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Post by Catriona on Oct 23, 2002 10:13:54 GMT
Think this is the most important question about the site just now... do we use this board, or the Knockhill one? Both have got their pros and cons, it seems... the Knockhill one's already well-established, with 70-odd other sites linked to it already, and it's a better-quality board overall, with more features, and rather more sensible arrangements for the smilies, but the server is horrendously unreliable, as the past couple of weeks have shown, and also takes forever to get into... considering the club racing-type people are a pretty small group, it's rather annoying finding there's too many people online to be let in! Also, as it's such a small group, there's no moderation on the forum, or at least not from anyone who actually contributes to the forum... Iain's the nearest to a moderator we've got, and although he's Scottish, he doesn't seem to take a huge interest in the club racing - here, myself and KF can run the board and be online pretty often, while also knowing the people here pretty well, so we can hopefully make more informed decisions if any situation that requires moderation should arise. Maybe I'm a bit power-hungry or something ( ), but I'd like to have a decent say in how the board's run, and I don't hold out much hope of becoming even a junior moderator on the other board, even if I had the cheek to ask, especially as I'm going to make sure they know exactly how impressed I am by their server! Basically, I'm inclined towards using this board, as it can be pretty much tailored towards our requirements - it's limited by what's available, but if it turns out to be popular enough, I may well look into getting vBulletin and creating a fully independent board anyway... however, I don't really want to go into competition with Knockhill, and, without the server problems, I'd have happily used the other board - what does everyone else think? If we decide to go with this board, I'd still want people to keep using the Knockhill board too, but obviously not to the extent that this one's virtually dead... there's basically no point using this one if people don't sign up, but I am hoping the easier access (hopefully no "The server is too busy" error messages here! ) might encourage more people to join in, so if the regulars on the Knockhill board are prepared to join in with two forums rather than just one, I think this could be the way to go... Opinions, anyone?
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Post by Mike Hogg on Oct 23, 2002 11:49:10 GMT
I'm in agreement with GR on this one - the server the other forum is on seems to be crank-handle operated at the best of times and is just way too slow (when it works!). The SMRC Club Racing fans and drivers are a specialised group and as such I think they warrant their own forum away from such a monolithic board.
Not that I'm going to stop using it of course - it's just that it doesn't seem to work most of the time. :evilgrin:
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Post by Catriona on Oct 23, 2002 12:27:36 GMT
I know exactly what you mean about this being a specialised group - there can't be much more than about a dozen of us in the Knockhill forum, really, which makes it all the more frustrating when I want to look at it and find the server's too busy! :rolleyes: As well as that issue, I like to think we've formed almost a small community on that board, and I'd like to extend and improve on that, by making it a more distinct community, with a forum system all of our own - you can already see I've created a few individual boards on here, rather than everything being piled into one forum, and I'd hope we can maybe attract some more members than the other board has, through actually being accessible! I'm remembering what John Findlay said when the subject of a club racing website first came up, about wanting it to be a central point for the club racing community - well, I think having an individual forum system run by club racing fans, and dedicated to club racing in general, may well be the best way to go. The other board seems to have become a victim of its own succes lately, and I think a small group like us, largely isolated from the rest of the forum anyway, might well be better off going our own way, whilst not abandoning the other board altogether, as it certainly has its good points. Having said all this, if the majority of people want to stick with the Knockhill board, then I'll go with that decision - I think this board has the potential to be more suited to our needs, though
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Post by RocketRacer on Oct 26, 2002 20:24:14 GMT
hi GR & KF i've joined the forum as you can see by my posting on here, i like the idea of using the two forums.( not at the same time). as the other one at present covers loads more racing stuff i like to keep up with.
will be adding too my favourites so it's even easier to find??.
rocket racer
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Post by Catriona on Oct 27, 2002 18:18:02 GMT
Glad you like it, Gary - the idea's to keep using the other board a bit as well, for general Knockhill stuff, but to hopefully have this one running for the group of us that's gathered together on the Knockhill board over the past few months, so hopefully to keep both boards going ok And having seen the amazingly helpful and polite attitude of the moderators on the other board (see the smilie problem thread in their feedback forum :rolleyes: ), I'm even more convinced we need a board of our own. I'm well capable of sarcasm at times, I know, but I'd hope I'd make a touch more effort to see other people's point of view! :angryfire: (Not wanting to slag off the other board too much - I'm just a bit pissed off at the moment... )
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Post by Catriona on Oct 27, 2002 18:19:16 GMT
Oops - forgot about the censoring! Guess I maybe shouldn't be doing posts that'll get censored... setting a bad example and all
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Post by Catriona on Oct 28, 2002 20:13:59 GMT
Due to feedback from a Motorsport Forums moderator, we have decided that we will stick with this board and not join the Motorsport Forums partner program.
Apologies for not waiting for more of you to register your opinions, but it has been made clear to us that at least one senior moderator there will not be making us at all welcome.
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Post by speedyV on Oct 29, 2002 0:03:21 GMT
Not asking for names here, but that stinks a bit? If this group is going to be more relevant (and more importantly looked after), I don't see where they should take an attitude. (After all, there is more to life than forums - i think ) Choosing between the two I'll plump for this one, and eventually all the people interested in SCR will find it and probably use it. Not big on analogies, but I hope this doesn't end up like CART v IRL
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Post by Mike Hogg on Oct 29, 2002 0:15:18 GMT
Pretty sure it won't end up in a CART v IRL type thing cos we'll still use the Knockhill Forum, it's just after recent events we'd prefer not to link the site to it. It's not a huge loss to the other board as this is a minority website in the grand scale of things. We don't want to make people choose between the boards as both can co-exist easily, we just hope people will join this one as well. Thanks for the support.
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Post by Charlie on Oct 29, 2002 21:34:08 GMT
Hi Guys,
Found you at last.
I vote for this forum as first stop and Knockhill for everything else.
I liked the sense of friendship and community we had found and like everyone else it got right up my nose when I could not get online to get my twopenceworth in.:banghead:
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Post by Charlie on Oct 29, 2002 21:50:31 GMT
Apologies for not waiting for more of you to register your opinions, but it has been made clear to us that at least one senior moderator there will not be making us at all welcome. Just a suggestion, but with the other board being down so often I'd stopped checking it as much, why not go back for the last 30/100 days on the Knockhill forum and using the contributors profile addresses email them our new location. If each of us takes a two week period we could have the word out in an evening. If you think thats the way to go then I'll do the first two weeks in September. If we each make a list and then send it to KF or GR they could email everyone when the list is complete. That way all our regular contributors would know of our new forum and could make there own choice. Good/Bad Idea.......let me know. Charlie:up:
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Post by Catriona on Oct 29, 2002 22:02:35 GMT
Not wanting to criticise the other forum too much, but I know exactly what you mean about the frustration of not being able to get online... I was cursing their server for over two weeks before it finally came back! Apparently it'll be better in the future, but I'm a sceptical kind of person, so I'll believe it when I see it Glad you liked the community spirit, too - that was what I loved best about the Knockhill board on the other forum (I found the rest of it had got a bit too popular for my liking, as I didn't know most people there ), and hopefully we can recreate that over here, once people find it Good thinking on the e-mails, too - we've contacted all the regulars among the drivers (the gaggle of XR2 people plus Julian Taylor), and Gary and speedyvic had already found us before that, but there may well be a few people we've missed out.... not too sure how many others there are, but if anyone notices anyone missing, then please do let either myself or KF know
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Post by Mike Hogg on Oct 29, 2002 22:30:13 GMT
Yup, we figured letting the regulars know about the board was a good idea - a lot of people probably don't know about it yet through giving up waiting for the old board to come back on line again!! Next step is to let the less regular members know about it - which I'm currently in the process of doing. Basically speaking, you're on the ball, Charlie!
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Post by Blair on Nov 9, 2002 0:14:12 GMT
Just checking in here, but I must say I like this forum better already. It has a much warmer feel, much smaller and more welcoming, and sorry for putting this bluntly, but you aint a bunch of wankers like them yonder, stamping your size 16 feet all over the shop. I would definitely say this site and forum has potential as it's really one of the first on this subject. Have you looked at getting a shorter domain, like my btcc.isfabulous.com site? You could have a www.scr.mainpage.net for example I believe, be much easier to remember. And BTW, if I get racing, and u get the decals, I will stick the URL on my car for free, thats a promise!
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Post by Mike Hogg on Nov 9, 2002 0:59:11 GMT
and sorry for putting this bluntly, but you aint a bunch of wankers like them yonder, stamping your size 16 feet all over the shop. No comment
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