AHRDF Forum - where do we go from here ?

[VK4ADC]

This Forum was initially created as an alternative to the 'old, archived' VKLogger forum two years ago next month.  It changed name from OzLogger a year ago with the domain name changed accordingly.

Yes, there has been a fair amount of activity in those two years but where do we go from here ?


Is it still useful ? 
And, if it is, why aren't we seeing more posts from YOU ??

Does it need a facelift ? Suggestions ?


How well does it compete as an alternative to Facebook  ?

It's future is up to you. 
If you use it then it will stay.  
If it isn't wanted then I will trash it.

As they also say about amateur frequencies, 'use it or lose it'.

My nominal window/timeline is to assess the usage between now and 31st December 2018.
January 1st 2019 may see it gone. 

Your choice.

Doug, Admin

[VK2WP]

I am not the most frequent poster first to admit that and am quite happy with the way the forum is. Do not have a Facebook account and no intention of getting one.

Find the Southgate news with a window to amateur activity and related topics outside Australia interesting at times.

Its nice to have an alternative to Facebook and have no critisims of the forum.

Thanks for all your work in maintaining the forum.

73's Wal

[VK3LU]

X2 Wal
I have absolutely no intention of joining Twitface either. 

Nev
VK3LU

[VK5TM]

X3. No intention of having anything to do with Pukebook either.

Not sure what the answer is to boost activity, but I know it actually took me quite a while to come across this forum in the first place.

[VK4RW]

+1.

I'm not on the social media bandwagon.  It tends to get rather anti-social at times.

There is a wealth of information contained in the Forum pages that members can access readily, instead of trawling through endless pages of 'Faceclessbook'.
The big plus with this Forum is it is open, meaning anyone can look at the posts, unlike a closed forum where everyone needs to register.

Doug, FWIW please persevere with the forum, it may be slow at times, but also remember, winter is almost over, and people will start reappearing.


Ron
VK4BVI

[VK2ZIW]

Please stay with it, as mentioned, winter is nearly over.
I've been putting a lot of time into the Codec2 project doing a repeater,
a Parrot repeater (store and retransmit).
There are many times when two close HF stations cannot communicate
but some 500Km away, their signals are both great so a repeater would be the answer.
With digital HF voice, this is now practical.
All the users need is the FreeDV app and to put the repeater trigger string in their text
that is sent with the voice.
Alan VK2ZIW

[VK3ALB]

I always felt that closing down the vklogger forum punished the core group of users that kept posting and kept it ticking over. Granted there were many who no longer logged in but shutting it down didn't affect them at all.

There is no doubt that Facebook style communities are NBG when it come to sharing ideas and leaving them there for posterity. Forums and web pages are in my mind the best ways to do that. Forums allow interaction between users that you can't easily do on a web page.

The fact the vklogger forum is still there shows it has value. It would be a shame for this forum to be turned to read only or worse, disappear. I wonder if the faithful would have the strength to follow another group that would inevitably appear to fill the void.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

[VK2FLR]

The forum may be a bit slow at times but is infinitely better than having to trawl through the inanities on FB.
The two FB lists I look at are VHF-UHF microwaves which is supposed to replace the old forum and VK Homebrew.
If you review what is on these FB forums most of the content is trivial. Strip out the trivia and the remaining content is about the same as here. So the answer is that content reflects activity which is poor at the moment.
So let's keep the forum going. If maintaining it is a chore then the maintenance task needs to be simplified.
The VHF email reflector is pretty quiet too but it ticks along.
VK2FLR

[VK4ADC]

Internet Forum:

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum

An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporarily archived. Also, depending on the access level of a user or the forum set-up, a posted message might need to be approved by a moderator before it becomes visible.

The key word here is discussion.

I find it hard to believe that, at any instant in time, no one has any..
. questions they need to ask
. new ideas to share
. solutions to problems, their own or another's..
. news about AR of interest to VK (& other) amateurs

These are the reasons why this Forum exists.

There are no rapid fire decisions about to be taken. The timeline in the first post states that between now and 31 Dec 2018, the usage will be assessed. 

At this point in time, there are about 2300 posts in 460 threads and 308 users in the Forum database.   That covers 2 years of use so equates to an average of about 20-25 posts per week, sometimes most of those on just one or two days of any given week.   What will it be at the end of December ?

The AHRDF.NET domain name has been registered and paid for until July 2022 so this venture was started with long term availability in mind.  Having the domain available until then is useless unless people use the facilities that it provides through the Forum. The current hosting platform is being made available for free by a VK amateur but the future of its hosting is an unknown.

Yes, I am retired and I supposedly have lots of free time but I read virtually every post whether I am interested in the topic, or not, so that I can moderate its content.  That usually happens more than twice a day, every day. I also have to quickly flush out - and keep out - the 'fake' new members, maintain the core software with updates regularly,  download database backups off the server to local storage.....  That takes more than an hour a day every day on average, sometimes several hours.   

I do it as a contribution towards supporting amateur radio in Australia. 

I don't ask for donations - I don't want any - so please don't be offended if I refuse.


The thing is this. I don't want to waste my time providing and maintaining a facility that has minimal use. Time is precious, becoming more obvious the older I become and more aware of its passing.

You can do two very obvious things to help the Forum continue.
(1) Use it, not just reading but posting too. What to post about is near the top of this post.
(2) Spread the word to other amateurs you communicate with. Tell them about its existence, what it does for you...

As it says (again) below : "This Forum is only going to be as interesting as the posts it contains. 
If you have a comment or question, post it as it may trigger or answer the query in someone else's mind."

I plan to "bump" this topic every few weeks until the end of the year as a reminder for users about the Forum's future : Use it or lose it.

Doug, Admin

[VK5PJ]

Hi Doug,
please do not be drawn down the path of looking at stats and numbers to determine the future of the forum, this iteration is still quite young and did not have the volume of trafic that VKLOGGER brought to the table in the early days where activity was much higher. forums like this become the repository of handy information. I was very active on VKLOGGER forum but was burnt by it being read only and because of that have not embraced another because of shaken confidence in stability. I was in the process of standing up my own version of a forum when yours appeared, as I intended to run it until I went SK so others would have a place to store knowledge :-) but when yours established I killed my yet unborn platform.
I guess what I am saying is stability is a key point in success for this sort of endeavour

Regards,
Peter, vk5pj

[VK4BLP]

I'm still behind the forum Doug, and will happily keep hosting it.

Places like Stalkbook just can't become a repository of useful information, as forums like this have and will continue to contain.

As Peter vk5pj just said, people got burnt by vklogger going read only, then have been hesitant to embrace any others because they were wary of them going tits up.

Also just like on Stalkbook, there are just so many groups starting up all the time, and only so many hours in a day to read them all, trying to find the wheat from the chaff.

Now that people are aware that this group exists, and will be sticking around forever (I'll keep it running here on my servers), it might be time for members to pass on to others the value and benefits of such a respository of information.

[VK6RO]

What i really like about this forum is it is all "quality" posts... good stuff.

Not like some others around the world that deteriorate into slanging matches.

many thanks to you young Doug

de vk6ro 2 sept 2018

e&oe

[VK4ADC]

A month ago I posted "At this point in time, there are about 2300 posts in 460 threads and 308 users in the Forum database.   That covers 2 years of use so equates to an average of about 20-25 posts per week, sometimes most of those on just one or two days of any given week.   What will it be at the end of December ?"

As at today (6Sep18) : "Our members have made a total of 2,399 posts in 469 threads.
We currently have 311 members registered."

That equates to about 100 posts in the last month, an average of 25 posts per week - and when I look at who posted what, most of them seem to have been from me.  

It was suggested that I shouldn't look at the stats.  Unfortunately the stats are my way of seeing how well the facility is being utilised - or not being utilised. With 300+ members and over 20 registered visitors a day (and sometimes over 30), that represents under-utilisation in anyone's language. Plus I truly find it hard to believe that more users don't have something useful to contribute.


I have implemented stronger registration settings to keep out non-amateur users and that seems to be helping keep out the spammers - yet they seem to be more interested in joining and posting than the already registered members.

In another month I will revisit the useage details, and the month after that, etc.. By year's end I will have made a firm decision as to the Forum's future. 

There are a number of options available, a few of which are..
1. closing the Forum to new users completely. The posts can then only be made by existing users and moderation can be largely ignored if we assume that they will be well behaved. If they don't behave they get their membership terminated and they will not be able to rejoin (closed to new registrations);
2. making logging in compulsory to even view anything. That means that Google and other search engines will not be able to trawl the topics and that means that the Latest Posts list and within-site-only searches will be the only way to see what is new/happening;
3. activate both options 1 & 2. Closed Forum, largely un-moderated, no search results.

These options reduce the moderation workload, particularly #3. 

There are further options including culling the user list to remove anyone whose post count has not reached a minimum value, say 10. I would like to avoid this one but it is an available option. What does your post count show as ? Would you be on the "cull list" ?

The Forum's future is in YOUR hands.. Use it ?  Lose it ?

[VK5TM]

Instead of the option of culling those with a post count less then 10, would not a better option be to cull those that haven't posted in say the last 6/12 months?

There might be a recent new member that has only made 1 or 2 posts at the point in time when the less than 10 option is enacted.

If the problem is the moderation workload/number of posts ratio, is the appointment of several other moderators not an option?

[VK2KRR]

I usually check in at least once every day or so, depends how active the forum is. Most times, not much change.

[VK3RX]

With other local forums I'm a member of, once set up the owners have left their forum run and rarely make an appearance. The odd change/update now and then, but that's it. Approving signups and moderating content etc. is left to their moderators.

You seem to be spending much time doing the lot and agonising over stats, content, posting etc.

You've done a great job, and now step back, appoint moderators, let the forum run and go and sniff the roses  

[VK3AV]

I check the forum a couple of time per day, as I do VKClassifieds and the 4 radio based facebook groups that I have joined.

I am a member of a number of Groups.io, ...groups and a couple still languishing on Yahoo. I read them all though seldom add content.

My posts to this forum have been when I have information to provide that I felt was of value.  

I am a 'researcher' by inclination and whilst I may post comments infrequently, I fully appreciate the content from others as I learn more about this hobby and especially the more complex aspects of it that currently appeal to me (microwaves etc). Actually I don't seem to turn the radios on that often either but I am always searching for new information that I can pass on to others when needed.

I agree with 3RX, use moderators to cover the timelines and see how it works for you Doug.

Regards
Bernard

[VK4ADC]

Let me remind you all that nothing much will happen until after the end of Dec 2018 and Jan 2019 will see any major changes made.  I have waited a few days to see what posts would appear.

Additional moderators...  Hmmm, yes, well that would undoubtedly help - and it has been contemplated more times than you might believe.  There are a couple of existing users with administrator level permissions already but they are not really super-active visitors to the Forum and they are aware of their access status.

How do you pick new moderators though ?  A show of hands.. then pick people who seem to know what they are doing.. How many posts they have made..  How often they visit the forum..

Tools for your forum staff to give you a helping hand


Using the built-in moderator control panel in MyBB, forum staff can assist with light administration tasks on the forum such as:

• Announcement Management - Moderators can manage forum announcements in the forums they moderate
  
  
• View Moderation Queues - Moderators can view full moderation queues and approve threads, posts and attachments in the forums they moderate
  
  
• View Reported Content - Moderators are able to see a listing of any reported posts in the forums that they moderate and mark them as actioned/read. Super Moderators can see reported reputation and users, too
  
  
• Moderator Logs - Moderators can access past moderation history to view actions taken by other moderators to specific threads or posts
  
  
• Profile Management - Moderators are able to edit portions of user profiles to either change or remove inappropriate content
  
  
• User Banning - Moderators are able to ban users for predefined periods of time
  
  
• View Warning Logs - Moderators can see a history/log of warnings given to a particular user by other forum staff
  
  
• IP Searching - Moderators can search for a specific IP address and return any users or posts that match
  

If you are an active forum user then by all means PM or email me rather than replying to this post.  (If you don't know how to use the PM system then you probably won't make a successful moderator.) Include your phone number so that I can contact you to discuss...

My preference is to keep alternate administrators and moderator users unknown to other general users so posting about it on the forum itself is undesirable.

Moving on:

Culling - could happen but certainly not desirable.

"You seem to be spending much time doing the lot and agonising over stats, content, posting etc." Yes I do. Seeing it is a forum that is visible to the public, my rear end is on the line. It is in my best interest to know what is happening.  Less important with a closed forum when only registered members can see content.

"I am a 'researcher' by inclination" plus "My posts to this forum have been when I have information to provide that I felt was of value. " should really be useful to promulgate ideas that are appearing elsewhere and might help the AR community grow.  The recent swedish licensing change post for instance.. absolutely brilliant info ( https://ahrdf.net/forum/showthread.php?t...67#pid2567 ).  New projects & methods invoke varied thoughts in the readers' minds.  

"I usually check in at least once every day or so, depends how active the forum is. Most times, not much change."  And it doesn't change because no one is posting their new info, ideas, researches etc...  My tag line says it : 
This Forum is only going to be as interesting as the posts it contains. 
If you have a comment or question, post it as it may trigger or answer the query in someone else's mind.


So apart from Sweden and grommets from Bunnings, nothing anywhere has happened in the AR world since last Friday  ????????  It's hard to believe isn't it ?

[VK2EHQ]

Hi Doug,

I can't help but think you're thinking too much into it, hence I've gotta put my 2 bobs worth in.

Forums are a resource used to post or look up information and thankfully, not here, troll. A forum shouldn't be looked at by how many messages are posted or how many users have logged in for the day.

I'm an admin on a website and actually pay for the domain name (not radio related). There hasn't been a new user logged in for months or a new post for the same period. It doesn't concern me as it's there for the people that want it. It can have up to 24 logged in at a time and rarely none. Do they post? not a chance. I know of other forums in the same situation.

With the packet and telephone BBS I used to run from the early 80's. I originally looked at how many messages, other BBS's I forwarded to and throughput of traffic. In the end, if it was stable and had no failures, that was all I was after.

I can understand when one sets up a new "baby" and can hardly wait for people to find it and use it, but at the end of the day, you can't make people use it. You're better off having quality posts over quantity.

Setting up systems of a software or hardware/radio/electronic nature is a benefit to yourself through the experience gained, the grey hairs you've earned and the benefit someone will gain when they have the inclination to use the end result of your time etc.

No-one thanked me for running the BBS at the time, but quite a few complained when I shut it down 12 or so years later. You do it for yourself because you enjoy doing it, whether it's a challenge or the experience gained and whoever else derives benefit from it, great.

As Damien mentioned, let it just run and enjoy.

73 de Peter
VK2EHQ

[VK2FLR]

Since Adam has re-opened the original forum then the problem of this one is solved.

See if the content of this forum can be ported across to the the original forum.

---

Since Adam has re-opened the original forum then the problem of this one is solved.

See if the content of this forum can be ported across to the the original forum.