New fora? Forums?

For the discussion of topics related to the conservation, cultivation, propagation and exhibition of cacti & other succulents.
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Chris43
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Re: New fora? Forums?

Post by Chris43 »

Tina wrote:Its ODD that the Mammilaria society have to ask to be removed but Euphorbia society have to ask to be added, I don't think it will be beneficial or a useful addition to the forum but then I will just ignore it unless there is an agave lovers society :lol:
Actually Tina, I didn't ask for the Mammillaria Forum to be removed. I would have liked to have been consulted, and I would have put it to my Society Committee. Our next meeting is in October and I will put it on the agenda. I am however concerned that the Forum managers cannot differentiate between a personal opinion and a formal position.

However, in the interim, and maybe for ever, there is The Mammillaria Forum at http://mammillaria.forumotion.net/ which also has probably the best library of photos both in cultivation and in habitat, developed by an Italian member of the forum.

I set it up with a now deceased Belgian enthusiast, and it was intended to be independent of all Country based Societies, including the Mammillaria Society, separate from any society politics and attempted influence. I now manage it, though its not hugely active, but it is a repository of interesting information, searchable, and some images of wonderful collections, from Germany, the Ukraine etc....
Chris, Chinnor, Oxon, UK
Mammillaria enthusiast
BCSS High Wycombe Branch.
http://www.woodedge.me.uk/Home.html
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cactuspip
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Re: New fora? Forums?

Post by cactuspip »

Is it just me or has there been a very muted response to the new forums?

Personally, neither are of any real interest to me, since I don't grow small opuntias and just the odd gasteria/haworthia, but we will have to wait and see if there is going to be a demand for them.

I was quite happy with the single forum as I could dip in or not, depending on the subject heading.
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Bill
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Re: New fora? Forums?

Post by Bill »

They haven't realy been publicised to the target audience yet too many other things to do, I set them up now in preparation of things to come.

Bill
_______________________________________________________________________________
Haworthiad Editor

Mainly Haworthia and Gasteria, a few other South African succulents and the odd spiky thing.
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Peter
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Re: New fora? Forums?

Post by Peter »

This was a mistake and a bad idea. Change for the sake of change. I can't think of a single benefit.

It waters down the content of the forum just to curry some sort of favour with those with particular interests. It does nothing whatsoever for the vast majority of forum members.
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ragamala
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Re: New fora? Forums?

Post by ragamala »

I don't think it's altogether a bad idea. A plus is it could enable all posts on eg Haworthia to be referenced more easily within one relevant subforum. BUT the snag is that this won't work without extra vigilance by moderators. As soon as we have posts (eg one today asking for a Haworthia identification) in the main pforum rather than genus forum any such advantage is lost. I would be surprised if moderators have the time or will to police this? So back to square one.
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Phil_SK
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Re: New fora? Forums?

Post by Phil_SK »

They are not sections to contain all of the posts about tephros or haworthias. They were not set up on a whim to see if we forum users liked them, to be killed off if we didn't.

At the Tephrocactus Study Group meeting in May, we agreed to simplify our webpage to make it a single-page advert/signpost for, principally, the group's Facebook page. This led on a discussion of the shortcomings of the fairly active TSG Facebook group, in particular, how the format makes it difficult to find older posts and generally keep track of discussions and to find some of the excellent photos that have been shared by members. There has been a TSG forum in the past (now inactive, it's hidden from view but you can sneak a peek at http://tephro.com/index.php/forum/study-group.html ) but it struggled to get sufficient traffic to make it viable. We wondered whether the BCSS might be able to support smaller societies such as the TSG by providing forum space for the group. There was sufficient support for this idea that it was put to the BCSS BoT (for 'Facebook' I think you need to read 'forum'):
BOT minutes wrote:Mr Hildyard reported that some active related societies would like to run Facebook pages but have not got the technological skills to do so. eg Tephrocactus Study Group, Mammillaria and Haworthia Societies. The view was that this would not fragment our own Facebook offering and would in fact enhance it. The Societies involved were happy to provide assistance with the additional workload if needed. The Board agreed this proposal. ACTION: BH BY: 10 August 2018
In hindsight, further consultation with the Mammillaria and Haworthia Societies should have been carried out, and there are other groups that might welcome help from the BCSS who have, I assume, not been contacted either. As you can read from the minutes, those three were merely examples.

I've got mixed feelings about it: if it were up to me, the forum would have had almost no sectional structure up until now - maybe around 4 sections - but on the other hand I feel that the BCSS should be supporting the international specialist societies where it can, both because they support the societies aims and because of the fact that so many are based in the UK.
Phil Crewe, BCSS 38143. Mostly S. American cacti, esp. Lobivia, Sulcorebutia and little Opuntia
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Peter
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Re: New fora? Forums?

Post by Peter »

Supporting other group's activities is probably a good thing but that could be achieved by signposting in an advert type block simply to tell people that they exist, but not by changing an existing and popular format. Once started, how and where do you stop? A Copiapoa group starts up and wants a chunk of the forum? An Echinopsis group etc?
Patrick
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Re: New fora? Forums?

Post by Patrick »

I also understand the desire to support specialist societies etc but it might end up with nothing at all getting 'sufficient traffic to make it viable' including this forum which is already pretty splintered and with not particularly high traffic.
Patrick. Small varied collection of North American, Mexican and Andean Cacti. Variegated Agaves and Echeveria. Developing a succulent garden in Portugal. Joined Somerset BCSS and forum in 2007.
IanW
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Re: New fora? Forums?

Post by IanW »

Bill wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 7:38 pm They haven't realy been publicised to the target audience yet too many other things to do, I set them up now in preparation of things to come.

Bill
On this note, what happened to the site redesign? I thought the BCSS was paying an external organisation hard money to rebuild the BCSS' web presence, is that still underway?
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Bill
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Re: New fora? Forums?

Post by Bill »

Very much so Ian, hoping for an early Autumn launch, some internal issues and time constraints on my part delayed things somewhat.

Bill
_______________________________________________________________________________
Haworthiad Editor

Mainly Haworthia and Gasteria, a few other South African succulents and the odd spiky thing.
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