I've noticed that the 'register' link is absent, next to the 'logon' link, and also that the link to the Forum on the main FRA page is now less readily apparent. Is the forum being closed down, slowly?
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I've noticed that the 'register' link is absent, next to the 'logon' link, and also that the link to the Forum on the main FRA page is now less readily apparent. Is the forum being closed down, slowly?
I remember when the FRA website was refurbished a few years ago, I pointed out that the Forum had been hidden (whereas on the old website the link to it was obvious on the home page), but no-one took any notice.
If someone would correct the link to the FRA logo that would at least improve the look a touch.Attachment 8946
It does not help that the forum is absent from the main masthead but buried in a submenu of a submenu.
So, with the doors effectively barred, and now new members allowed...will the last old git standing please remember to switch the lounge lights off.
The register link has definitely gone. Who's an admin on here now? Hopefully can be enabled again?
Text of an email that I have just sent to Olga Wood, in her capacity as FRA Communications Officer:
Dear Olga,
I’m not sure whether the following is within your responsibility as FRA Communications Officer; if not, please pass on to the relevant person (who should be the webmaster, but I can’t find any contact link for the webmaster on the FRA Website).
The FRA Forum is a mine of useful information, as well as a great venue for discussion on all matters relevant to fell running. However, when the FRA website was refurbished a few years ago, the link to the forum was hidden in a menu linked from the FRA tab. Worse still, the facility to register for the Forum has now disappeared, so although it can be viewed as a guest, no-one new can now register and post comments on the Forum.
Please urgently investigate and rectify the disappearance of the Register facility. Then put a link to the Forum on the masthead of the home page of the FRA website, so that it becomes easy to find.
Best wishes,
Anthony Kay
Thanks AK.Quote:
Originally Posted by anthonykay
This rather reminds me of the story of our village Bank. First they reduced the opening hours and days. Then they reduced the services you could access when you visited the Bank - referring you to their branch in the local town (now this is also closing in the autumn). Then they gave notice that they were closing the Bank permanently, as the village branch no longer had sufficient footfall to justify its presence! Closure by stealth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_by_stealth
Unfortunately a common practice by the banking sector and not isolated to the rural community. My local high street in Birmingham has seen similar with the banks and building societies citing similar excuses.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
Yes, the nearest branch of my bank is now a "Digital Branch", i.e bloody useless. Can't actually do anything there that you can't do online or on the App.
Went there for assistance when a large sum of money disappeared out of an account, and i couldn't get anywhere with the fraud team due to communication issues (the phone line sounded like their HQ was on top of K2 in a storm).... all they could do was give me a desk and a phone and put me back on to the fraud team in Asia again :D
This is a reasonable sized town as well.
The branch was recently closed for a month for "maintenance". I went in a week after they re-opened to pay in a cheque and all the machines were out of order :D
AnthonyQuote:
Originally Posted by anthonykay
For what it is worth...the FRA Executive has long switched its loyalty to facebook but I applaud your initiative in pointing out that some people have noticed what is happening.
Graham
Whilst I am still an admin on the forum, I stepped down as webmaster a while ago and don't often fiddle... and prob shouldn't but heyho.
I turned off the "new members" button because of the incredible quantity of spam registrations which I couldn't cope with.
The forum uses vBulletin (well outdated which needs upgrading to a new version or importing into a different format). I assume this hasn't been done because the Committee feels that FB (even the Yoof don't FB now) is the way forward.
Many forums (fora Graham, but probably not :)) are dying on their bottoms which is a shame because FB is so transitory...
It's a great shame when looking back at the forum when it was at its finest, I made so many friends, had so many good times and met so many people at races...
I too feel that the end of the forum is imminent
edit - missing a few , and .
You dont know what you had till its gone.....
Nicely put Anthony.
Yep. That's all true.Quote:
Originally Posted by brett
I think the Forum's last chance was The Forum Fights Back in the Spring 2022 Fellrunner.
For a long time the Forum was brilliant, informative, hilariously funny, witty, edudite, a vicious blood sport,
chamelionic,... because of the people who frequented it; but that population has gone.
Like other aspects of fell running things have changed and there will be no going back.
Oh Antonella Acciaiuoli - your time was so fleeting and now we will never see your like again.:(
I got this reply from Olga:
Hi Antony,
Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
I forwarded it to Jamie, our IT person. We will look into it and come back to you when this is clarified.
Jamie, is it something that we could investigate when you have time, please?
Kind Regards
Olga W
FRA Communications Officer
Brett, did you tell Jamie what you were doing with the New Members button? If he does upgrade the software, will that deal with the spam registrations problem? If the Forum does die, that would be a great shame, especially so soon after an effort was made in the Fellrunner mag to draw attention to it.
Incidentally, I did my little bit to highlight its existence recently. There was an enquiry on the FB page about Morton's Neuroma, and I vaguely remembered that there was a discussion about this condition on the Forum a few years ago. So I searched out the relevant thread here, and posted a link to it in a response on the FB page. I'm sure something similar could be done with quite a lot of enquiries on the FB page.
I too try to direct people to the forum when they have queries on facebook.
I agree with the above, given the great efforts of Charmian to bring attention to the forum, via the magazine article, its a shame it doesn't seem to have been coordinated with admin side of things.
Forums are generally declining due to social media.... sheer numbers are keeping the more popular sports/music/etc ones going. It would be a shame if all forums die out and social media is the only remaining avenue.... you only have to look at facebook etc (and i'm not just picking on fellrunning, i mean everything) to see that it is definitely a case of quantity over quality.
A music forum that i was a member of for nearly two decades, finally got shut down during covid lockdown. We now have a Discord chat group for the remaining 75 or so long-term members.
Facebook isn't appropriate for what has historically been discussed on here.
The indexed format of the forum allows folk to go check out race discussions from years ago as an example.
"....I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... "
Yeah but. No, but. Even vinyl's making a comeback, so I've been told ( numerous times over the last decade).Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
I remember when Gravymuncher, at the height of all the shenanigans caused by the Gravy Boys raid on the forum, opined that one day in the future, Fora would slowly fade away to become a thing of the past. That was nearly 20 years ago. As the "forum" generation of fell runners becomes less active, I guess it is inevitable given that there seems little appetite for younger memebers to use it.
But....but. Surely it can be kept running at the level it currently is, a bit like an old folks home for ageing fell runners. After all, we have all given our heart and soul to the sport!
And I sincerely apologise to the many active contributors who are still fully engaged in the sport and racing hard! I love reading about your exploits. I just cannae get on wi' Bookface!
Yeah sure. So all your Taylor Swift albums are on vinyl?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
When I went to select my new car I observed to the young (20s) salesman that, to my chagrin, it didn't have a CD player and I possess several hundred CDs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
"No" he replied "and it doesn't have a record player either".
"Like".Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
As for FB, it is utter rubbish for continuity, and full of the dreaded selfies.
The forum is dead, face up to it. Its home to a dozen or so die hards, all male, and probably like me past their ‘peak’
You guys mainly want the forum to continue so that you can carry on with your private (newbies not really welcome) chat room but you could probably achieve the same, if not better, on a private Facebook or WhatsApp group if you thought about it
I don’t particularly use the fell running U.K. Facebook page much but it has 25,000 members and let’s face it even if only a hundred of those are active that’s still 10 times more than the forum
Facebook is unbeatable for race photos and up to date race information. No race organiser is going to bother posting on here are they? And yeah loads of facebookers ask the same questions as infinitum but, because in general the Facebook group is enthusiastic and keen , they gets responses. The odd foray by some confused new joiner in here gets tumble weed and for sure zero enthusiasm and keenness for their trouble
Sad as it may be; One thinks you may spoken the truth. Perhaps time for a coup de grace. It’s only a very few of us now, and most of the posts seem to be personal diaries, outdated views or weird politics and conspiracy theories. I’ll miss it, but I also miss many things. Moving forward to the future is better than looking back with regrets. It was superb in its day, but is on its arse now.
Well that's one point of view.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fellbeast
Most of it is total bullshit, but its still a point of view...
Point out the exact bits that are bullshit for me :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
I have to agree and you have articulated my views about the vast majority of posts. I occasionally look at the "What's New?" tab to find cycling and political content with no fell running related posts at all. Thanks to Brett for clearing up the reason for the option to join being removed and debunking any conspiracy theories. The FRA communicate via pages on the website and Olga regularly adds News Items to the Home Page. There is also an official FRA Facebook Page which does not get swamped with more social content as does the Fell Runners UK Group. As an active committee member, I could not support any further investment in this forum but would like to see the history preserved in some way if that is possible.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fellbeast
Seems fair enough to me.
1st paragraph is fair enough.... although conveniently ignores the above-discussed issues about accessing and joining the forum unless you're already "in the know".Quote:
Originally Posted by Fellbeast
2nd paragraph is just speculation, opinion, and wildly inaccurate.
3rd paragraph is a fact.
Final paragraph again is your own biased opinion, and i would tend to disagree. The few lone souls who do make it on to here, generally get a decent response (although it is somewhat limited due to the lack of numbers, but i find everyone to be genuinely helpful).
I find it most amusing (and rather sad) that you only ever log on to argue about politics... and then have the balls to moan that the forum is negative/political/dead/dying, as if you're not a part of the problem.
Succinctly and well put.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charmian
If new members can't join, and the link from the FRA Website has been hidden, it's hardly surprising is it?Quote:
Originally Posted by Charmian
Why don't you start threads? It's a bit rich to moan about the threads that are clearly started and engaged with, just because they are not of interest to you.
well for one the bit about Race Organisers posting on here. Calvin posted last week on his race, which both Travs and I engaged with.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fellbeast
There have been two or three RO posts on here in the past month. Its not many, but it does happen.
For all the goodwill of pushing the forum by the FRA powers-that-be.... the "focus group", the magazine article... and all done with the very best intentions.... its ultimately fruitless if it is difficult/impossible for newcomers to locate the forum, let alone register.
I have to say though that the "official" FRA facebook page is pretty good....
Graceless?Quote:
Originally Posted by Witton Park
I supported and nominated Charmian to first stand for FRA Chairman and although I could not be certain at that time it was one of the greatest services I performed for fell running.
Charmian retains my support.
I joined the Forum back in 2007 and I found it inspirational.
I came in to athletics in 2002 as a 37 year old Dad, then got involved and started running myself in 2003, my first race being a Mid Lancs XC at Kendal.
After I started coaching in 2005 a parent told me about the junior fell series and off we went to Rivington where some of our kids took part and I watched the senior race.
Some of the kids I coached were hooked and that started my 10 year or so association with junior fell and my own personal aspiration to race on the fells myself.
I found the forum, I can't recall how, but someone must have pointed me to it as a source of information.
One post sticks in my mind on here, a report on the Anniversary Waltz, from around 2007/8 I think.
A member of Northumberland Fell Runners had posted a photo diary of his race. The link was posted on here and it took my breath away.
I just had to do the race and it became my favorite as it was just about within the level of my ability to get around in decent order, and the views were incredible.
Later my wife and I ran the race together to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary and I was so proud when my daughter won the senior race as an 18 year old.
I would probably have never had those memories and many others without the forum.
and?Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
I wasn't commenting on her role within the FRA. Her comment was like many who have come on the forum over the years.
I don't like this, I don't want to discuss this, I want to discuss something else.
So why not discuss something else then?
It is what always used to happen.
By the way, I think your greatest service was when you stood down :D
"past their peak" was a bit harsh to the remaining members on here as well.... :D :D :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Witton Park
Noel and DanGilbert are well capable of scoring champs points. I won my last race (ok it wasn't the Olympic Final, but still...), and Llani just ran for Wales.
Yeah fair point, that was harsh but, otherwise, I was pretty bang on the moneyQuote:
Originally Posted by Travs