Jon

Yep, I admit, the front page of the site has been somewhat left.... Unfortunately there is always something else more important to be done, but you are right, it needs to be sorted asap Jon

Welcome back Richard, we wondered where you had gone!

Another couple of months have gone by so quickly I barely noticed them. Work is mad at the moment, working far longer than I should all the time. They keep telling us to think of the money, but it's reached to point when even the money has lost it's appeal and I just want to have a social life back! It's also been a bit of an up and down couple of months here. Most things are ticking along OK, but there have been a few flare ups along the way. Most recently, a member has accused me of being "poltically adverse" to the building of new marinas. Once again the old threat of legal action comes out of the bag and along with it another few hours of my time gone sorting out the problem. For the first time ever yesterday I questioned why I was running this site, and thought that life would be so much easier at times without it, but a trawl though the forums tonight has restored my faith, with genuiune topics being discussed it has reminded me of why we exist. It has made me think about what we've achieved here. I never started the site with any particular goal or vision. It has sort of evolved, taken a life of it's own and is now more successful that I'd ever have imagined. . In all honesty, when I was 16 I just wanted to have a website. My first attempt was not successful (the less said about it the better) and the intial versions of this site were less than brilliant. However the original forum attracted a number of people who got it off the ground and kept on coming back. It was only in 2004 when the system failed and when I changed to IPB, ditched the rest of the site and concentrated on the forums that it really took off. Now we lots of visitors each day, many interesting debates, and best of all friendships have been formed via the site that might otherwise not have happenend. With success though comes the associated problems. We can never keep everyone happy, there will always be those who think we treat them unfairly and those who don't like our decisions. We will always have people who break the rules, and numerous reports made to us when they do. We will have the inevitable spammers and junk posts,and we will have maintenance issues to deal with. On average we deal with about 20 reports a week, anwer approx 40 private messages, look at weekly total of nearly 2000 new posts, approve those posts that need approving, moderate posts that need moderating as well as try to find time to participate ourselves. I'm sometimes asked why I don't participate in discussions very often. The answer is that once I've done my share of the above tasks, I simply don't have any time left! The site crew work hard with no reward to help me out, and their efforts must not be underestimated. So, after brief dip in enthusiasm I'm pleased to say that I'm back up to full strengh and I'd like to thank all of you for your participation in making the site what it is today. In particular, I'd like to thank the volunteer site crew who do a fantastic job looking after the site. It couldn't be done without you.

To be fair, the chopper is the best way to look for a stolen boat, it can cover large distances very quickly. Newsbiscuit is a great site if you are into satirical humour, well worth a visit! Jon

We've had reports that users are receiving spam in private messages. This is not permitted or authorised, and could I ask that anyone who receives such a message copies it to myself or another site crew member, along with the user it came from and we'll ban that user and investigate how it is occuring. Many thanks, Jon

2 topics merged Jon

Hi, I hope you don't mind but I've edited the text size of your post, it was rather large and distorting what you were trying to say on my screen. I don't know where the legal standpoint is should there be any damage caused, but if BW own/manage the waterway, and as a licence holder you agree to abide by their rules then I think that the may have you here... Any civil lawyers able to advise? Jon

Well, I've upgraded the blog and gallery systems to the latest versions today. This was mainly because there are security vulnerabilities while using out of date versions, and the upgrades were long overdue. However the blog system is a massive change on what used to be here. Hopefully you will like it as it features the newest entries on the front page, rather than just a list. It's also cleaner and crisper. If you have any comments, let me know. Also, there is the option to 'theme' your blog so you are not stuck with the basic CWDF colours. I'm looking at ways of easily implementing this at the moment....

...since I updated this blog. Over a year in fact!! They say that life passes you by so quick that you don't realise it, and that is certainly true of this last year. The site has gone through it's ups and downs, partly because I haven't always been here to cast my eyes over things and partly because there have been some issues that have presented themselves. The upshot of this is that some members have got upset with each other, some throwing their teddies out their pram, others just plain fed up (normally with those whose teddy is now wet and muddy on the pavement below them!) and the site is, in most cases, poorer for their loss. That said, it's been a successful year. Since January this year we have had 14590 unique visitors, generating 400224 visits between them, giving a total number of hits as 34268440! Not bad really! I do ask myself from time to time whether this site is what I meant it to be when I first started it in 2001. Well the answer to that is no. This site was set up to be a news based site, with articles, not unlike a certain orange and black site you may know. However it quickly became clear that the orange and black site was far better and aquiring breaking news than I was, and thus the site in its current concept was born. I never expected it to take off in quite the way it has, and it's been a learning process along the way. One side effect for me is that I'm always on here dealing with admin and therefore rarely get the time to post or participate myself. However while the site is providing people with help and advice, I'm happy to run it, and I'm really pleased that the online community has helped to forge friendships in real life, and that for me is one of the best aspects of this site. So where next? I'm waiting for some new software that will allow for a dynamic version of the front page, fully integrating it with the forum system. This will allow me much more options. I'm also looking at more ways for members to interact with the site, taking existing ideas and improving them. All of this takes time, any my time is very variable as to when I can work on the site. All I know is that the site will continue to be here as it's developed it's own life, filled with the characters and personalities of those that frequent it, and that makes it all worthwhile...

I highly recommend the course - I did one back in 2002 and it was very worthwhile, lots of new tricks and a fun day out to boot! Jon

Hi, I'll e-mail Rob who I am sure will be happy to tell you anything that he can. Many thanks, Jon