The forum of the Royal Navy Volunteer Bands

admin · Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 3:11 pm Post subject: Changes for the better...

OK Guys and Gals,
I have been looking at the various debates about people not being happy with the way things are at the moment. I have been pondering various ideas and don't want a 'Them and us' situation or forum.

When I first started this foum my sole intention was to have an area for my troop to discuss our reunions and our times in the mob. From there, I though "Oh, I could add this bit and that bit" and so it went on. My aims changed as the forum developed and my last aim was (as stated at the top of the page) "Bringing the serving and ex serving communities together".

I then added the volunteer band sections to bolster the membership of the forum and so the forum doubled in size. Administering the forum (for myself and the moderators) became twice the work. Sometimes, for the moderators, it takes the fun out of the forum when it becomes work. I know this because I recently left another forum where I moderated when it became tedious for me to 'have' to look at all the posts and clean up some of the dross that the idots were posting there (not that this happens here) and I lost interest. That forum was started, like this one, as a specialist forum for a specialist group of people... it grew, as this one has, and began to become too diverse, attracting new people as it grew who wanted different things from it. You'll notice that AARSE has recently split into AARSE and RuM Ration and a couple of other splinters. I have been closely monitoring the split and to be honest, it was the best thing they did. They have now returned to what they set up to do in EACH of the new forums. AARSE is for the Army, RuM Ration for the RM and each of the other splinters for each of the seperate services. The quality of posting has gone up and the members are much happier.

My decision is this:
I am going to lock the forum for a while so nobody can post. I will then have the forum exported to another domain as a clone. I will then remove the Volunteer Band sections from this forum (NOT the members!) and on the new Volunteer Band forum remove all of the RM Band sections (NOT the members). I will then add links from one forum to the other and advertise the new Volunteer Band Forum on all the parts of the website. Moderators, from the Volunteer Band members, will be appointed and I will remain as overall Administrator of BOTH forums.

A new rank structure for the Volunteer Band forum will be discussed and decided by the members of that forum and a new masthead created reflecting the purpose of the new forum. People who are members of THIS forum, as it currently stands and at the time of it going offline for a few hours, will be members of BOTH foums with the same usernames and passwords and be able to post in both forums as full members, retaining the posts that they have made in either of the forums. Any new members will be able to register on each of the two forums as new members.

Please, do NOT see this as Us and Them and me spliting you up from the RM Band side of things... that is not my intention at all! I want to give the volunteer bands their own space and to have them identified as an entity in their own right. There will be duplicate posting in both forums. Any official announcements to one forum will be made to the other. They will be run in tandem... not as seperates.

Had I have realised how big this forum would have become in the start, I would have probably created two seperate forums in the begining and with hindsight (what a wonderful thing that is) perhaps I should have done that.
The NEW forum will be situated here: http://rnvolunteerbands.myfreeforum.org/
Please add this to your bookmarks

The forums will be locked from 7PM tonight (22 july 2007) until the main part of the work is carried out. I envisige that they will both be on line within a couple of hours with development to the new Volunteer band forum taking place over the rest of the week.

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http://www.royalmarinesbands.co.uk
The online home of the Royal Marines Band Service

Quasijock · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 9:40 am Post subject:

Well Done Deli for all the hard work over the weekend.

Is there any reason to keep all the back history from the previous forum?
It seems everything has migrated across and now needs some pruning.

Do we have to have all the sub-forums within the general chat forum?
It is looking a little cluttered.

You mentioned that it would take about a week to get this forum as you/we want it. Perhaps you are already doing it!

VMT for all your time and hard work. Much appreciated.

PS
I want my rightful place as solo trombone.......more postings required

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Rammit, I'm RDP

greenfairy · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:46 am Post subject:

Solo trombone is for "speshal" people though

I'm sure once we're all settled in to our new home it'll be easy to see which bits can be pruned - probably all the bits of me talking rubbish I expect!

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admin · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:49 am Post subject:

Quasijock · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:57 am Post subject:

Thanks Deli
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Rammit, I'm RDP

Quasijock · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 12:02 pm Post subject:

greenfairy · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 12:08 pm Post subject:

There's only one way to find out I guess!
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ZedHorn · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 3:43 pm Post subject:

I agree that 'the bar' shoudl be a non-lurkers area.. that way at least if we want to sound off, to some degree it is audible to like minded ears?!
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water... it's just a whixer for misky!

admin · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 7:47 pm Post subject:

admin · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 9:16 pm Post subject:

Did anyone use the 'quick reply' box on the other forum?
Do you want it on this forum as well?
I know not everyone liked

it as it doesn't show the emoticons but the option is there if you want it. Let me know yes or no
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http://www.royalmarinesbands.co.uk
The online home of the Royal Marines Band Service

greenfairy · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 9:30 pm Post subject:

I used it occassionally when in a hurry (mostly cos I'm sad enough to remember the code of my most frewquently used smilies

)

Loving the tweaks you've been making too

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ZedHorn · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 12:24 am Post subject:

admin · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:03 am Post subject:

2 votes for, none against... it is back!
Any other suggestions?
I'll try working on the Karma hack this weekend if I get time, there is a lot of hand coding and I'm not very good at hand coding so it may take a while. I'll probably start with the band and instrument additions to the profiles and get them to display in posts, making each post look like this:

The Karma Hack would be under the new fields
_________________
http://www.royalmarinesbands.co.uk
The online home of the Royal Marines Band Service

admin · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:08 am Post subject:

With the Karma hack it would look something like this:

_________________
http://www.royalmarinesbands.co.uk
The online home of the Royal Marines Band Service

ZedHorn · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:16 am Post subject:

oooo... gucci!! or even guccissimo it's that spesh!

nice work Deli, do you actually DO any work for the RM Band itself these days???
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water... it's just a whixer for misky!