Sadly, this Forum seems to be dying

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

I don't need to be an Fb'er to view it, but I do for yours. From an advertising PoV, is it worth opening it up for full viewing?

It turns out this was a function of having set an age restriction on it - you should be able to view it now. Thanks for the heads-up.

[jcochrane]

Re driving days, I'll run another Swindon day at the drop of a hat, provided it's soon. Much of the second half of the year I'm likely to be unavailable. Just let me know if there's interest.

Yes please.

I'll second that.

[skodatezzer]

Ineerest

[MGF]

Deleting contributors' posts without explanation isn't conducive to encouraging discussion. How long will this one last and why is the thread locked today not been unlocked on the basis that an objection has been raised?

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

I have explained by PM why the post was deleted, and you have replied, in your usual combative style.

a) it was not related to the thread content.
b) it was an attempt to undermine the moderators, and start a discussion about the locking of the "freak accident" thread, by posting here.

It doesn't encourage discussion when every moderation action is criticised and attempts are made to turn them into an "us and them" argument, either. Hence the post was deleted.

I am not locking this thread - yet, but please don't turn it into a bear pit so I / we end up having to. Can I just ask we stay on topic. If you have an issue with posts, report them. If you have an issue with the moderating team, please address it to them directly by PM. Objecting is, of course, no guarantee that the moderators will agree that you know better than them, and reverse their decision. It's been said many times on many forums, that a forum is not a democracy. Even if it were, even in a democracy you don't get your own way all the time.

[Silk]

Deleting contributors' posts without explanation isn't conducive to encouraging discussion. How long will this one last and why is the thread locked today not been unlocked on the basis that an objection has been raised?

Wow! That's harsh - the moderation, not your subsequent comments. If this place is going to become censored to that extent I think I might just give up.

Coming from Usenet, I find all kinds of Internet forum censorship to be extremely irritating at best. Most of the time, the censorship is down to someone who has the power to censor using it to silence someone they disagree with rather than any legitimate reason.

I'm not suggesting that's the intention of the moderators on this forum, who I'm sure have the best intentions. It's an observation of censorship in general. I'd rather put up with a bit of "noise" for what I believe to be the greater good.

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

You get two extremes. There are forums where the tiniest word of criticism of the moderators or systems will get you banned. This forum is light years away from that. Then you have Usenet and IRC chatrooms which are basically anarchy. The kind of reader we have here is civilised and well-behaved and appreciate a clean and tidy house, so moderating activities are aimed mainly at keeping the forum clean of spam, and discouraging personal attacks between members, which do erupt from time to time. An apparently natural extension of this is seems to be to turn moderators into hate figures. That doesn't mean we should stop doing our job.

[TheInsanity1234]

I only intended my thread to be a discussion on the physics of the incident, and for people to give theoretical possibilities as to what happened - perhaps I should have posted it in the "members only" section, just in case a relative of the poor lady happened across this website.

I fully understand why the thread was locked, and I have no issues with the moderating, but I do agree that it seems a touch ott to lock a thread where nothing extremely offensive was said, but again, I wouldn't want the death of someone close to me to be discussed by a group of random strangers on the internet, on a publicly accessible forum.

But my apologies, I've been stirring up trouble here! The young ones are the evillest, aren't they?

[richie349]

Jumping back to the original point briefly: I don't think this site is dying, however it is a relatively low activity forum. The suggestion of embracing Facebook to enhance its presence is a good one. With that in mind, I have taken the initiative and set one up:

http://www.facebook.com/advanceddrivinguk

It's not about ADUK's own website versus a social network page. It makes sense to have both, with references made between them. As someone pointed on here earlier, they're not on Facebook, so would represent a lost member if it jumped ship. The flip side of this is that over a billion people are on Facebook, so that's a huge audience to appeal to!

[Horse]

http://www.facebook.com/advanceddrivinguk

It's not about ADUK's own website versus a social network page. It makes sense to have both, with references made between them. As someone pointed on here earlier, they're not on Facebook, so would represent a lost member if it jumped ship. The flip side of this is that over a billion people are on Facebook, so that's a huge audience to appeal to!

Well done! I'm not on FB as a user, but do read some sites.

Could the expansion you've started also encompass Twitter (which I don't do either ) announcements to any potential interested people of new content? #advanceddriving or similar?

https://twitter.com/search?q=advanceddriving&src=typd

[richie349]

http://www.facebook.com/advanceddrivinguk

It's not about ADUK's own website versus a social network page. It makes sense to have both, with references made between them. As someone pointed on here earlier, they're not on Facebook, so would represent a lost member if it jumped ship. The flip side of this is that over a billion people are on Facebook, so that's a huge audience to appeal to!

Well done! I'm not on FB as a user, but do read some sites.

Could the expansion you've started also encompass Twitter (which I don't do either ) announcements to any potential interested people of new content? #advanceddriving or similar?

https://twitter.com/search?q=advanceddriving&src=typd

Good suggestion, and why not? No harm in having a website, Facebook page and Twitter feed. Let's leave them running and see which people like and use.

How about this: http://twitter.com/addrivinguk

[onlinegenie]

That's the first time ever I've been the first person to like a Facebook page. And I'm following the twitter account too.

[richie349]

That's the first time ever I've been the first person to like a Facebook page. And I'm following the twitter account too.

Glad to hear it! Hopefully you can help spread the word and become the first of many followers and likers...

[Horse]

That's the first time ever I've been the first person to like a Facebook page. And I'm following the twitter account too.

Where's the 'like' button for your post . . .

[richie349]

That's the first time ever I've been the first person to like a Facebook page. And I'm following the twitter account too.

Where's the 'like' button for your post . . .

I don't think he's added a post. He's just liked the page.