Is it me? or are there fewer posts on this forum?

Tre

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

Answers

I think there may still be some stragglers who haven't been found yet.

Duncan, how many people have you contacted ?

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

I agree that there aren't as many postings as there were on the old BBS. One possible reason it that LR hasn't come across the get the blood boiling. I, for one, would welcome him here (as long as DD keeps away or they sign a non-aggression treaty). :o))

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

On the other hand I was just thinking yesterday that the amount of postings were increasing. I think everyone is finding their feet and I'm confident that this page will be even better than the communicata board, and anyways I don't think the land lord will throw us out if this one :)

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

I think there may also be less because its harder to follow a debate when the there is no time on the entries. Difficult to see who has responded to whaty straightaway - especially when you have to scroll down to the bottom to see the latest entry. Interesting to see what happens when one of these threads develops into a 100-plus section..

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

I'm with Beardo on this....

I'm definitely put of by the interface...dunno what's a recent conversation or not...

Any chance of a way round this?

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

I think there are probably fewer posts right now, and some of it may well be down to the interface changes. As I've said before, I'm trying to replicate the Communicata layout, but time is tight for me right now.

As for folk asking for the password, it's been a steady flow; I've probably mailed about 150 people.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

We've had 800 posts in just over a week which I can't believe is much less than TFBB. The site seemed very quiet over the weekend after the match thread wound down on Saturday, with virtually nothing doing on Sunday.

Perversely, those threads where LR appeared at his provocative best tended to attract high post volumes, and that is indeed probably the major difference. Personally, although I've nothing against Andy, I don't miss the kind of 'debate' that was usually engendered. Having said that, it is healthy to have some non-Toon input, and I feel it would be really great if we could somehow encourage a few fans from a number of other Clubs to participate. The main problem with LR on TFBB was that he was essentially the only non-Mag on there, and therefore his involvement created 'debate' that was entirely related to manure - a fact that irritated many regulars.

It is undoubtedly rather difficult to follow the course of a debate with this format unless you have sufficient interest to really search out the thread and new 'answers'. The problem of course is that it is stuctured in a 'question & answer' format, rather than one that enables extended debate. We need to be patient, and hope Duncan can make the appropriate modifications - can the other 'techies' on here not assist him? He must be buried in the admin of the site, never mind working on improvements.

Given where we were last Monday, I feel the fact that so many of the regulars are here and we are able to have this discussion is a result. Let's be patient and stick with it and Duncan and see where it takes us.

On a slightly different tack, in discussion recently with Screacher, we came to the conclusion that we should ideally be having these debates on the Official site. The question I really feel we should ponder is just what is it about the bbs on the Official site we don't like. If we were able to articulate the perceived deficiencies and our specific requirements, we would be in position to approach the Club, perhaps through this guy Rogan Taylor, to see if we can get them to seriously listen to us. If I could get the necessary ammunition, I'd be prepared to give it a try, and believe Screacher would support me. Whaddya think gang?

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

To Clarky:

I think the problem with the official site is that it has always been a mechanism to sell kit worldwide; the old BBS was an added bonus that the good guys at Communicata threw in. I know for a fact that the club hadn't considered anything like that at the time. The chat at nufc.co.uk is a subset of planet football's chat, and not really targeted per se. My feeling is that right now, as ever, the club is simply not interested in it's web site as a method of fielding and encouraging decent feedback.

The best thing to do is to encourage Rogan Taylor to register here and on other NUFC based sites in order that the club gets a balanced perspective. I think they'd all be astonished at the level of (i) interest, and (ii) erudition; we are a fair-minded, even-handed bunch really, and the club needs reminding of that fact

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

The other factor in slowing everything down, is the time it takes for a new post to register on the Recent Answers list - at least 5 minutes. If people are dipping in and out, they often won't get a reply till a while later, unless the thread is so busy that you keep updating it regardless, to see if anyone's responded, rather than wait for posts to register on the recent answers thread.

Is the official forum password protected? Didn't used to be, but I haven't been there for ages. Official forums attract too many people with not enough imagination to seek out better forums - ie infrequent, first timers and those intent on abuse. I do remember fondly the Communicata days when it was official though, and before that the Carling boards that let you flick between Newcastle, general and other teams.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

I pretty much agree with what Clarky was saying in regards to the board and certainly the fact that you can't immediately log on and see what postings have been replied to, which are still bubbling around and which have died a death.

Only by chance the other day did I 'dip' into the Competitions section and the good old Softie league to realise that there had been all the cup matches and draw for the next round etc. On TFBB the thread would have moved to the top or near top of the left field table....then have the latest posting on the thread at the top of the sub-table on the right.

I'm sure Duncan will eventually get these issues sorted out, and in the meantime I am happy to bide my time, read whatever is necessary and dip into Riks, Kegsy's, the Strawberry and the RTG boards....interest in the first three....do wind ups in the last!

Finally, in this rambling, Clarky also wrote "The site seemed very quiet over the weekend after the match thread wound down on Saturday, with virtually nothing doing on Sunday." - well I don't know what it was like Toon End, but certainly down here in Lahndan it was probably the nicest weekend weather wise we have had so far this year. It was really nice and fairly sunny, so that would probably have a bit to do with it.

It was my first chance to wash and polish the Escort....mind you that is only cos I want to sell it!

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

I have to agree with you about the weather ITK, twas indeed sunny on Tyneside too. So much so, in fact, that I had to spend several hours coming up with plausible sounding reasons why I couldn't mow the lawn. The lawn is only about 15' by 8', but it's the principle of the thing. Women spend Sundays nagging their partners to work on the house and men try to spend the afternoon snoozing in front of the telly.

There, who said it was too quiet on here? (retreats back inside bunker at MCP towers and waits for fireworks)

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

p.s. You do know to click on "new answers" to get all the threads listed in the order they have last been contributed to I presume?

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

The best way to navigate seems to be to look at the new questions list when you first log on and then use the recent answers after that to keep up with the ongoing debates. You only need to refer to new questions occaisionally to find postings which nobody has replied to. I find that answers are posted within a few seconds.

As for the official site, it is password protected now, but it hasn't made much difference, still full of juvenile claptrap. Very depressing, especially as it is the first place that any football fan goes for nufc-related chat. Also, as it is termed a 'chat' forum, my works server blocks it so I have to disable the proxy server and all that nonsense. Maybe thats why it is populated by kids, no adults can get on during work hours.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

Slow site updates.

Another report from Windy about stuff inserted to the DB taking minutes to show up. I've looked into this and it *must* be a problem with caches at the user end. I can watch stuff get inserted to the DB and then appear (via a SQL select) in the appropriate place immediately (like in less than 1/100th of a second).

I know that the caches in both Netscape and IE can be a little disobedient sometimes, so maybe that's the problem.

Dunx

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

Official bbs - chicken or egg?

Dread wrote the Official site bbs "still full of juvenile claptrap". Could that just possibly be because all the serious bbs-ers are on here?

If we all went over there would the present level of debate not inevitably improve, and is it more likely to be self-sustaining in the long run through new contributors?

Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy here for now, but I have a genuine concern that without a continuing supply of new blood it may eventually wither and die.

Philosophically, it seems to me that THE logical place for this forum is on the Official site - but only if it meets the needs of our contributors, who I would dare to suggest comprise the real core of Toon bulletin board interest around the world. This inevitably presents a real challenge because it involves generating a positive response from NUFC if we wish to pursue it. However, if it is felt to be the appropriate thing to do, then let's do it. If not, then we can just forget it.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2000

I've just called over to the awficial site, you can check who is logged on so can out the lurkers - cool !

I think I'll wind someone up by putting their name in lights.

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2000