Oh well I knew this was going to happen , back over old ground, but no worries as we all know there is always something new to be found as long as we look for it.

I will offer the Flip side to Ians forum coin, and say that I am a regular user of four Forums all of which I consider to be of interest to a niche market (as I suspect the LDWA forum would be) i.e I use a classic mini forum, a T3 VW camper Van forum, a Welding welding DIY forum (the welding forum compliments the first two perfectly), and a running Forum (same one as Matt), and of course this one occasionally.

All the Forums I use are open to the world but require registration for full use i.e. to see and post read only without registration) three of them have a members only area where club members are free to post on various subjects that are considered to be of specific interest and use to the paid up members such as where the club meets are being held etc, the same three have a welcome area where new forum members introduce themselves and often the aims and reasons for joining the forum then then of course there are the specilist headings Tuning, Interior and so on (but all reative to the subject matter of interest, in addition to the technical stuff three have areas with headings such as Members Journals where forum members discuss there projects, one has a specific heading for for our overseas cousins to get to know us and discuss all things relative to our interests, such as local suppliers, import issues, local (to them events),.all the forums I refer to here have a for sale area where kit that someone no longer requires is moved on, one has a swap or giveaway section where as the name suggest exhanges of euipement an redundant kit are made.

I could go on but in short they are user friendly in fact to such an extent that if a member comes unstuck and there are people local to them more often than not strangers outside of the forum, then offers of help and advice comes in and it is not unusual for the virtual advisors to turn up to resolve a fellow forum users problems.

On the subject of being open to the world the scope from a Long distance walkers point of view I would have thought was enourmous, for example the forum I mentioned that has a specific heading for overseas members has people from South Africa, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada in fact pretty much global and it is really nice to see how things are done in other parts of the world, and it is good to learn from o0ur foreign friends about the places we should visit when we go to there countries that, that the average tourist would never see, and i know of people that have vitually had free guides by meeting up with there virtual friends from a forum, and of course this is reciprocated when they visit our shores..

Now that is where I think the LDWA could really benifit as i reckon it would be great to have regular correspondents from all over the globe from whom we could learn about where the locals (rather than tourists) go to walk, and eat etc, etc.

Why in theory it could even open up oppurtunites for the LDWA to become global with branches all over the world, that would help take pressure off of our annual 100, by vitue of the fact the continental branches could stage there own local 100s using there own local volunteers, and open to LDWA members anywhere in the world, Just picture a 100 in say Switzerland or Canada wellanywhere for that matter, what a crackin holiday that would make. ( ok Hypothetical maybe but not impossible with a bit of forethought and open mindness).

Of course as Ian says there is and always will be a bit of baiting and sniping that goes on as in all walks of life mostly good natured but if not then the sites are well managed and moerated and the offending post removed and offender warned or struck off.

I have outlined the above as I really do think that the LDWA is missing an oppurtunity to secure it`s long term future, by opening the forum up we could raech a far greater audience which in turn will attract new members, the forum would not become a nasty place to visit, on the contrary it would be a welcoming informative refuge for anybody interested in Long distance walking and given the temperment and personality of folk that enjoy such pursuits there should be no reason to suspect that the quality of the forum would suffer, particulary with a bit of good management and maybe a little moderation.

Talking of which I apologise to the Moderator having to read through that lot.;-)

I also apologise for any Grammatical / spelling errors but I typed this lot qicker than my brain operates thes days

I belong to 3 other websites and each one have a different take on the forums.

The 1st one is a very small forum site with just over 1000 members. Anybody can look in but cannot post or see any attachments. Only a few posts are made daily and most posts are made be the "same old few".

The 2nd one is a mainly a UK website with 10,000 members and non-members cannot look at the forum.

The 3rd one is worldwide forum with millions of hits each day. Anybody can look and post in all forums but one. Which is by invitation only, sort of a club within a club. Although the forum was/is strictly overseen it did/is a bit of a bear baiting forum at time's. Some take pleasure in name calling or just having a good laugh at what was posted on the other forums. In the end I stopped posting on it because of all the flak I was under defending the posters who could not see what was being said about them.

So yes I think it should be members only, posting comments you would make face to face with other members and using your real name.

Ian Sykes.

Author: Matthew & Jane Hand
Posted: Wed 26th Jan 2011, 15:12
Joined: 2001
Local Group: Mid Wales
I agree with John, if the forum were open to non-members the organisation would most probably grow with many more new members. Then there wouldn't be room for all the new members to do the annual 100 and we could resurrect the "24hour" thread on how to cope with the increased membership!

Perhaps not, let's stay as an exclusive secret society. Matt.

Hey Matt I am still waiting to learn the Funny Handshake or whatever it is we use to reveal ourselves to one another ;-)

I agree with John, if the forum were open to non-members the organisation would most probably grow with many more new members. Then there wouldn't be room for all the new members to do the annual 100 and we could resurrect the "24hour" thread on how to cope with the increased membership!

Perhaps not, let's stay as an exclusive secret society. Matt.

Yes I would still use my name,as I really don`t see Non de plumes add anything to a Forum.

We are in danger of covering old ground here, but here go`s anyway the way I see the LDWA forum is that there is basically nothing wrong with it, however it is self limiting by virtue of the fact that it is closed to members only when it comes to posting therefore if The LDWA has say 7,000 members then ony a small percentage woulld have any interest in posting there thoughts on here, or even have questions they would like answers to i.e. there are a lot of long established experienced members that can call on there own experiences for there own answers.

It seems to me that the Forums that work are those that allow non asscociation, club members, or whatever (but essentially people with a shared interest) to inter act with established expericed members via a forum, there is usually a need for non members to register themselves with forum administrators, in the same way that members do in order to get full access to the forum.

If the Forum was open to non-association members then there would be a lot more input from mostly interested people many of whom would in all probabitity be potential members of the future, once they had used the forum for a while and learned what the LDWA was all about.

Ok there will be some whose style and delivery my not add much to the forum , but in my experience if they are not humored they soon move on to look for another audience if they don`t, then we now have a Moderator to wave them goodbye

That brings us neatly back to the original Topic so` Hello to our moderator` I somehow don`t think the task will be to arduous ;-)

p.s. I do think the ability to post the odd smiley would be a help, as forum convention seem to dictate the use of smileys to show how the words you have posted should be taken, this in turn helps to prevent mis-understanding when reading a post from an unkown person.

If non-deplume's where permitted I for one would still put my name to all my posts. While I can maybe see some advantage for the poster why wants to hide behind the mask of anonymity, it's not for me.

I think the trouble with the LDWA forums is most members don't know about them or don't care about them. Of the members who do look in most will never post. I was approached on last years hundred by over 10 members who had read my posts about the Scottish 100. Everyone agreed with me but not one was bothered enough to post.

I don't know what the answer is.

Ian Sykes.

Another: ?Normal Suspect? reporting in.
With an organisation that?s controlled so tightly by a central office that does not actually exist, does this mean that by getting a moderator that we may at long last be able to use a non-deplume when we post?

So George Owell comes to LDWA then, but who will moderate the moderator? And I din't even know Simon Cowell was a member.

Surely if we are all good, that would do him out of a job? A bit self defeating!

What shall wetalk about to see who is moderated first? Matt.

Simon. He's got a job on keeping me moderate! I promise to be good....maybe!