Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum
Royal Enfield Motorcycles => Bullet with the UCE engine => Topic started by: Bert Remington on November 12, 2018, 01:33:27 am
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I made a suggestion in Forum Improvements to add a link at the top of every page (same line as Home, Search, etc) for a Donation page. Our hosts did provide such a link but its hidden in a flyby page you only see when you logout or go to the Home page. And you're limited to $5 because the amount field seems to be locked. Anyway I made my donation but took the opportunity to basically repeat my suggestion. I recommend you do the same (donate and suggest putting the Donation link on every page).
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I found it.
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I also found it, had it been a snake it could have bit me.
Grant
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Thanks for the tip! Abe's on his way to save the day!
Hopefully they'll use it to hire a practiced SMF code monkey (https://forum.classicmotorworks.com/index.php/topic,26641.msg305799.html#msg305799) to sort out some of the nagging issues of this "New and Improved" forum system.
I, for one, would like to be able to post using symbols again without the whole plot seizing up, and not have my earlier postings with symbols made through the old system now resemble Romulan street signs.
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Donate to whom?
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To: MJ Sales. Purpose: Royal Enfield Form [sic]
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as a breeder on the bird forum I donated $100 to help keep it running as I make pretty good $$$$ per year. now if this forum ran like it use to in the old days I would be happy to make a good donation ...but unfortunately not so!
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To: MJ Sales. Purpose: Royal Enfield Form [sic]
To clarify, "M.J. Sales" appears to be an arm of Baker Motorsports, our Forum hosts. See: http://www.mjsalescycles.com/ (http://www.mjsalescycles.com/). According to its About Us page, "Baker Motorsport Co., previously known as MJ Sales, and Royal Enfield are the same company, merged in 2011".
So, I'm pretty confident my fiver will find its way towards this Forum.
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Ahhh yes wildbill you've touched on the basic conundrum: fix or fail. As an engineer who was brought in several times to assess project status and future, I had to make this recommendation. Some factors. Is this project worthwhile to its audience? Is there a possible path to improvement within available resources? My evaluations resulted in changes resulting in deployed projects and, in one case, the termination of a major project with the loss of hundreds of engineering-related jobs in the VA area.
I'm fairly new here but I've searched the archives for information and I've been rewarded accordingly. But something has changed in Ft Worth. Kevin seems to be standing back. Tim is recovering from injuries. Etc etc. I can only see shadows -- I don't want to inquire more closely.
Is this forum worth money to me? Yes! That's why I suggested the addition of a Donate button, albeit CMW implemented it in a less obvious manner than I suggested. I won't say how much money but you and I are in the same donation category.
What would I do if this forum disappeared? First of all, I would kick myself for not printing out more articles (I have plenty of paper and ink so this is on me). Secondly, I would re-examine my MG decision. Same weight as RE with classic looks and modern (Gen III) engine. Thirdly, I'd probably switch from IPAs to something Irish for a few days. It would be that serious of a loss to me.
So is this project (ie forum) worthwhile to it's audience? Very much so for many members.
Can this project be improved within available resources? Hard to say from my distance but my sense is CMW has downsized their organization responsible for their line-of-business website as well as this forum, albeit at a lower priority.
As we look at the indicators for a 2019 recession, what should be our course of action? I think inexpensive urban motorcycles like RE's will hold their own especially if fuel prices stay high. So therefore my recommendations are to continue suggesting forum improvements and to make your donations at the amount this forum is worth to you personally.
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I concur with my man Bert Remington. Currently I regularly participate in two other forums besides this, and both have also recently had "issues" of one sort or another. It just comes with the territory...and those weren't even "system migration cramps" like we're suffering. Moving to any new system architecture always hikes the likelihood of problems to a whole new level.
Before I lunged for that early retirement brass ring about a year ago, I also had a hand in several large database migrations over nearly a quarter century--catalog style databases mostly, of both the "flat-file" and "relational" type, with frequent integrations of both styles. I know firsthand what a fogbound snark hunt moving one's data to a new "home" can be. And with a working active forum like this, I imagine it's like building an airplane next to the one you're flying and then leaping aboard the new one and hoping for the best.
I just hope they use my donation and others' to bring in an SMF pro familiar with its quirks and not just throw it into the office coffee jar. In the meantime, whoever the hell's minding the shop in Ft. Worth might do well to pipe up here now and then with a word or two of encouragement or an appeal for patience.
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you would probably say that the material from previous years was better reading too ;) lately when I have tried to entered a longer than normal run of text with photos and tried to post ...I've got an error message and lost the frigg'in lot. not so with the old format days.
now that $5 option could be the beginning to opening a locked bagged for some members. for example those who threw out the coin could/should be entitled to enter a section which houses a buy/swap/sell section not available to the non-payers...LOL
I would ban them from entry including myself till he/she shells out the fees...LOL
there may be other benefits too. have not thought of then yet but for the annual fee of whatever and if it could improve the running of a great forum BUT first it has to improve it!...LOL
I could say make em all pay or let them move on BUT there are always cheapskates who will not pay. even I can't cover them...LOL
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sorry BM almost ran over you
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you would probably say that the material from previous years was better reading too ;) lately when I have tried to entered a longer than normal run of text with photos and tried to post ...I've got an error message and lost the frigg'in lot. not so with the old format days.
now that $5 option could be the beginning to opening a locked bagged for some members. for example those who threw out the coin could/should be entitled to enter a section which houses a buy/swap/sell section not available to the non-payers...LOL
I would ban them from entry including myself till he/she shells out the fees...LOL
there may be other benefits too. have not thought of then yet but for the annual fee of whatever and if it could improve the running of a great forum BUT first it has to improve it!...LOL
I could say make em all pay or let them move on BUT there are always cheapskates who will not pay. even I can't cover them...LOL
There's a lot to unpack there, Wildbill:
- To avoid having one's long and finely-crafted forum post (some old guys whittle, I fuss like Rain Man over my random verbose forum posts) blasted irretrievably into the aether by some glitch, get into the habit of copying the lot before hitting that <Post> button. In Windows, a simple <Ctrl><A> (https://www.wikihow.com/Select-All) ("Select All") followed by a <Ctrl><C> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control-C) ("Copy") will salvage the lot if it all goes tits up. Until you copy something else, <Ctrl><V> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control-V) ("Paste") will salvage it--or, simply open Notepad and save it permanently, BBcode links and all. It takes just seconds, and puts the brakes on the seething frustration of time truly wasted (as opposed to "merely wasted", when one's 1,000 word essay on The Virtues of Supple Grommets actually gets through just fine). If you can't be bothered to remember those Control hotkeys, you can also use the mouse's right-click to call up those same Copy, Select All, and Paste functions
- I'm pretty sure "pay for play" is not the way to go for this Forum. I'm happy to toss a few bucks into a kitty to help make it better, but making that a requirement for full access? I expect it would just have a chilling effect. What little I can bring to the table here I do not do for the greater glory of Baker Motorsports. I'm grateful they're hosting this great tool, and I express this by making a special point of ordering my needful Enfield items from Ft. Worth, but the freely-given knowledge of Forum members should remain free.
- As for "Members Only Ads," it seems this might often be a case of closing that barn door when the horse is already on its way to some other meadow. I imagine that many of those selling an Enfield may be giving up on the breed entirely. Perhaps it's unsuitable for their needs. Fair enough. Why make them pay to pass that thumper on before moving along and no longer caring half a hoot about that clever new grommet fix of yours? I'd rather see what bargains are out there. Besides, there's already David Blasco's superb blog (https://royal-enfields.blogspot.com/). Mind you, if Baker Motorsports wanted to pass along an occasional limited stock closeout bargain or some special coupon or maybe some swaggy little doodads like pins, patches or stickers to donors as little perks, how could one object to that? So long as they don't commence basically spamming the goodwilled with ads for the humdrum.
Anyhow, keep it free is what I say. And for all my whining about the fact that I can no longer display symbols like umlauts, degree signs, the proper currency glyph of Remulak, or other fare from the deepest recesses of Character Map, be grateful it's not the Official Royal Enfield Community Forum hosted by the folks in Chennai, 'cause that digital gurken hasn't worked at all in well over a year. And when it still did, it had devolved chiefly into a venue for subcontinental spamshites flogging their Golden Scrotum Beauty Cream.
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Full concurrence with our Poet Laureate Bilgemaster.
But its gonna take some time to erase that Supple Grommets image from my mind. ;D
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As for "Members Only Ads," it seems this might often be a case of closing that barn door when the horse is already on its way to some other meadow. I imagine that many of those selling an Enfield may be giving up on the breed entirely. Perhaps it's unsuitable for their needs. Fair enough. Why make them pay to pass that thumper on before moving along and no longer caring half a hoot about that clever new grommet fix of yours?
Interesting point. I wonder how many members here have given up, either temporarily or permanently, on RE yet remain active on the forum?
...And when it still did, it had devolved chiefly into a venue for subcontinental spamshites flogging their Golden Scrotum Beauty Cream.
I tried some of that - I thought I noticed a mild improvement, but my wife says no...
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Wrong Beauty Cream, Matt? ;)
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Wrong Beauty Cream, Matt? ;)
I think I got the right stuff - but I may have applied it to the wrong spot...
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I didn't see any member requests for the previously nice forum to be bollocksed up by the new owners. It was unceremoniously foisted upon us without any consultation with the members.
However, it seems a good scheme to mess it up and then ask for donations to "fix it".
What assurances do we have that any donations will go toward fixing the unrequested damages anyway? I'm pretty damn sure that they already have a helluva lot more money than I do. Do they plan to pay me for my posts?
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They've made more than enough money off of me already. I have the receipts to prove it. If they can offer $500 as an incentive to order even more they don't need donations to fix something they screwed up.
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well I actually think -they should pay us to use the site seeing they buggered it up!...LOL
I think in fairness we could work on say a...PAY PER VIEW SCHEME
that way every-ones a winner! ;)
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;D
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Maybe we just aren't "hipster" enough?
:o
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Maybe we just aren't "hipster" enough?
:o
You're "hep", which is the greybeard of "hip", roughly a magnitude of cooler than any so-called hipster. If this were Kerouac's 'On the Road', you'd be our Jack Cassidy. If anyone should be getting some swag kickbacks from this whole enterprise, you'd be one of maybe few enough to count on one of Ninefinger's hands. If it weren't for your input here, I wouldn't have any right to call my ride "reliable". So there. Thanks.
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You're "hep", which is the greybeard of "hip", roughly a magnitude of cooler than any so-called hipster. If this were Kerouac's 'On the Road', you'd be our Jack Cassidy. If anyone should be getting some swag kickbacks from this whole enterprise, you'd be one of maybe few enough to count on one of Ninefinger's hands. If it weren't for your input here, I wouldn't have any right to call my ride "reliable". So there. Thanks.
Thanks, Bilgemaster.
If anything that I wrote was of service to help you enjoy your motorcycle, then I am happy to have done it.
Cheers!