kas750 wrote:Just because something is "free" doesn't make it good in my eyes.A while back ideas were mooted around about how we could spend a surplus of club income.Surely developing the club website,and as i said website,not specifically the forum would be a good way to move the club forward.Anyway that is my idea.Its for elected committee members to do whats best for the club.Jobbing members were asked for opinions and thats mine.
Now attached to the right thread......
Constructive critisism is welcome, so please come forward with your ideas. I find it ironic that the website becomes the communication vehicle for its own criticism. Proof enough that the forum is effective. It would be hard to replace what we have with something else for the same value for money, as we currently we pay £0.00 per year and for this we have a forum that has been available (with hardly any problems) for many years?!
Things have moved on a lot since we put this site together. On the Social Networking side of things we have seen the arrival of Facebook with critical mass behind it. Needless to say it is ?in vogue?, is more connected and has many more features that encourage people to stay in touch globally with far more subtlety and far less effort, whether on the move, via iPhone, PC or whatever. Quite a few members use Facebook now and it works well for those who do (including me). Compared to the Forum it is easier to post pictures, attach videos, connect to anything and do all the fun thins one does on a forum. It may not be good for specifics as far as a classic bike club is concerned, such as technical advice/support and information history but for the social element of staying in touch Facebook has it all.
BUT?. I am not suggesting we use Facebook as an alternative to the website. What I am implying is that social networks will gradually replace forums as social connectivity tools in the future so why invest in a new forum when the one we have is adequate. What we could do is find out if we can bring Facebook in as an element of the club site??
On the membership side our site is reliable and does the job. If anyone thinks it can be replaced it with something better than go ahead. A new site will incur costs such as development, hosting and on-going maintenance which we don?t pay today.
If you want Amazon.com for shopping with ?add to cart? and ?check out? for your bike spares, memorabilia/merchandise and accessories then we may find something ?off the peg? that fits some things and not others, or someone who is prepared to put a bespoke solution together for a budget price. We would need to consider how to manage customer requests on a daily basis though as we wold not have a 'back office team' working the shift. We did take the ?pay pal? approach on the merchandising before but the process would have to align with the site and Tango has his way of managing things (which is fair enough).
This is neither corporate nor enterprise and without the IT support from Paul Browne I am unable to do much unless we find another IT person, but then they will charge..!. He said he would get back on the case but with increased pressures at work and less time it is a long wait. By the way, we are all more busy these days with less time to spare.
If you feel the need then feel free to step forward. In the meantime this site will remain as is until Paul Browne is able to provide a new site, or somebody else decides they can revolutionise the KTC website with something far better than we have today at a price that makes sense to the club.
Just to say I have no problem with handing the task over if there is someone out there who can go the distance with something new. As long as we can all be convinced that we will get something better with good value for money.
i have emailed him with the link u gave me so hope he joins up 