Talk to me about starting to hill climb

[fiestajohn]

Broomsticklady said:

I agree John!! And we've asked the webmaster, who's willing to give it a go if we insist but has some major reservations!

Picture posting takes a lot of space / bandwidth which we are not currently paying for / may not be available. Spam spam spam - forums need lots of work to stop being hit by porn / virulent links et al. Moderation - hopefully we'd all behave but there are individuals like me around who sometimes go OTT (you should see the letter I've just crafted - pure vitriol - I did enjoy it - but not for public delectation and some don't have my restraint!).

Current 'plan' is to try and get a sub forum here, so all the hard work of space, modding, spam etc is done for us - the problem is PH is now commercial and they need to be convinced it will generate more punters to the site to bring more advertisers so money...

Surely if Monklands sporting car club and Wigton car club (for example) can have forums on their websites it should be possible for the Hillcimb and Sprint site to have one.

A sub-forum on here would be better than nothing but this forum seems quite dated and limited function wise compared to others that I visit.

Unfortunately I am not great with computers so I cant be of any help but there must be some competitors/officials/marshals/spectators who are computer experts who could help.

Sorry for the off topic post again. I would start a new topic but I dont know how pistonheads would feel about a topic about starting a new forum.

[mattius]

not a problem with the o/t posts they are slightly on topic as i hunted around for a forum to do with scottish hill climbing but couldnt find one.
Iam also a part time webdesigner/programer funnily enough, forums dont take up too much bandwidth if they are set up right, you do however need a database as a backend but many hosts give them for free. The problem is photos, they do take bandwidth (bandwidth costs money for those who dont know) however if they are hosted elsewhere it is not your bandwidth. i.e. images hosted on photobucket etc use photobuckets bandwidth not this sites.

[G4Addicted]

fiestajohn said:

Unfortunately I am not great with computers so I cant be of any help but there must be some competitors/officials/marshals/spectators who are computer experts who could help.

Advice has been taken from the people that manage our website, and also those with professional experience of the IT security issues that forums present - which is why we have opted not to do it at present. This may change if an opportunity arises whereby it can be created in a way that is easily managed.

[tuscan_thunder]

I see no problem with using PH as the medium to communicate Speed Motorsport news BUT if there is already a speed motorsport website, then it seems a bit odd not to use it.

There's surely no reason why both couldn't carry the info?

[mattius]

G4Addicted said:

fiestajohn said:

Unfortunately I am not great with computers so I cant be of any help but there must be some competitors/officials/marshals/spectators who are computer experts who could help.

Advice has been taken from the people that manage our website, and also those with professional experience of the IT security issues that forums present - which is why we have opted not to do it at present. This may change if an opportunity arises whereby it can be created in a way that is easily managed.

it does seem strange that your it experts and security advisors seem to have found something that the other 4 million sites that use phpbb, the 3 million sites that use vbulletin and various others do not seem to suffer. The latest version of both these systems are extremely secure and bar admins using easy passwords to guess there is hardly ever any attacks.

If its a cash sittuation im sure people would donate money every year to help with running costs

[Reidy10_0]

Lucky boy!
You have put me off my lunch.

Thanks

[Broomsticklady]

TheObserver said:

It is always easy to criticise but it would even be helpful if the website had a NEWS section.

The only news I have seen appearing this year is 2 births. Nothing wrong with that but it would useful to find out what is happening in the sport. The site has excellent advice for anyone who wants to start sprinting or hillclimbing but apart from the occasional update to the results, appears to be stagnant for most of the year.

Fair comment - I supply our webmaster with the "Hatches Matches and Despatches" type jottings, but that's all I've given him so that's all he's published!

Maybe we could consider a News 'tab' and encourage people to submit things for that area? As a starter, of course - see how it's received and how it progresses.

TheObserver said:

There are a number of contributors to PH with literally hundreds of posts who obviously have a passion for both disciplines. Perhaps their efforts could be channeled into the offical website?

Which is where we're trying to go with the forum!! However it happens, it will happen somehow!! At present however, it's a very small number of people (fingers of one hand could count them!) who comment upon and contribute to the 'official' Scottish website. With no comments, it's difficult to know how it's received, and how to improve. Now we have a few comments coming in, and thats healthy and we can respond, but if there aren't any, then it's difficult to reply to them, if you follow!!

TheObserver said:

After all it should not be necessary to log on to PH to find out what is happening at Championship Committe meetings. I refer to the recent post regarding Doune reducing their entry fees for next year.

Again, fair comment to a degree. Though to be pedantic, that was not an update from the Championship Committee, but a snippet I'd heard in conversation which in view of the comments earlier in that thread I thought should be in the public domain. What you will not be aware of however is that regular updates are sent out to Scottish registered competitors during the season by email.

[Broomsticklady]

TheObserver said:

Hi Broomsticklady

PS Oops! I have just discovered that you can get a members’s details by clicking on their name so now I understand the relationship with you and G4Addicted!

Better watch what I say from now on!

No problem at all - those who know us know we regularly disagree on matters motorsport!! And others too - it makes for lively trips to events sometimes!!

[G4Addicted]

As Nina will tell you, she is usually right, whereas I suffer from dillusions...

[Broomsticklady]

G4Addicted said:

As Nina will tell you, she is usually right, whereas I suffer from dillusions...

Usually?!

[G4Addicted]

Observer - rest assured that it is being looked at and - if and when we do start a forum - it will be done in a way that prevents it being exploited by spambots and the like. We already have a pilot underway that is being tested by our webmaster.

You do need to be more patient though - it is easy to post suggestions and comments, but it takes a lot longer for the volunteers who have to run the thing to do the work...