'Club together'

[Parksy]

I'm sure some other CC members will have found this addition to the CC website - I've just joined and found several familiar friendly names.
There must be something about caravan related forums - CT seems to have many of the access problems we've experienced here over the years.

Some years ago I suggested to CC that they should take part in the PCV forum particularly to give their take on a number of criticisms current at the time. Their reply indicated that they did not feel forums were an appropriate vehicle for member communication. (To the purists, I'm not comfortable with 'forums' as the plural either but only suffered a few hours of Latin and that some 60 years ago).

I'm a little sorry to see 'CT' seems to think we need badges and stars to enhance our caravanning egos, but this concept appears fairly common with other forums apart from PCV where a fair degree of freedom with avatars and sign-ons is much more in the spirit of things.

So have a look - you do not have to be a CC member for most sections. You may even find some of us expressing different views than in PCV - probably due to advancing years.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

I hadn't noticed that they had set up a forum although I do recall in a survey saying it would be nice to have a forum. I've just tried to take a look but guess what, they are having difficulty with the site

Somehow I don't think it will last long because I expect some will use it as a platform to moan about the usual gripes like wardens, fully booked weekends but empty during the week, no shows etc.

 

[Parksy]

Hi Ray, I've just had a look and registered although I'm not a CC member, because I like to see what is the latest 'hot topic' and read what people think.
I'm not sure where CT comes into it, I've always regarded Caravan Talk as an excellent caravan forum with a good knowledge base but all internet forums are at the mercy of the cyber gremlins, those 21st century descendants of the old World War 2 gremlins that sometimes grounded Spitfires and no doubt they will soon sort out any issues that they may have.
They prefer to use a post count system on CT which we do not because all posts on this forum are equally valuable to us whether from a complete novice to touring or a 25 year veteran, but each to their own and the world would be a poorer place if everyone was the same.
The Caravan Club have i.m.o. made a wise move because all of the 'moans' could possibly be kept in one place controlled by themselves and they have a free of charge instant focus group which will let them know how their policies and decisions are being received by club members almost instantaneously
Congratulations to the Caravan Club and I wish their new Club Together forum every success.

 

[ValA.]

I've just tried, and I can't get it to 'Submit' a post, despite trying several times. It does recognise that I'm logged in, but doesn't accept the post!
I wish them every success, though, and at least it does open up the 'closed' club to comments from both members and non-members, which can only be a good thing!

 

[DavidKlyne]

The Caravan Club 'Community had its 'soft' launch on 24th January although you will see some post prior to this date so when it was launched the headings were populated with a few posts. The idea being to have a gentle build up rather than a big bang approach. Although even with this soft launch it has caused a few difficulties which results in what Val has just described. At the moment it is also fairly slow. Obviously they are working to sort this out before they give it a lot more publicity. As I understand it Practical Caravan is an in house design as is the Caravan Club forum and I think even here problems were experienced initially but are fine now. Its difficult to compare to the likes of CT2 (and others) because they based on IP Boards which are essentually ready made forums which you then embellish. I don't agree about the stars and post numbers because you can see at a glance how experienced that member is. Also if someone is new it would also mean that you might be gentler with them if they don't get it right first time.
David

 

[NigelDonnelly]

David Klyne,

Not that it matters, but the PC forum is a forum module which comes with the Drupal CMS that the whole site is built on - the previous generation of the site had a bespoke piece of software. The same software is used by our sister websites at www.gramophone.co.uk and www.whathifi.com

Cheers

 

[RogerL]

I don't agree about the stars and post numbers because you can see at a glance how experienced that member is. Also if someone is new it would also mean that you might be gentler with them if they don't get it right first time.

There's no correlation between number of posts under that specific forum name and a contributors experience of caravanning - it simply shows the number of contributions to that forum in that name.
There are many low-score contributors who are exceedingly experienced caravanners and there are a number of contributors using several ID's.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

What I've noticed is when selecting a topic with many postings it takes you to page one, the first post, instead of the latest.

 

[DavidKlyne]

David Klyne,

Not that it matters, but the PC forum is a forum module which comes with the Drupal CMS that the whole site is built on - the previous generation of the site had a bespoke piece of software. The same software is used by our sister websites at www.gramophone.co.uk and www.whathifi.com

Cheers

Nigel

I do wonder if they went to the same place for advice as it looks very similar to the Practical Caravan Forum?

David

 

[Parksy]

......... I don't agree about the stars and post numbers because you can see at a glance how experienced that member is. Also if someone is new it would also mean that you might be gentler with them if they don't get it right first time.
David

I use CT2 from time to time and to be honest I've never particularly noticed these stars and numbers and place little or no value on them anyway because they are not i.m.o a true indicator of the writers experience.
A forum member might have the maximum number of stars but perhaps they always buy a brand new caravan every three years so they never carry out any caravan d-i-y.
Conversely the person with the high post count might enjoy maintaining older or classic caravans and might never consider buying new.
A relative newcomer might have recently purchased a brand new caravan and will have valid points to contribute to a forum with regard to their recent buying experience, what sort of service they received from the dealer etc.
As I mentioned, each to their own and CT2 is a top caravan forum so if they want to indicate a post count that's their choice because it does not detract from their forum.
I wouldn't like to see post counts on Practical Caravan though.

 

[DavidKlyne]

Steve

I am sure we all have our views on ratings and post counts. For some forums its part and parcel of the package, although I am sure it can be disabled if someone is clever enough. For me the post count is important (not mine but others!) as it does give an indication of how much that person takes part in the forum and from a moderation point of view a post count of one and the promotion of some product/website automatically flags up a possible problem. Most forums also don't add to post counts in what I call the rubbish sections of the forums so it does show those that contribute most to the mainstream sections of the forum. I am not advocating Practical Caravan should follow that route but even some forums in the Haymarket empire do use a post count facility. I am happy to accept that quantity does not automatically translate to quality but from my experience there are only a minority of members that fit into that category.
David

 

[Parksy]

Hi David
I'd agree that post counts from a moderators point of view are an aid to spam spotting!
We are lucky enough to have very effective anti-spam software now which diverts 99% of the 100+ spam posts a day that we had when this forum was first upgraded.
We had almost full time jobs batting them away manually when the upgrade first took place

It's surprising how much trouble some of them are prepared to go to in order to try to sneak a spam post onto the forum though!
At least with CT2 the post count is done very discreetly which may be why it doesn't really register much with me when I look in.

 

[RayS]

I may have caused some confusion by using CT as shorthand for Club Together. Didn't know about Caravan Talk. I guess a better shortcut would be Club2 or C2.
But there have been some interesting comments here, (PCV)

 

[Parksy]

Ooops!

I'd taken CT to mean Caravan Talk, sorry!

 

[Surfer]

Ooops!

I'd taken CT to mean Caravan Talk, sorry!

Seems just about every poster assumed it was referring to Caravan Talk and not Club Together which has stars etc. Just as confusing as text talk!

 

[Sproket]

And you want to have stars for your post's

How do I earn club stars?

You can earn points by interacting on Club Together. Various actions will earn you points towards your stars.
Please see below:
ActionPointsDiscussionsStart a discussion15 Post a reply5 Like a post1 Someone likes your post1Your StoriesPost a story50 Write a comment5 Like a story1 Someone likes your story1Ask the ExpertAsk a question10 Post a comment2ReviewsWrite a review15 Like someone’s review1 Someone likes your review5Completing Your Profile25% complete20 50% complete20 75% complete50 100% complete150 Total points you can earn from profile
365

Hey ! nowt like a bit 'O' competition

but what's the prize

 

[DavidKlyne]

Must say that I made the assumption that you were referring to Caravan Talk as its the way most people mention it. May I invite you to have a look in on us?

David

 

[Surfer]

Every time I reply to Sprockets post quoting it, I get an Internal Server error message.

Anyway IMHO the layout of the CT section, not caravan talk, is poor and difficult to navigate around. It took me ages to find rthe answer for the Nissan compeition as I kept going around in the circles and back to the start page. Agreed that it could be me getting old and senile! However the general layout of the forum does not exactly encourage any one to re-visit it as it does not seem to be very user friendly. Just for a laugh, I think I will post a moan about the booking system reference weekends and see if it stays on the forum.

 

[Gabsgrandad]

Surfer wrote - "Anyway IMHO the layout of the CT section, not caravan talk, is poor and difficult to navigate around. It took me ages to find rthe answer for the Nissan compeition as I kept going around in the circles and back to the start page. Agreed that it could be me getting old and senile!"

Well I must be as well, I don't like the format, and I didn't find it easy navigating the site, not particularly user friendly.

 

[DavidKlyne]

I think you need to give the Caravan Club a bit of time as I am sure things will improve for the better. This is their first venture into this kind of thing so there are bound to be a few glitches.

David

 

[RogerL]

I think you need to give the Caravan Club a bit of time as I am sure things will improve for the better. This is their first venture into this kind of thing so there are bound to be a few glitches.
David

Is that the way IT systems are developed these days?
As a dinosaur from the early days of computing we used to do program testing, system testing and volume trials BEFORE going live.

 

[RayS]

I rest my case; when contributing I am not interested in working out how to post to achieve maximum stars / points, only to seek knowledge or opinions from others or to share something I have found out / may have experience of with fellow addicts.

 

[DavidKlyne]

I think you need to give the Caravan Club a bit of time as I am sure things will improve for the better. This is their first venture into this kind of thing so there are bound to be a few glitches.
David

Is that the way IT systems are developed these days?
As a dinosaur from the early days of computing we used to do program testing, system testing and volume trials BEFORE going live.

Well Roger that may well be the ideal but from my own experience of being involved with new computer systems they are invariably a bit flakey on initial introduction to the real world. The reason for this is that however well designed tested they are you cannot recreate in testing what actually happens in reality. Even with training people still make mistakes which tend s to jam up the system. The CC system was fine 10 days before the launch when there were a handful of us using the system.

David

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

It certainly isn't very user friendly. I've yet to be able to create a user name despite 3 days of trying and attempting to log on through the home page or Club Together link. All it keeps saying is page not found when I go to profile.

 

[DianneT]

I have had a few problems in getting posts on when clicking submit and wrote one twice without success1.using IE9 and the other Google Chrome but no better. I emailed in and they said they were looking into it now so hopefully next week it will be better. Like every Forum they have different formats and it does take time to get use to a new one. I think it is a wonderful idea and hope it works well.