RMweb Groups

[Andy Y]

At the risk of upsetting AndyY and very much tongue in cheek the advent of Groups with a view to "encouraging diversification" cause a couple of industrial similarities to spring to mind:-

1) Divide and Rule

2) Decentralisation

In the case of the second, should we start a sweepstake on how long before Groups begin to be merged / amalgamated?

 

Sorry...spent too much work-time getting re-organised...and it is Andy's Train SetWeb site!

Got me coat.....off to a Luddites AGM.

 

Yeah; we've discussed an Anti-Group Group for you Luddites but nobody wanted to join it.

 

 

 

 

Does that make sense, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

 

It does and I'll take a look during tomorrow.

 

 

 

[coachmann]

Got me coat.....off to a Luddites AGM.

AGM? Anti Group Meeting?

 

should we start a sweepstake on how long before Groups begin to be merged / amalgamated?

Like the GER.....Group Everyone Reads with the GNR......Group No-one Reads

 

 

[Dave777]

I do not see many companies stuck on IE6, despite what has been claimed here. If you're tied in with Microsoft you're bound to keep up to date otherwise many of your other processes just will not work.

 

With the utmost respect, we are (pretty comprehensively now) tied in with Microsoft and we're on IE6, regardless of if you think it's common or not. It's a fact, there we go.

 

 

 

Only accessing via the tabs at the top of the page gives you access to all groups, it would seem. Once you join them they are added to your view of the forum index.

 

Oooh, well done! I can confirm that on IE6 clicking on Groups in the tags across the top does indeed take me to the groups and I can apparently see everything, whereas clicking on Groups in the forum index doesn't work (as per the pics I previously posted). The formatting seems to be pretty knackered, but that's normal for IE6+RMweb - at least I can read the content, which is the main thing. Well spotted Jamie!

[traction]

Well this was first anounced on the 18th May and there are a number of groups all ready, along with quite a lot of activity.

 

Seems to be working well so far.

 

Thanks Andy for all the hard work.

[Chris Nevard]

New groups are breeding like rabbits at the moment - hopefully too many of them won't duplicate existing sections in the existing forum making even more tricky to follow or locate stuff.

Personally I'm waiting for the group: 'I only model on the 3rd Wednesday of the month (but never in June or July) in OO-SF ex L&YR double track lines August 1952- February 1953'

[Andy Y]

Hopefully it will make it easier for people to follow stuff they're interested in.

 

I've felt for a long time that's far too much on here for anyone to take it all in and I've thought about how it can be made easier for people to keep pace with what they're interested in hence this approach and also introducing different means of navigating or browsing the site. It is a web after all and it's difficult to continue a prescriptive linear culture. This is going to sound all geeky technobabble now but I'm looking at pod structures where people gravitate towards interest areas rather than facing information overload in the wider scheme of things. The way a large number of people engage and interact with the web has changed substantially over the last 5 years.

[Coombe Barton]

Hopefully it will make it easier for people to follow stuff they're interested in.

 

I've felt for a long time that's far too much on here for anyone to take it all in and I've thought about how it can be made easier for people to keep pace with what they're interested in hence this approach and also introducing different means of navigating or browsing the site. It is a web after all and it's difficult to continue a prescriptive linear culture. This is going to sound all geeky technobabble now but I'm looking at pod structures where people gravitate towards interest areas rather than facing information overload in the wider scheme of things. The way a large number of people engage and interact with the web has changed substantially over the last 5 years.

 

Normally I'd just add to Andy's appreciation index.

 

I totally agree with what he's said and how he's doing it.

 

John (whose been able to use a bus pass legitimately since last September).

 

P.S. I've missed it - where can we see a list of all groups?

[Andy Y]

The full Group Directory is here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/groups/glist/0-all/

 

It's accessible at the r/h side of all of the Group pages.

[Peter Beckett]

Hi Andy,

What happened to the DURM postings?

Should we get a group set up for the colonials?

 

Peter

[multiprinter]

Hopefully it will make it easier for people to follow stuff they're interested in.

 

This is going to sound all geeky technobabble now but I'm looking at pod structures where people gravitate towards interest areas rather than facing information overload in the wider scheme of things. The way a large number of people engage and interact with the web has changed substantially over the last 5 years.

 

Any chance of translating this into English please?

[Trevor H]

'I only model on the 3rd Wednesday of the month

 

I only model on the 5th weekend of every month

 

Hopefully it will make it easier for people to follow stuff they're interested in.

 

I've felt for a long time that's far too much on here for anyone to take it all in and I've thought about how it can be made easier for people to keep pace with what they're interested in hence this approach and also introducing different means of navigating or browsing the site. It is a web after all and it's difficult to continue a prescriptive linear culture. This is going to sound all geeky technobabble now but I'm looking at pod structures where people gravitate towards interest areas rather than facing information overload in the wider scheme of things. The way a large number of people engage and interact with the web has changed substantially over the last 5 years.

 

Again thank you Andy for setting this up, certainly makes looking for certain subject matter a lot easier, along with things you'd probably miss on that subject. Although I feel the groups don't want to get too widespread and we end up with a group for everything and anything.

 

Looking at the groups I've joined so far, I'm going to be modelling: 2mm, EM1 & EM2s, circa 1969, somewhere in Scotland

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

N

John (whose been able to use a bus pass legitimately since last September).

 

 

Young whippersnapper! Had mine for several years. Hrmph!

[Andy Y]

What happened to the DURM postings?

Should we get a group set up for the colonials?

 

 

All the old area group posts are saved here - http://www.rmweb.co....ed-group-posts/

 

If you wish to see if there is sufficient interest and support you'll need to decide who will be the owner/administrator and I can set it up for you.

[Dagworth]

For some reason I can't invite people to join the Electrification group. I can see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/groups/show/15-electrification/ and if I click the Invite button that takes me to http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/groups/show/15-electrification/# with the # on the end but nothing else happens. I'm still seeing the error flag at the bottom of the page as I posted in #68

 

Andi

 

 

[Andy Y]

Thank you Jamie, that had never occurred to me and I've just tested it; you're absolutely right.

 

I now need to consider that.

 

This issue is now resolved and all readers should be able to see all Groups on the Index page.

 

 

 

[Andy Y]

For some reason I can't invite people to join the Electrification group. I can see http://www.rmweb.co....lectrification/ and if I click the Invite button that takes me to http://www.rmweb.co....lectrification/# with the # on the end but nothing else happens. I'm still seeing the error flag at the bottom of the page as I posted in #68

 

This looks like the IE (and possibly js) issue that has manifest itself in different ways. Have you tried in another browser so I can ID whether it's browser or permissions related?

 

 

 

[Kenton]

Well, the good news is I can contribute to a group without being a member. (though some may see that as bad news)

 

The bad news is that I still cannot join a group - though I'm beginning to wonder what the benefits of actually joining a group actually are?

 

As posts are appearing on the "Active Contents" list - I am at a total bewilderment as to any value of group membership?

[Dagworth]

This looks like the IE (and possibly js) issue that has manifest itself in different ways. Have you tried in another browser so I can ID whether it's browser or permissions related?

 

Just tried it in Firefox where it works as it should, must be an IE problem

 

Andi

[Andy Y]

though I'm beginning to wonder what the benefits of actually joining a group actually are?

 

Have you ever wanted to show support for a particular interest?

Have you ever wanted to see content you're interested in collected in one place?

Have you ever wanted to communicate more easily with people who share that interest?

have you ever.....

 

 

 

 

[Kenton]

Have you ever wanted to show support for a particular interest? not really

Have you ever wanted to see content you're interested in collected in one place? Yes, Its called RMWeb

Have you ever wanted to communicate more easily with people who share that interest? ditto

have you ever.....

But as long as I can post within a group - which as a non-member I apparently can - great news.

Then I can show support, see grouped interest (and share it), and still use PM and posts to communicate.

 

I just do not understand why I should "join" a group - especially as I seem to be excluded from joining any group.

 

I am not against Groups as I see them as only a duplication (but much better definition) of what already existed as separate forums. I just do not "get" the conceptual difference. There are still topics in the Groups just like in the forums, there are still posts in the group topics just like the forum topics - I just cannot see any practical difference - which is why, perhaps, some are confused.

 

I'm also not really against "joining" a Group (especially as it is a one off click in theory) Though I can see myself rapidly joining every Group if only I could It is just that as things stand, I cannot see any incentive to join. Participation does not (thankfully) seem to require membership.

[Trebor]

AGM? Anti Group Meeting?

 

Like the GER.....Group Everyone Reads with the GNR......Group No-one Reads

 

 

 

 

GWR - Group Wishing they'd Read

LTS - Lost, Totally Stupid

[JeremyC]

This detail may have been already reported

Folk have reporting the 'Join Group' button doesn't work in IE6, I can also report it doesn't seem to work in IE7 either. Unfortunately I don't have the option of trying a different browser from here.

 

I also get the error symbol at the bottom of the page as reported by some others.

 

Another problem I have in the Groups page is the captions under the group thumbnails are 3/4 obscured.

 

Jeremy

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

I am not against Groups as I see them as only a duplication (but much better definition) of what already existed as separate forums.

 

Participation does not (thankfully) seem to require membership.

 

The fact is though Kenton is that quite a lot of really good but niche market material was being swamped in the main forum and watching topics and even sub forums was not working for me in modelling terms anyway.

 

At the same time and from my own perspective, being an owner gives quite a lot of power over the group and that group could, in some cases almost become a more private blog, still visible to all but perhaps not so capable of being either swamped or trolled.

 

Also to some extent each owner joins the Moderators so Andy and the team can concentrate on the direction of the whole forum. One could see that the Mods were stretched at times and I can see that, of recent a great deal of really good and useful content was being lost and that new members were seeing a large membership replying to each other a lot and the odd newbie question rapidly vanishing, unanswered, onto page 4 of 'new content' in a few hours.

 

If, as you say, joining a group does not seem to give immediate benefit and changes nothing, then the reverse is true in that joining a group won't harm and might bring benefits that you are currently not aware of. I appreciate that you currently 'cannot' but I think it unwise to translate that as 'should not'.

 

I am pretty sure that a Soldering group should be formed and I would join it. I would also join an Airbrushing group. I have little desire to own them though as there are others on here who impart knowledge in these areas on a regular basis and I need to dip into that knowledge when I embark on a job using those skills. Having a group to aim at will help me to do that rather than search old threads. Owning a group means that i can make a topic a sticky if I realise that this is knowledge that a newbie would need to penetrate the chosen group theme. It is the owners knowledge of the thread/post/topic that will make the difference. Andy and the team cannot have that knowledge over so many subjects so this is their way of handing over that particular interest to someone who knows about that group subject but still wants to participate in the other broader and sometimes livelier topics on the main forum.

[Kenton]

If, as you say, joining a group does not seem to give immediate benefit and changes nothing, then the reverse is true in that joining a group won't harm and might bring benefits that you are currently not aware of. I appreciate that you currently 'cannot' but I think it unwise to translate that as 'should not'.

No, I think you misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that anyone "should not" join a group - in fact I am suggesting quite the opposite. I wish to join every group so far started as I have a very broad interest in RM not just one tiny niche aspect. I believe that one day I may even have an interest in any area that at the moment I do not have so much time for.

 

I would encourage everyone to join every group and hence my earlier suggestion that to save all those clicks a default opt-in might be better.

 

I am still missing the (very) subtle differences between Groups and sub-Forums. OK, a group has the potential to add new "focused" Moderators. I understand that would have been possible with the Forums as well. I see that more Moderators does provide a benefit to Andy and the current Team, though I could see the potential here for abuse - but I am sure Andy would prevail if the Group Moderators started abusing the power. I see the role of the Group "owner" being one of a librarian in keeping the Group focused, I don't see them "owning" the content or wielding control over who posts relevant material and I would hope that such twisting of the Group content would be subject to all the Forum Rules and Fair Play.

 

So perhaps for an owner of a group and a moderator of a group there are clear "benefits" nay requirements that they "join" ... but I still do not see any value to the "vanila member" to "joining". (and once again I am not saying don't join - just what exactly is the point?)

[Oldddudders]

GWR - Group Wishing they'd Read

LTS - Lost, Totally Stupid

I say, old chap! People's fave prototype, like their religion or their politics, is their business and we shouldn't mock them!