RMweb global announcement. Updated forum test ground.

[phil-b259]

Not sure I agree that the older you get the more difficult it is to learn.  At 55, I'm no spring chicken, more rank old mutton, but since moving to Wales I've learned Welsh to a reasonable degree of competance, learned how to write poetry in Welsh, learned how to research the family tree and history, how to edit video, new techniques in oil and watercolour painting and kept up with the constant upgrades to Windaz that Micro$haft's Ritalin deprived techy-farties keep coming up with to justify their existence.

 

Having said that, I still can't solder and have given up ever being able to master that process.  I know my limits.  No lack of application, just some things will never be.

 

PS Where can I see this wondrous new shiny web page thing that everyone is talking about? (Edit) Sorry, missed the link in the first post.  

 

As with many things much depends on how your brain is wired up. Just as some find they have an aptitude for creative tasks and others excel at analytical ones, some folk handle change better than others. There are of course examples of those who experience traumatic events which then prompts a radical change in all aspects of their personality and tendencies and others whose capabilities seem to change gradually, while yet more stay focused on following a particular path.

 

The process of learning - and memory is quite fascinating, I recall seeing a few Robert Winston / BBC documentaries on the subject which showed just how vital those early years development is to creating the framework within which we live out the majority of our lives. At a recent safety day at work we were told that while the average man can concentrate on 7 tasks at once, the number of unconscious tasks the brain is busy organising behind the scenes is something like 700!

[Reorte]

As I've said elsewhere I like improvement (and what really is improvement is usually far more subjective than people think) and don't like change for the sake of it. Heaven knows why some people hold it up as a virtue and instantly resort to having a go at those who disagree.

 

As for that new design, if a change is forced anyway it looks OK.

Edited September 6, 2018 by Reorte

[Clive Mortimore]

Hopefully the changes will be sold to us old fogies in a way that we will want to learn how to be involved with a new RMweb.

 

I have reached an age where I can only be bothered with learning something new if I want to not because I have to.

[Colin_McLeod]

I am willing to give it a go once all the teething troubles are resolved.

[Ben Alder]

For all those people who don't like change, this is what RMWeb used to look like in 2006...

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20060118054128/http://www.118go.co.uk:80/rmweb/index2.htm

 

We have all managed to move on from there, I'm sure any new version will be fine.

 

Moxy

 That takes me back - it was a month or so before I stumbled in to the digital age and found railway forums, although I didn't get around to signing up until some time later, as I had nothing to say - a course that might be suggested to perhaps some others....    

 

400 members  - it was a different place then - and I remember the fretting and fussing  when the membership hit a thousand and then two or three and how the atmosphere of the forum would be destroyed by the mass of numbers....

 

As to the future, I have always subscribed  to the  message of the novel  The Leopard by Lampedusa that things have to change in order to stay the same, and look forward to the latest incarnation of our home and its structure.

[The Fatadder]

For all those people who don't like change, this is what RMWeb used to look like in 2006...

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20060118054128/http://www.118go.co.uk:80/rmweb/index2.htm

 

We have all managed to move on from there, I'm sure any new version will be fine.

 

Moxy

A shame not many pages work past the menus, I’d have liked a look at my workbench at the beginning of rmweb. Though I suppose the loss of all the photo hosting sites will have spoiled it somewhat

[Steamport Southport]

Some model railway forums still look like that.

 

I won't criticise them as I couldn't do any better and most of them are enthusiastic.

 

 

 

 

Jason

[Neal Ball]

Should we be able to log in there yet? Or will we need new user credentials?

 

Thanks.

[Ian J.]

It's a test site by the look of it, so not active, therefore not suitable to log in to. Also it appears to have just a few test postings, so don't expect to find all the content here, in there.

[Legend]

Got to have sympathy with Andy . Change hasn’t happened yet and already dissent! I too do not like change much but in IT it’s pretty much obligatory , Windows 10, Office 365 . You quite quickly get used to the changes . And it might actually be better!

[dj_crisp]

Hi Andy

 

Sounds like you've got a great selection on testers on this thread... happy to be involved if needed.

 

Main thing for me will be not losing old postings. Rmweb archive has lots of good stuff that didn't make it to this site. I think from an earlier post you've got this covered.

 

I've never got on with the search facility on rmweb and just use Google site search so hopefully it's a bit better in the new version.

 

Cheers

Will

[Stubby47]

(Drop the internal search altogether and Google handle it...).

[Mallard60022]

Hopefully the changes will be sold to us old fogies in a way that we will want to learn how to be involved with a new RMweb.

 

I have reached an age where I can only be bothered with learning something new if I want to not because I have to.

In Management of people, systems and events, the golden rule is that to make change a success you need to involve everyone from the start, ensure they are involved in each stage of the change and support those that find it a challenge.

Phil

[Andy Y]

(Drop the internal search altogether and Google handle it...).

 

I'd have been quite happy with that but Google dropped their Site Search access some time ago (which we used to use).

[devondynosoar118]

I am busy berating my kids to get back down the pit so I can put another round of coal into my router ready to access a new look RM Web. Full steam ahead!

[Stubby47]

In Management of people, systems and events, the golden rule is that to make change a success you need to involve everyone from the start, ensure they are involved in each stage of the change and support those that find it a challenge.

Phil

Yes, but this is a Dictatorship.

[RichardS]

In Management of people, systems and events, the golden rule is that to make change a success you need to involve everyone from the start, ensure they are involved in each stage of the change and support those that find it a challenge.

Phil

 

You have to define involvement - informing, seeking feedback, listening.   

 

The old adage about the camel applies unless the involvement is 'managed.'  That is to say you let people think they are involved - at the end of the day the decisions still have to be made whether people like it or not. That is when the thing called leadership comes in to the frame - persuading people to do things you want them to do because they think they want to do it! 

 

Change has to take place else we'd still be living in trees. I'm sure some grumpy ape man could see no reason to descend to the plains and stayed aloft. He became an Orang.

[Reorte]

Change has to take place else we'd still be living in trees. I'm sure some grumpy ape man could see no reason to descend to the plains and stayed aloft. He became an Orang.

Again, the important difference between improvement and change. Changes for the better are good, but not all changes are for the better. "Change has to take place" is going too much down the path of change for the sake of change; it only has to when forced by circumstances.

[Stubby47]

One of my life's maxims:

 

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

 

George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

 

I try to be as unreasonable as possible.

[RichardS]

Age alone is not a barrier to change.

 

Psychological matters can be a barrier - at any age. For example, some of those on the autistic spectrum cannot tolerate any change to routine.

 

Mental capacity can be a barrier.

 

But willingness, openness, optimism and curiosity all encourage change orientation.

 

Exposure to change begets change. The challenge for some people is to be exposed to change. Remove exposure and habits form. It is habits and laziness that can create a barrier to change. "This is good enough for me." (how sad is that?)

 

When not in the workplace a person's confidence may diminish and confidence is needed to embrace new things. How often do we hear older people say 'I couldn't do that, I might break it.'  

 

Being amongst young people also helps change orientation but is not exclusive.

 

Recently, a person a few years younger than me asked what I was doing - I explained that I had taken a photo on my SLR which I had was transferring to my smartphone by wifi where I would edit it and then post it live from the event we were at on to Facebook.

 

Older people often forget they were young once and presented challenges of change to the older generations of that time.

 

It's all a mindset.

 

Think like a dozy old duffer and that's what you'll become.

[Andy Y]

you need to involve everyone from the start, ensure they are involved in each stage of the change 

 

 

Are you trying to destroy my sanity?

 

There will be some elements of the update that some people won't like and no amount of inclusivity will ever overcome that; some will love some of the features and the majority won't give a monkeys. Some will even pop up and say they don't like it even though they have no alternative viewpoint to offer and do not even tell you what they don't like and why they don't like it (how do you wrap a comforting arm around someone like that?).

[RichardS]

Again, the important difference between improvement and change. Changes for the better are good, but not all changes are for the better. "Change has to take place" is going too much down the path of change for the sake of change; it only has to when forced by circumstances.

 

How do you define better? Who for, what for, why? 

 

How do you measure improvement? How do you know that the old ways would have continued to be better than the new ways? 

 

But change doesn't mean improvement - it means different behaviours to accommodate different circumstances. Change is evolutionary as it always occurs as a result of another change elsewhere. Nothing is entirely new (unless you subscribe to the big bang theory - but even then that was a chnage to the singularity etc etc)

 

Change is inevitable due to the actions of others impacting upon our own activities. 

[Phil Parker]

Are you trying to destroy my sanity?

 

There will be some elements of the update that some people won't like and no amount of inclusivity will ever overcome that; some will love some of the features and the majority won't give a monkeys. Some will even pop up and say they don't like it even though they have no alternative viewpoint to offer and do not even tell you what they don't like and why they don't like it (how do you wrap a comforting arm around someone like that?).

 

I don't know what you are moaning about. Just suggest a tiny change and then announce that nothing more will happen until EVERY person on the forum is in agreement. Then put your feet up, have a coffee and munch on an oatcake. You'll never need to develop the site again!

 

Remember, I once got told off for including photos in MREmag because photos on the Internet was too radical a chance for someone.

[rab]

The only thing that's constant in life is change.

[cromptonnut]

The most important feature for me will be the ability to hide or collapse sections that I am not interested in - such as the "our picks" prominently above the top of the page.  They might be your picks but there's a good chance that they may not be mine.  

 

The golden rule of website design is the first 'screen' that shows when you land on the site is that is where the content the user wants is found.  If you have to scroll for 3 minutes just to get down to the information you want (such as shop websites where key information such as opening hours is never in an obvious place like "opening hours", "contact us" or "find us") then most people will have gone off to another site long before that.