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Post by yobarr on Mar 2, 2024 11:06:23 GMT 10
Although I have recently been working long hours on the Roadtrain I often briefly drop-in to this forum to see what's going on. Nothing!
Surely there is somebody "out there" who can make comment on something, or has an observation they'd like to share?
Any questions on safetowing, caravan weights, the dreaded WDH, caravan parks, travel conditions etc. ANYTHING.
Unless the forum starts to be used for what is intended then I fear that Mike will lose interest and shut it down.
Come on guys. Anything to get the ball rolling. Cheers
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pete
Junior Member
Posts: 92
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Post by pete on Mar 2, 2024 20:28:51 GMT 10
Well, things are a bit dead here at the moment but not as dead (brain dead that is) as the 20 year old cashier at a servo in a very small town today on the edge of a main highway.
I asked him which way out of town to the highway.
He had no idea!!!
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Post by arewelost on Mar 3, 2024 8:16:32 GMT 10
Well clearly you asked a question that was outside the scope of his employment, and he had not been trained for that. Common sense seems to be forgotten in education.
For my turn, I was on the phone to a young receptionist at a caravan park, making a booking for a week. With the dates and details all entered she asked for credit card payment.
"Wait! How much? You seem to be charging the full daily rate not the lower rate for weekly stays."
"I can't give you the weekly rate because you have included a weekend."
"Staying a week, a weekend HAS to be included."
....... pause ..... silence ...... (I could almost hear the cogs turning).
"I will have to check."
..... a minute later "Good news, I can give you the weekly rate."
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Post by magnarc on Mar 4, 2024 7:30:21 GMT 10
Hi all, I have a Bee in my bonnet regarding this traitor pollie. The first thing I asked myself is why did the ASIO boss make the announcement? There must have been a motive? Was he trying to get the matter out in the open air hoping that the media pressure would cause disclosure? Surely anybody who commits treason should be brought to justice whether he/she is retired or not. Oh no, the boys in Canberra rushed to close ranks, nothing to see here chaps they clamour. I read that Mr Potato Head said that the matter should be dealt with out in the open, presumably he knows that it isn't one of his minions?
If this person gets away with this crime what does it say to the rest of us? This person is no doubt getting a fat pension, and currently employed in the private sector with all the benefits that go with that. Name him/her bring him/her (more likely to be a male) to justice, cancel the pension, make them pay back what has already been paid, and then stick them away for thirty years. Yes, I know that it ain't going to happen but it bloody well should!!
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Post by Mike Harding on Mar 5, 2024 9:37:40 GMT 10
I thought it was foolish to make a public announcement without identifying the person that will, as it has, lead to all sorts of speculation much of it inaccurate I suspect; either say nothing or tell the whole story.
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Post by Mike Harding on Mar 6, 2024 13:25:24 GMT 10
Unless the forum starts to be used for what is intended then I fear that Mike will lose interest and shut it down. You're right Yobarr, my thoughts were heading in that direction. I have a sense the Grey Nomads forum may not be long for this world, I note there are only two advertisements on the forum page and the daily traffic is very low. I suspect Cindy runs the forum as a business rather than a service so if it's not making money it probably won't last. As I've said before: the problem with this forum is that we simply do not have sufficient active members to make it an interesting and dynamic place, I think we need around 20 regular posters for that to develop. I shall look, again, at getting Google to list it but I set this forum up as a service and am not prepared to put endless hours into developing it, it is not a business for me, rather I see it as a community service but if it's not a service the community wants then.... I ask again: please publicise the forum all you can and encourage others to join. |
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Post by arewelost on Mar 12, 2024 18:18:35 GMT 10
I have a sense the Grey Nomads forum may not be long for this world, I note there are only two advertisements on the forum page and the daily traffic is very low. There is something odd going on at GN. As you said daily numbers are low. Last night I compared the "currently online" statistics with CF site. The number of guests outnumbered the members about 10 to 1 while on CF the ratio was less than 2 to 1, with 3 times as many members .... so a bit less in total than GN. Now .... "There are currently 3 member(s) and 693 guest(s) online:" Compared to CF "In total there are 16 users online :: 9 registered, 0 hidden and 7 guests". What does that indicate? Normal for CF? A Denial of Service attack underway at GN?
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pete
Junior Member
Posts: 92
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Post by pete on Mar 12, 2024 19:22:17 GMT 10
You never know what is going on in the background.
Many of the original posters here all disappeared together around the same time!
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Post by magnarc on Mar 13, 2024 13:40:22 GMT 10
One of the biggest problems with the GN site is censorship.The things that affect a large proportion of the members are not allowed to be discussed owing to the restrictions that are inherent when the site relies on advertising. I have long been of the opinion that the main object of the exercise, is to create a financial stream.
In the past month or so, I have noted the absence of quite a few posters that have been prominent over the last few years or so, are they disillusioned? For a venture like this forum and the GN to be successful, there needs to be the occasional "edgy" post. One that creates differing opinions on subjects that are of interest to members. You may not agree with the likes of Cuppa, and I very rarely did, but he at least added some "spice" to the Forum. (he also has been conspicuous by his absence of late.)
Personal abuse and slanderous posts can easily be dealt with wthout a blanket censorship, this is evident on this forum where Mike has allowed a lot more latitude, and, correct me if I am wrong, has of yet not seen fit to reprimand anyone, thus allowing a more topics to be openly discussed.
One other little bone of contention I have is with the few on the GN site who feel the need to reply to every post, very often resulting in a description of their gear and what they have achieved, completely ignoring the original question.
Still it takes all sorts to make a world I guess. To quote the Chief, Just sayin,
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Post by arewelost on Mar 13, 2024 14:28:27 GMT 10
One of the biggest problems with the GN site is censorship. Yes. I disagree with closing threads. Instead, I think more could be done to stop argumentive responses, and those that incite such argument.
For example, just looking now on Whirlpool in the Energy section I see there are three long running threads about the electrical grid and issues around climate change. Thousands of posts in each, yet they are still going strong. Whirlpool keeps a pretty tight control and those that become argumentative seem to be regularly weeded out with their posts deleted.
But Whirlpool does allow for diverse opinion, including politics.There are a few separate threads on the US elections and comments are enforced to be within the tight constraints of that subject matter. One has 4500 PAGES of comments.
As for Cuppa, I must admit I had not noticed his absence. His profile shows last access 3 days ago, but his last post more than 2 weeks ago. Perhaps after he has regularly been put down with little support from others, he has stepped down from the soap box for a while.
The numbers on GN are still very strange today .... 4 members and 174 guests just now (vs 6 and 5 for CF). Puzzling ... to me at least.
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Post by Mike Harding on Mar 13, 2024 15:00:19 GMT 10
The vast majority of the "guests" are simply pieces of software, commonly known as bots, which crawl the web. A large proportion are from the search engines (of which there are many) and many others are from nefarious operators looking for security holes and the rest are from God only knows where, only a tiny proportion will be real users who have not signed in.
A year or two back I wrote to Cindy suggesting that exactly what is happening to the GN now would happen - she did not reply. Cuppa was allowed to run riot and legitimate threads dealing with topics likely to arouse emotions were closed at the drop of a hat leaving many frustrated posters.
We're all interested in the camping/caravanning/outdoor life, that's why we're here, but there are only so many times and so many ways one can discuss a weight distribution hitch before one dies of boredom. Political/moral discussions are what gives such forums interest and keeps people coming back after their question regarding some dull camping issue has been answered.
Anyway GN is a private business and the owner(s) are entitled to run it however they like but, if you don't please your customers they'll walk away.
Give me a couple of days, bit occupied right now, and I'll post a question in "General" about opening up this site and what people think. You're replies will be much appreciated.
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santa
Full Member
Posts: 136
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Post by santa on Mar 14, 2024 9:32:03 GMT 10
At the risk of repeating myself.
The participation in forums is in dying, young people have no interest, in my experience they communicate primarily via Snapchat and texting.
Older forum users are getting older and dropping by the wayside.
I'm not saying forums are dead, however, they have suffered a marked decline.
I imagine trying to get a new forum off the ground would be an uphill battle.
There is also the (heard it all before factor) after a few years of active forum contribution it all becomes repetitious, newcomers asking the same questions and the old hands giving the same answers, boredom sets in.
Then there are the shit stirrers, Grey Nomads has the biggest percentage by far of any forum I've been involved with, I suspect its to do with the age of members, mostly grumpy old buggers well and truly stuck in their ways, of course there are those who simply delight in a good verbal stouche and will argue black is white just to be difficult.
My own experience involved regular posting in numerous forums over many years, I even moderated a couple.
FWIW that's my two bobs worth.  |
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Post by yobarr on Mar 14, 2024 19:53:04 GMT 10
Hi Santa, some good points in that post. "Grumpy Old Buggers well and truly stuck in their ways" certainly is true, and particularly applies to members of Caravanners Forum, where it is suicidal to disagree with, and then prove wrong, long-term members, particularly a little RAY of sunshine who got his nose well out of joint when proved wrong about the towing capabilities of the much revered, but vastly over-rated, LC200.
Such behaviour occurred, to a lesser extent, on GNs where some members wanted to argue weights etc with me while having little idea what they were talking about.
Despite the sheep mentality being apparent, over the years I managed to help many understand where they were wrong.
Many members took to contacting me via PM, and then either email or phone, because they feared creating another shit fight on the forum.
To that end I spent much time helping members, even travelling long distances to meet some, to sort their weights and advise on suitable tow vehicles.
With most things in life anybody can have, and is entitled to express, an opinion, but with weights there is NO room for opinion.
Your weights are either right or they're wrong. Period.
As far as repetition being apparent on a forum this is a natural progression of newcomers asking question.
Surely you don't expect the same question to get different answers to avoid the answers being "repetitious"?
"Arguing Black is White just to be difficult" seemed to occur regularly, with many members seeming to have an absolute inability to think logically, or to even follow a line of discussion.
Misquoting was rife.
Let's get this forum up and running, but to do that we need more members.
Because I have some GN members phone numbers and email addresses I will contact them to make them aware what Mike is attempting to create here. Cheers
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Post by magnarc on Mar 15, 2024 13:34:22 GMT 10
Go for it Chris. I too have a couple of numbers so will do the same.
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Post by arewelost on Mar 21, 2024 17:56:55 GMT 10
Someone on GN was asking after Yobarr. I took the opportunity to say he was on here and posted a link. Maybe some will be interested.
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