BENTLEY DRIVERS CLUB FORUM

I have only been a member of the BDC for a couple of years now and I have to admit that I am flummoxed that there is so little activity on this forum.I have asked a couple of questions and also read many other enquiries that have had no replies.
What a complete difference to the RR forums who willingly give as much help and info very quickly.
This must also be the first post on here for at least 4 weeks now.
I have to admit that I am extremely disappointed and am not sure that I wish to remain a member.
Maybe there is another Bentley club that do not put social activities above all else.

Philip
My thoughts exactly. I am a member of the RREC and am a regular user of the forum, particularly for pre-war technical queries. I have been a member of the BDC for less than a year and am not very impressed by the members' use of this forum. I am a member of the BDC East Midlands Section and have yet to receive a welcome message from them. We have gone to quite a few Midlands Section lunches but getting to know people is a real uphill struggle, unlike the very friendly RREC. We've booked to go on a BDC tour so I'll be making my mind up about remaining a BDC member after that.

Yes, I too agree totally. RREC beckons. Charles

General apathy, when you post something, nobody responds.

I can remember telling Laurie Fox that it was a dead duck.

It seems to me that the lack of response is usually in respect of topics relating to the more modern cars, questions on pre pre T type usual get replies.

Then no one responds.

The RREC is in a mess at the moment, with undemocratic, peevish, and spiteful activities.

I have never seen the forum used as little as it is at the moment. I think this is to some extent due to the technical changes. From my point of view as as Android tablet user, it is harder to log in than it was and many of the features have stopped working. It's a shame as I used to log in every day and there was usually something worth reading or contributing to.

I had been waiting to see if it went for a whole month before launching a similar observation.

For a club with so many members the situation on the forum really is a joke, and since the way of further expansion could be via this chat, I cannot understand the apathy shown by headquarters.

Further thought after the usual error message when trying to post.

If the technicalities involved were not so graphic a demonstration of total ineptitude, maybe more folk would be tempted to post.

Cheers, John

It is a great shame that the club office does not monitor the forum (I was advised by a staff member that they do not), recent postings show that some new members are unhappy and will doubtless not renew.

I have spoken to Nick Wilkes who is going to take action with the Forum supplier to rectify the fault.
With respect to the lack of activity on the Forum, we have only the members to blame. How can we improve the situation?

I am disappointed with the content of the Review. There is very little, if any, technical writing such as description of cars and restoration. Maybe BDC stands for Bentley Dining Club? Of course, as with the Forum, the editor can only print what he is sent.

Is that so?

Go to the welcome page, look at what it says, and find any mention on that page that the club has a forum.

Cheers, John

John
It appears on the Member Benefits page.

I know that, my point is, how many prospective users of the forum know it?

It’s as if the club is ashamed to have a forum, isn’t it?

Most things in which I have some involvement direct prospective signers-up to their forum pages in an easy to spot manner.

I think interest in the forum started to deteriorate when the not so bright idea of changing the format occurred a couple of years ago. Up until then it was a mine of information and of course, Laurie Fox input at all levels elevated it to an important technical resource for all models. A great shame we have come to this.

Looks like the paralysis has set in again.

I have this old decorated pot to remind me.

"Wouldn't your life be very flat,
With nothing whatever,
To grumble at"?

Would you like to post a photo of that very interesting POT.
again I was told that an error occurred unable to post etc.

Have now spent a few hours perusing RREC fora and found there to be considerably more gen. and advice than BDC's, although I stress that I have found the latter's helpful over the four years since I joined. I am interested only in technical support and not social events, having more than enough in my diary already. Each to their own....Charles

Hi chaps... sorry I’ve been absent from the Forum for so long. I’m deeply concerned at the comments I’ve read here. But I don’t think there are too many technical issues. Are there? I went straight into the Forum and didn’t even have to put in an ID and Password. The design requirement is that, once a Member has signed into the BDC Website, one click should be all it needs to get into the Forum. And all my devices remember my ID and Password so hopping in is easy peasy.

Hi chaps... sorry I’ve been absent from the Forum for so long. I’m deeply concerned at the comments I’ve read here. But I don’t think there are too many technical issues. Are there? I went straight into the Forum and didn’t even have to put in an ID and Password. The design requirement is that, once a Member has signed into the BDC Website, one click should be all it needs to get into the Forum. And all my devices remember my ID and Password so hopping in is easy peasy.

Hi chaps... sorry I’ve been absent from the Forum for so long. I’m deeply concerned at the comments I’ve read here. But I don’t think there are too many technical issues. Are there? I went straight into the Forum and didn’t even have to put in an ID and Password. The design requirement is that, once a Member has signed into the BDC Website, one click should be all it needs to get into the Forum. And all my devices remember my ID and Password so hopping in is easy peasy.

That said, as I tried to post THIS item, I received a message saying that I’m not allowed to post a new item so soon after one I’ve just uploaded. I suppose that’s to stop hackers trying to create a ‘Denial of Service’ attack by sending in thousands of messages in order to crash a website.

Hi chaps... sorry I’ve been absent from the Forum for so long. I’m deeply concerned at the comments I’ve read here. But I don’t think there are too many technical issues. Are there? I went straight into the Forum and didn’t even have to put in an ID and Password. The design requirement is that, once a Member has signed into the BDC Website, one click should be all it needs to get into the Forum. And all my devices remember my ID and Password so hopping in is easy peasy.

That said, as I tried to post THIS item, I received a message saying that I’m not allowed to post a new item so soon after one I’ve just uploaded. I suppose that’s to stop hackers trying to create a ‘Denial of Service’ attack by sending in thousands of messages in order to crash a website.

Hi chaps... sorry I’ve been absent from the Forum for so long. I’m deeply concerned at the comments I’ve read here. But I don’t think there are too many technical issues. Are there? I went straight into the Forum and didn’t even have to put in an ID and Password. The design requirement is that, once a Member has signed into the BDC Website, one click should be all it needs to get into the Forum. And all my devices remember my ID and Password so hopping in is easy peasy.

That said, as I tried to post THIS item, I received a message saying that I’m not allowed to post a new item so soon after one I’ve just uploaded. I suppose that’s to stop hackers trying to create a ‘Denial of Service’ attack by sending in thousands of messages in order to crash a website.

Hi chaps... sorry I’ve been absent from the Forum for so long. I’m deeply concerned at the comments I’ve read here. But I don’t think there are too many technical issues. Are there? I went straight into the Forum and didn’t even have to put in an ID and Password. The design requirement is that, once a Member has signed into the BDC Website, one click should be all it needs to get into the Forum. And all my devices remember my ID and Password so hopping in is easy peasy.

That said, as I tried to post THIS item, I received a message saying that I’m not allowed to post a new item so soon after one I’ve just uploaded. I suppose that’s to stop hackers trying to create a ‘Denial of Service’ attack by sending in thousands of messages in order to crash a website.

Hi chaps... sorry I’ve been absent from the Forum for so long. I’m deeply concerned at the comments I’ve read here. But I don’t think there are too many technical issues. Are there? I went straight into the Forum and didn’t even have to put in an ID and Password. The design requirement is that, once a Member has signed into the BDC Website, one click should be all it needs to get into the Forum. And all my devices remember my ID and Password so hopping in is easy peasy.

That said, as I tried to post THIS item, I received a message saying that I’m not allowed to post a new item so soon after one I’ve just uploaded. I suppose that’s to stop hackers trying to create a ‘Denial of Service’ attack by sending in thousands of messages in order to crash a website.

Hmmm! Interesting! Ron, you have posted the same message seven times, but I'm sure you didn't mean to. This clearly shows that the Forum is still not working correctly. I have complained about this to HQ, but still nothing is done.

Hi chaps... sorry I’ve been absent from the Forum for so long. I’m deeply concerned at the comments I’ve read here. But I don’t think there are too many technical issues. Are there? I went straight into the Forum and didn’t even have to put in an ID and Password. The design requirement is that, once a Member has signed into the BDC Website, one click should be all it needs to get into the Forum. And all my devices remember my ID and Password so hopping in is easy peasy.

That said, as I tried to post THIS item, I received a message saying that I’m not allowed to post a new item so soon after one I’ve just uploaded. I suppose that’s to stop hackers trying to create a ‘Denial of Service’ attack by sending in thousands of messages in order to crash a website.

I and no doubt others have learned that the error message which suggests your posting has been unsuccessful, can be ignored.
This has been advised to the club office by myself and others on a number of occasions.

Plus ça change??

Unless, perhaps, Ron is teasing us with a little joke!

Cheers,
John

Now that it has been decided to cancel all social meetings, a wise decision, can we expect the spare time gained be used to sort out the mess of a web site, with the Forum the main culprit.
One can only assume this comment will be read by those who should.They will have time on their hands after all.

I was advised when I last contacted the office regarding the error message when posting, that the office do not monitor the forum at all. In my view a mistake.

Well I can only ask, what do they do in that office, especially now that all meetings etc are cancelled.

In the guff at the front of the club website is quoted the following factoid: -

“A club of almost 4,000 members.”

During my days working in the engineering industry in commercial departments I was generally in close contact with the estimators, a breed apart if ever there was one. A favourite comment on introduction of any suggested company cost price was “is that an estimate or a w-a-g?”

(w stands for wild, g stands for guess, put any suitable word in to replace the a)

A w-a-g on the quantity of respondents to this forum could be fewer than 100. (Well fewer.)

It seems from the above remarks to the forum from elsewhere that the powers that be think that this forum is well enough publicised, and easy enough to find, to those who are not regular contributors.

I don’t agree.

Cheers John

As I stated above, I spoke to Nick Wilkes almost a month ago and he promised to get the issue sorted, and now Ron Warmington has fallen foul of the issue big time, but still nothing is done. Do they care?

I have reported many faults that have not been addressed. These include the login on Android devices and the fact that the indicator of new posts since last logging in does not work correctly. Personally I find it amazing that, as the administrator before this last set of changes, I was not even told that the change was happening, let alone being given a chance to test it. Currently, there is no active administrator.

Well not sure if it has any hidden meaning, but todays email from our esteemed Chairman went direct to my Junk folder, should I take that as a guide.
It did point out that the club is financially sound, we are all pleased to hear this.

Perhaps we all should email Richard Parkinson individually with our views and thoughts about the clubs web site and any other subject that stirs your thoughts.
Please include sensible ways of improving things, rather than just moan.

I have already made my suggestion to start the improvements Mr Edginton, and the seed did not germinate, so I’ll do it again: -

Place a clear and easily understandable one click direction to the Forum on the first page seen by anyone who Googles “Bentley Drivers Club”.

As I have said before, it is almost as if the Management is ashamed to be associated with such things.

Cheers
John

Well in the present climate, there should be time to spend on this website/forum and not have to worry about slopping gravy off the fork.
Maybe I ask too much.