Welcoming New Members

[ProfJohnL]

I don't know if Lizzie or the Mods can enlighten us to the accuracy of the statistics shown at the bottom of the page. I am quite surprised to see 27000+ guests on line (Monday morn 11:20 am)

Perhaps some signed up members should consider their posts more carefully bearing in mind the number of the hits on the site. Each one of these views is a potential new contributor, and if they see some of the silliness that has occurred in some threads perhaps that's why they don't all join in.

I'm not suggesting we shouldn't have some fun, light friendly banter can make readers feel at ease, but lets also try to keep to facts or where appropriate constructive criticisms as part of debates.

 

[Parksy]

At a guess based upon past experience I'd estimate that there could be up to ten bona fide guests on a very good day and 26,990 spam bots, web crawlers and potential spammers from abroad.
Existing forum members should bear in mind that personal security is paramount which is why we don't encourage the posting of email addresses or personal details on the message boards.
Genuine browsers lurk for a number of reasons, some find the information that they are looking for, some lurk for a considerable time before taking the plunge and joining in and some may be a bit shy or nervous.
The vast majority are automated hits, probing our defences to see if there's a way past to fill the forum pages with spam.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Should this be your new title for the Woosie's?

"Sir Parksy, Keeper Of The Keys"

 

[Parksy]

Should this be your new title for the Woosie's?

"Sir Parksy, Keeper Of The Keys"

I'm only one of the last in a long line of anti-spam defences Prof, and I'm an honorary Woosie and already hold the titles of official Ale Taster to the King of the Woosies and Guardian of the Illuminated Flagpole. B)

 

[ProfJohnL]

So one more title shouldn't hurt....

 

[Mel]

There are 30,000+ this evening. Good job they don't all post at once. Parksy would get even less sleep.

Would be nice to encourage a few more of the real people (not spam bots) to join in. Not sure what the silliness is that you refer to Prof; there is a bit of warmth and humour on here and very little arguing. We certainly don't get the racism, sexism and other isms that I remember from a long while back any more (thanks toParksy and Damien)
mel

 

[Gagakev]

Perhaps some signed up members should consider their posts more carefully bearing in mind the number of the hits on the site. Each one of these views is a potential new contributor, and if they see some of the silliness that has occurred in some threads perhaps that's why they don't all join in.

Think this needs further explanation Prof, or is it that there isnt enough!!

I'm not suggesting we shouldn't have some fun, light friendly banter can make readers feel at ease, but lets also try to keep to facts or where appropriate constructive criticisms as part of debates.

Again is there enough "banter"?

Now that should start a debate

 

[ProfJohnL]

Thats a very closed question Kev, it only needs a yes or no response!

 

[ProfJohnL]

There are 30,000+ this evening. Good job they don't all post at once. Parksy would get even less sleep.

Would be nice to encourage a few more of the real people (not spam bots) to join in. Not sure what the silliness is that you refer to Prof; there is a bit of warmth and humour on here and very little arguing. We certainly don't get the racism, sexism and other isms that I remember from a long while back any more (thanks toParksy and Damien)
mel

Hello Mel.
I was being generous, rather than 'silliness' read nastiness. I have always composed my posts on the basis I will only write what I would be prepared to say in front of any person. But sadly there are or have been some members who seem to think the anonymity of using a pseudo name gives them the right abuse that freedom.

 

[Parksy]

We do have a significant number of genuine new members with more being added every week.
In the not too distant past new members tended to join a forum and continue to use it, we have members who are still with us who joined this forum when it was first started by Ken Watson, who for many years was known as 'Mod1', and all forum members are highly valued whether they joined yesterday or years ago.

Internet usage seems to have changed since technological advances made the internet widely available to mobile phone users, nowadays many new members join, ask what they want to know via their smartphone or tablet and then they're gone until the next time that they need a question answered.

I don't fully subscribe to the 'nastiness' theory.
It's all too easy to become a bit carried away when communicating via the medium of an anonymous keyboard and most of us have stated online things that we may have later regretted, or perhaps could have stated in a better way, I know that I have.

The genuine trouble makers who tried to disrupt this forum for reasons best known to themselves are long gone, never to return, and generally speaking, comments from members now are largely positive and good humoured.

Polite good natured debate is the life blood of any internet forum, we have the occasional mean spirited comment which is not surprising with such a wide spectrum of interests and backgrounds, but the world and the internet would be a boring place if we all thought and acted in the same way at all times.
I am confident that this forum will continue to go from strength to strength, based upon the friendliness and helpfulness of the members that we are so lucky to have.