Apr 26, 2019 6:00 pm

Having been unable access others' photos for reference today, I just wrote a critique of this inferior new forum, only to be informed "could not access host" or words to that effect!
So my original message has been spirited into the ether.

Doesn't feel very clubbish!

Paul Bennett · Post by **Paul Bennett** » Fri Apr 26, 2019 6:05 pm

Finding it impossible to post a reply to this topic, so there probably are people out there like me who can no longer speak to the forum?

Paul Bennett · Post by **Paul Bennett** » Fri Apr 26, 2019 6:24 pm

Oops!
Now I see that all three of my previous frustrated attempts have gone on the forum, even though it kept saying "could not connect to host" or similar!
Why "fix things that aren't broke" and why annoy members?

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Fri Apr 26, 2019 7:35 pm

Oh No!!!!! Now we've got people signing up with silly names.
Talk about don't know what you've got 'till it's gone.
Somebody should use that in a song.

Christopher Carnley · Post by **Christopher Carnley** » Sat Apr 27, 2019 8:45 am

"The new always comes in with a sense of outrage" , get over it and move on.
We should amalgamate with the RREC and prop the ailing old sods up.
I get separation anxiety every time that I go out on a miserable cold day.

Charles Skinner · Post by **Charles Skinner** » Sat Apr 27, 2019 12:04 pm

I am loathe to negatively criticise new efforts and understand of course that gremlins are almost inevitable. Unfortunately though, this new site is fundamentally flawed in terms of ease of access, searchability and user-friendliness. I joined the club for its forum, which I had always found most helpful. Without meaningful improvements, or ideally re-adoption of the previous forum I see little point in continued membership.

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Sat Apr 27, 2019 1:51 pm

Indeed, we in the East Midlands region have a policy of not criticising volunteers, which we often comply with, however there are limits.

I’m feeling a very strong sense of loss. Fortunately I will be having dinner with an NHS psychotherapist later, so can explore the changes to the forum with her.

It seems to me that this forum does a lot less than the previous one, and offers nothing new to compensate for that. The appearance is plain ugly. I’m curious about how it got signed off as fit for purpose? As a minimum, it is to be hoped that the photographs can be reinstated along with the ability to post new photographs, which is currently not possible.

I wonder if it would help if we were to compile a wish-list?

Post by **Paul Spencer** » Sun Apr 28, 2019 10:47 am

Well, I am (was) forum manager, but nobody told me this was happening and I had no input, so I guess I am not now. I imagine the problems can be fixed easily enough. The picture posting could be just a case of creating a directory and copying the old content.

Paul

Paul

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Sun Apr 28, 2019 12:19 pm

Hi Paul,
Well thank you for giving up your time to manage the forum thus far. It's brought a lot of pleasure to its rather select band of users. Quality rather than quantity, perhaps?
FWIW, the interface is slightly better on the phone (working now) than the computer. I note that the club shop has also lost its images. A bit of a work in progress, then?
Was it Laurie's idea that we use our names on here? I can remember Alan posting as Bensport decades ago, so we've had silly names before but it wouldn't help my sense of loss if we were to lose the present protocol.
Rum do.

Post by **Paul Spencer** » Sun Apr 28, 2019 7:39 pm

Yes, I think it was Laurie. I like that we see real names, but I note that you can now change your user name. Is the forum linked from the main site? I couldn't find it (I am using a tablet).

Iain Warner · Post by **Iain Warner** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 10:15 am

The only way I have found my way onto the new forum was to type 'forum' into the search box. I assume there is a more straight forward method but it so far eludes me. Can anyone advise?
The type does seem very small but I assume that this is all work in progress and that the layout will be sorted out in due course..
Iain

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 9:19 pm

There's a link from "The Club" drop down menu.

I'm still getting;

General Error
Image-directory doesn't exist.

When I try to post a picture.

Iain Warner · Post by **Iain Warner** » Tue Apr 30, 2019 10:07 am

Thanks Stephen, now found 'The Club' when I scroll to the bottom of the home page.
How did you get your font to enlarge then shrink back down again?

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Wed May 01, 2019 1:05 pm

It's a bit of a faff. Given the tiny text box we're provided in which to create our posts, and the lack of spell checking, I have resorted to typing posts in a word document then copy 'n pasting them into the forum.
Having got your text in the input box/slot by whatever means, you highlight the lot by holding down the control key and hitting a on the keyboard (Ctrl A) to select all, then you can alter the font size and colour with the dialog boxes above the text slot. There may be quicker ways of achieving the same thing.

Robert Craven · Post by **Robert Craven** » Thu May 02, 2019 9:55 am

A quicker way of achieving the same thing would be to have a properly designed forum and not to have altered the layout that worked well.
I achieved this size print by highlighting my post and using the font size menu.

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Thu May 02, 2019 12:40 pm

Agreed!

The danger with manually highlighting your post in order to change the font size is that you might only highlight part of it, hence my suggestion to use Ctrl A (select all) to be sure of getting the lot.

I now find that I am required to login twice whenever I want to access the forum, whereas before I stayed logged in contunuously so logging in was very rare indeed.

Mark Taxis · Post by **Mark Taxis** » Fri May 03, 2019 6:23 am

The small red coloured font is hard to read for old farts like me

Al Coutts · Post by **Al Coutts** » Fri May 03, 2019 8:44 am

And to continue this whinge-athon: I cant seem to send a PM! And I seem to have lost the history. Stephen B - I had tried to send something to you....

Christopher Carnley · Fri May 03, 2019 10:05 am

I,ve got new specs, in Japanese titanium frames.

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Fri May 03, 2019 11:19 am

Chris,

You’ll need your new specs for this site. The aerospace frames should knock about a millionth of a second off your standing quarter.

Al, I would suggest you get my email address off the club’s membership database which I have found very useful in the past, however last time I looked, that wasn’t working either.

Maybe you could email me? Try alcoutts @ stephenblakey dot co dot uk.

While I’ve got your attention, did you see the old Frost cast iron English Wheel on ebay? My big Chinese Wheel is gonna need some serious girders welded onto it before it can be used in anger, so I’m sure you’re right to hold out for the real thing.

Also, I wonder if what is missing from your life is an abandoned R-R Meteor engined MKVI special? It also comes with a B81. BDC member Viv Mitchell is looking to sell and has asked if I know anyone who might be interested.

Christopher Carnley · Fri May 03, 2019 11:52 am

GAWD NO!. They start as such good ideas. I have £1000.00 of c106 5mm copper sheet here and have only made rough cuts as yet. The rolling machine comes first but I refuse to buy one for a one off.
The maturing 2018 cider is maturing nicely, so bring a couple of clean coistrels.

John Murch · Post by **John Murch** » Sat May 04, 2019 9:01 pm

Fascinating, today is the first time that I have been able to actually see any postings at all. I am still finding the route to the forum to be difficult, but I expect I will get used to it!
I haven’t tried posting a photo.

John Murch · Post by **John Murch** » Sat May 04, 2019 9:07 pm

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John Murch · Post by **John Murch** » Sat May 04, 2019 9:14 pm

Very strange, when I posted the above pic, I got an error message saying it couldn’t do it, but I can see it! Perhaps the wrinkles are being ironed out.

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Tue May 14, 2019 8:58 pm

It's good to see that improvements are being made to the forum software. The font has increased in size, as has the dialog box that we type in. Also there is a spell checker, possibly for the first time, which is a great help.

It's still frustrating that the legacy photographs aren't visible. If posters look in their "gallery" they will note that their images are still there; 390 in my case, so there is still hope that they can be reunited with the messages that they have become disconnected from.

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Wed May 15, 2019 9:38 pm

Great photo, John.
Do you park one car above another and, if so, how do you cope with the drips?
Stephen

John Murch · Post by **John Murch** » Thu May 16, 2019 4:58 pm

I only have one car! And you wouldn’t want to park under it.
As my house could flood, the lift is there to keep the car out of trouble and does make life so much easier doing sundry works.

Al Coutts · Post by **Al Coutts** » Thu May 16, 2019 6:54 pm

That garage looks purpose built around the lift! Maybe a house on a hill would have been easier!

John Murch · Post by **John Murch** » Fri May 17, 2019 11:06 am

Haha, Easier and no doubt, cheaper to build. But then it would have been a long walk to get to the river and my other toys

Paul Bennett · Post by **Paul Bennett** » Fri May 17, 2019 4:32 pm

Stephen

I can't see who is on the forum any more, which detracts from the previous sense of being part of a community.
Is anybody there!?

Re. pictures; how does one access the "gallery" you mention?
Is this just for the poster, or can others' pictures be accessed?

For example, you posted some very upsetting pictures of a Mk VI being desecrated not long ago.
I tried to find them to see if there is just one sunroof drainpipe, or two, as I have only ever noticed one on the offside on B143WG. Perhaps there is another which has been welded up in antiquity, (like the apertures for the trafficators when someone added flashing ones, probably in the 60's?)
regards
Paul

Paul Bennett · Post by **Paul Bennett** » Fri May 17, 2019 4:39 pm

Just realised that the forum shows GMT, not BST.
So people are there an hour later than indicated!

Christopher Carnley · Post by **Christopher Carnley** » Fri May 17, 2019 5:31 pm

One sunroof drain on each corner, usually badly rusted with a hard perished bit of rubber tube, or chewb as is the parlance!

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Fri May 17, 2019 7:59 pm

Paul Bennett wrote:Stephen

I can't see who is on the forum any more, which detracts from the previous sense of being part of a community.
Is anybody there!?

I miss that too.

Paul Bennett wrote:Re. pictures; how does one access the "gallery" you mention?
Is this just for the poster, or can others' pictures be accessed?

I got to the gallery option whilst posting a photograph. I guess that means those pictures are only accessible to the original poster. We really need the images reunited with the posts they belong to.

Paul Bennett wrote:For example, you posted some very upsetting pictures of a Mk VI being desecrated not long ago.
I tried to find them to see if there is just one sunroof drainpipe, or two, as I have only ever noticed one on the offside on B143WG. Perhaps there is another which has been welded up in antiquity, (like the apertures for the trafficators when someone added flashing ones, probably in the 60's?)
regards
Paul

I’m sorry the pictures upset you and hope you’ve recovered from the trauma. If it’s any consolation that car was way beyond economic restoration. The chassis is being fitted with a triple SU’d FB60 in the hope that the new owner can take the six-cylinder fight the Paul Forty. As Chris has pointed out, there are four copper roof drains.

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Fri May 17, 2019 8:01 pm

The larger font is better on the desktop PC, however it is hopeless on my windows phone. Now, I only get to see the left half of the messages. Anyone else having the same problem?

John Murch · Post by **John Murch** » Sat May 18, 2019 4:47 am

Stephen Blakey wrote:The larger font is better on the desktop PC, however it is hopeless on my windows phone. Now, I only get to see the left half of the messages. Anyone else having the same problem?

I have the same problem on my iPhone, obviously improved by turning it sideways but even then the far right of the message cannot be viewed.

Post by **Paul Spencer** » Sat May 18, 2019 3:34 pm

Same on my Samsung tablet.

Ron Warmington · Post by **Ron Warmington** » Sun May 19, 2019 3:48 pm

Hi chaps...the Main Committee is being informed about this right now. It (the Forum) is clearly not right yet. Ian Henderson, the Club’s IT Head, is listening to Directors’ and Regional Chairmen’s observations as I write this. Don’t hesitate to report whatever you find to Helen Deeley at Club Office. Send screen shots if you can. Cheers. Ron.

Post by **Paul Spencer** » Fri May 24, 2019 9:46 am

Can anyone get the search to work? I tried searching for an author and nothing happened.

Stephen Blakey · Post by **Stephen Blakey** » Fri May 24, 2019 4:09 pm

Me too

John Murch · Post by **John Murch** » Fri May 24, 2019 7:02 pm

I can’t see a search function of any kind!

John Murch · Post by **John Murch** » Sat May 25, 2019 5:47 am

I feel sorry for the committee, I’m sure that they were given to understand that the ‘new’ forum would be fully functional from the start.
Didn’t the IT people do any testing?

Christopher Carnley · Post by **Christopher Carnley** » Sat May 25, 2019 8:21 am

It might be that T.V mob.

John Murch · Post by **John Murch** » Sat May 25, 2019 10:25 am

I managed to see the ‘search’ button, I assume it was always there but due to old age".........
I tried searching on a word and author, both now seem to work, whoopeee!