Evil Sid Posted March 27, 2023 Report Share Posted March 27, 2023 i have read the post abut the future of the forum but cannot comment on it as it is in the announcements section of the forum. if the forum is proving a drain on the main site then maybe it is time for it to go. yes people will miss it but at the end of the day you need to make a living same as everybody else. currently have no ads for holidays though Gary shoes, women's clothing and jobs that are available but no holidays....🤔.....🤫 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted March 27, 2023 Report Share Posted March 27, 2023 Social media is almost dead these days. It’s been in decline for several years but if Gary believes the forum is partly to blame for this then who are we to argue? I’d hate to think this had anything to do with my recent link from someone’s Facebook page and if so sorry. The forum has had a good run but maybe now it's time to call it a day. Bill 😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted March 28, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2023 it is lack of posters these days, only about five left who post regularly as far as i can see. I put this post up as Gary seemed to think that nobody had read his post in the announcement section as he had bumped it up, but posts in the announcement section cannot be commented on by "NORMAL" users only admin. His view was that the site on a whole was sound but the forum was not bringing in the revenue despite the tweaks and was in effect making a loss that was impacting on the main site. not a good way to run a business with a section that is costing money rather than making it. it has been fun on here and the friends and enemies i have made will be missed but business is business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted March 28, 2023 Report Share Posted March 28, 2023 No sunshine today so I can’t do any work on my battery charging circuit, plus I’ve pulled a back muscle so it might be a forum day for me. Facebook doesn’t like links on their site that divert people away. From a business point of view, I get that, but in the case of WWW, there shouldn’t be any huge difference as the same click revenue is available on both. Tweaking the adds won’t do much, if as you say there’s only the five of us here. As a money-making exercise, a forum will never make anyone rich but there are many positive aspects which if controlled could enhance visitor experience and be beneficial to WWW. This takes effort though and Gary has always maintained he’s too busy. It might explain why he’s been reluctant to promote the forum, but it doesn’t explain why all offers of help have been turned down. Bill 😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confused52 Posted March 28, 2023 Report Share Posted March 28, 2023 I did an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) run of the site and what it complained about wasn't obviously about the forum, the URLS were mainly astrology junk and somehow in the main pages. The about this forum is that you can create the topic of discussion with a level playing field, that is not possible on the other local sites and it will not get you very far on Faceache either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted March 28, 2023 Report Share Posted March 28, 2023 As an indication of how much Facebook has declined these days, except for Gary, I’ve not seen a single post from any of my friends or family for well over a week. Just loads of stuff that it thinks I’ll be interested in. I like fish and chips, but I don’t want it every day. 😊 With Gary hinting again about dropping this forum, I thought I’d take another look at Warrington People’s forum to see if it’s got any better since I last tried it. I was accepted within 30mins but it took far less than that to realize that nothing had changed. Fantastic if all you want is somewhere to air your political views. So much negativity and general bad vibes, I de-registered and I suspect most reasonable people would do the same. Bill 😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Observer II Posted March 28, 2023 Report Share Posted March 28, 2023 I've tried looking at twitter and facebook, and find the format to be chaotic and superficial. Comments are no more than one liners, without any attempt to express a point of view. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted April 4, 2023 Report Share Posted April 4, 2023 Apologies - didn't realise people couldn't comment in announcements - jury still out - a lot been going on behind the scenes and a lot of cash thrown at repairing damage and improving SEO. Are there only really five of you left? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted April 4, 2023 Report Share Posted April 4, 2023 On 3/28/2023 at 9:59 AM, Bill said: No sunshine today so I can’t do any work on my battery charging circuit, plus I’ve pulled a back muscle so it might be a forum day for me. Facebook doesn’t like links on their site that divert people away. From a business point of view, I get that, but in the case of WWW, there shouldn’t be any huge difference as the same click revenue is available on both. Tweaking the adds won’t do much, if as you say there’s only the five of us here. As a money-making exercise, a forum will never make anyone rich but there are many positive aspects which if controlled could enhance visitor experience and be beneficial to WWW. This takes effort though and Gary has always maintained he’s too busy. It might explain why he’s been reluctant to promote the forum, but it doesn’t explain why all offers of help have been turned down. Bill 😊 Hi Bill - I am sure you understand as a businessman you can not let people who are not part of your business run anything connected to your business - especially something which could involve serious legal implications. P.S I am still very busy improving my work-life balance. Hopefully, see you in October if not before! Maybe all five of us! The drinks are on me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted April 4, 2023 Report Share Posted April 4, 2023 On 3/28/2023 at 2:47 PM, Confused52 said: I did an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) run of the site and what it complained about wasn't obviously about the forum, the URLS were mainly astrology junk and somehow in the main pages. The about this forum is that you can create the topic of discussion with a level playing field, that is not possible on the other local sites and it will not get you very far on Faceache either. Hopefully you can see significant improvements now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted August 19, 2023 Report Share Posted August 19, 2023 I’ve been thinking about this again recently and seeing as the forum is almost dead and Gary’s concern over liability and costs, I was wondering if it would be better for everyone if we tried moving onto a private Facebook group. I’m no big fan of Facebook but I don’t think there’s any cost involved and providing we don’t have high numbers (unlikely), posts should remain visible for years to come unlike normal Facebook pages. This should make the forum more accessible to anyone searching a Warrington related topic, but they’d only be able to post if invited in. We could leave a message on the current board saying “We’ve moved” with a link to the new page and see how it goes. If it doesn’t work out then we just continue here but if we don’t try, we’ll never know. I think it’s worth a try, but it depends what Gary and others think. Bill 😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted August 20, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2023 considering that there only seem to be five regular posters it may be worth doing. as far as i am aware all you need to do is set up the group on facebook don't think there is a limit to how many can be in the group. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted August 20, 2023 Report Share Posted August 20, 2023 From a posters point of view, I can’t see any downsides to doing this but if we do move, I’d like it to be with Gary’s co-operation. Five regulars these days, even that’s a bit optimistic. The thing is, there’s probably a hundred or so “Guests” that come here each day purely as a result of a Google search, but even if they did want to join in or comment, they can’t because Dizzy and Gary are the only ones that can allow it, and they’re hardly ever here so we never get any new members. The so called “guests” probably account for most of the activity on this board but they certainly don’t come here to read what we’re talking about and that’s why they always seem to be looking at stuff that’s years old. Given that, any income generated by visits should stay that way even if we moved. Bill 😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confused52 Posted August 20, 2023 Report Share Posted August 20, 2023 A few of the 'guests' will also be robot crawlers searching for changes and so on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted August 20, 2023 Report Share Posted August 20, 2023 For sure Con but I doubt they’ll be clicking on many of the adverts. 🥶 What do you think about the idea of moving? Bill 😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confused52 Posted August 20, 2023 Report Share Posted August 20, 2023 I do not really use Facebook and so do not understand how topic creation would work in the group context. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted August 20, 2023 Report Share Posted August 20, 2023 As far as I can see, there are no topics, it’s just a list in date time order. Whoever starts a new post effectively owns that particular topic. It can be replied to but the main posting itself stays visible but compacted, so it’s easy enough to scan through recent topics. I believe there is a way to create separate “rooms” for topics, but I’ve not seen anyone using that function. Have a look at the local forum for Woolston to get the idea. https://www.facebook.com/groups/639408969560940 It lists as its main topics, history, nature, and community projects but there’s no sub-sections, just one list. If there were hundreds of people posting each day all wanting to post on a variety of different subjects then it would be a problem, but as it stands, what’s on offer seems perfectly usable. Bill 😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninearches Posted August 22, 2023 Report Share Posted August 22, 2023 I'm on facebook i "like" posts from friends etc & share posts that i find funny or informative but apart from that it is inhabited by people who want to put their lives "out there" for all to see. The number of people who post " at airport just heading off to Spain for a week" is amazing & is a must for burglars to get information. I am in quite a few groups on there such as Warrington Memories & several to do with former employment . Facebook is ok if used properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted August 23, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2023 my two main gripes with facebook is the "recommended" posts and "people you may know" The second usually gives me a list of people who one of my relatives mates brothers pal has spoken about once or to put it another way some complete stranger. the first is posts from the following list, cricket ,football some Indian or Pakistani post or some that i don't even know what the language is as it seems to consist of various squiggles and dots. i have never been into cricket and my interest in football is about the same as three toed sloths is in quantum mechanics. the pakistan and indian posts i can slightly understand as my surname is hinde which has been pronounce as hindi many a time and some AI algorithm thinks that it may be of asian or african origin. as for the squiggles and dots i have no idea, might be arabic or some such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted August 23, 2023 Report Share Posted August 23, 2023 Facebook is very good at letting others know you exist, although as you say the links to suggested “friends” sometimes gets a bit tenuous, but at least you’re not forced into anything. A private group works much the same by promoting itself to people with similar interests who can then apply to join. This is the very thing that’s been missing here for many years, which together with overly complex registration process and nobody to approve things, accounts for our current low numbers. I’ve looked at the Group settings and they’re flexible and very comprehensive and would allow us to create something modern and much better than we have right now. Most importantly, those wanting to join in wouldn’t have to wait days or even weeks for a single person to approve applications as they do here, as any one of us can do this with a simple click. I think we need to stop focusing at all the bad points of the main Facebook mechanism because the private group is a very different animal. Bill 😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted August 23, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2023 just need to se what Gary thinks about it. after all it will save him a few bob and he can always put a link to the group as well as to the warrington worldwide facebook page. who knows we may even get few of the old posters back. (old as in used to post as opposed to old buggers like us)....🤦♂️ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted August 23, 2023 Report Share Posted August 23, 2023 It’s a difficult one Sid. While we’re all grateful for having the use of the forum over the years and bearing in mind Gary has a lot on his plate recently, I think the time’s come where we have to do him a favour and make this decision for him. We’ve all tried to support Worldwide during this time and I’d hope that becoming an independent forum we could still continue to do so. Bill 😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted August 24, 2023 Report Share Posted August 24, 2023 Just catching up - I am totally against Facebook (but have to use it as a necessary evil for business) as it is a law to itself and actually wants me to pay them to distribute a free news service. For me Facebook is best for just family stuff and posting pictures of what you are eating. Not really the place for serious debate. I am already a member of far too many groups - obviously, if you want to start your own private Warrington chat group that's up to you. The forum will be staying open until at least the end of the year as we evaluate what we are doing to celebrate 25 years of providing a free news service and launch our ambassadors. From past experience, everyone I know who has been involved in setting up a specific group on Facebook ends up having problems. Few are now run by the people who actually set them up. Facebook posts also don't get picked up as well by google and there is a fair chunk of history on here now that would be a shame to lose. P.S Dizzy keeps saying she is going to come back - so those connected with her on facebook need to give her a poke! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted August 25, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2023 well i will stay loyal to the end Gary, however long that may be. as for dizzy tell her sid will track her down soon and mither her until she does return......🕵️♂️ can't believe that it is 25 years since you started this venture tempus has certainly fuggited. may be time for a new issue of tee shirts, i still wear mine occasionally but it has shrunk a bit in the wash, at least that is my excuse rather than admit that i have put on a bit of weight over the years.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted August 25, 2023 Report Share Posted August 25, 2023 3 hours ago, Evil Sid said: well i will stay loyal to the end Gary, however long that may be. as for dizzy tell her sid will track her down soon and mither her until she does return......🕵️♂️ can't believe that it is 25 years since you started this venture tempus has certainly fuggited. may be time for a new issue of tee shirts, i still wear mine occasionally but it has shrunk a bit in the wash, at least that is my excuse rather than admit that i have put on a bit of weight over the years.... Thanks Sid - I actually issued an old new t-shirt that I found to our new music correspondent the other day! I will be at the Oktoberfest again this year for any posters who fancy popping in - I can afford a round of five pints! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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