Ringing Forums

Is training a potential separate category?

I think you have covered the obvious categories and I would be inclined to wait until you get some more traffic before adding more. If the categories overlap you may have the tendency for people to post the same thing in more than one place.
I hope you manage to get enough activity to make it worthwhile. I only use Facebook because of the bell ringing pages and would love to be able to ditch it completely as I don't think it's an organisation that we should be supporting.

I think that training and development (and I mean development throughout a ringers career) and they way that is structured and organised is a critical topic. And in that I include the training of teachers, formation of schools and long term school graduate support. We have had a good stab at primary education, we need to ring that through secondary and tertiary as well. Getting this right is critical to retention. This is not just about curriculum and training it is about structures.

I can see there’s an option to select “All Discussions”, which is great to get an overview of what’s been posted.

I was wondering if there’s a way to set up a general alert to get an email (or text msg) when there’s a new post so as not to need to keep looking “just in case”… and I guess it would be good to have that option on a topic-by-topic basis too (or on a “follow comments on this post” option) if it’s possible?

I have just got an alert that you posted the above. Can't remember how I set it up...

Thanks for that. I also received an email alert to say that you replied, so looks like that’s a default setting for comments, which is great! And posts that I’ve read become greyed out, which is good for navigation.

Now that I have a profile set up, I can also change settings for alerts via the profile menu.

Signed up here after seeing the piece in RW, hope that there's enough interest to make something of it.

I have just signed in and wanted to make sure that you get an external email if you are mentioned or get a reply. It does seem that if you have that ticked in Preferences then you get an alert.

I agree that an overall 'New comments on all forums' area could be useful.

Actually I have now seen you can effecively see new topics on all forums because if you click on 'All Discussions' the newest active comments are highlighted.

Could it be helpful to have a Safeguarding category and somebody responsible for posting the exact and up to date requirements for safeguarding training of ringers according to the Church of England guidelines, as they are updated. Recent exchanges on Facebook have given almost as many different opinions as there were contributors which has led to uncertainty about what training should be carried out. Many ringers refer to the CCCBR, some to their PCC's and other direct to their diocese.

Would a marketplace section be useful - somewhere where non-professionals can list items for sale, such as when fundraising for bell projects?
I must admit a vested interest in this as I am about to advertise Christmas cards for sale. A forum such as this would make it easier for people to find details of items for sale, as I find with facebook if you miss a post in the first few days of it being posted, it tends to get lost in the ether.

Safeguarding category is planned - it was going to be a closed group just for Safeguarding Officers but it should like there should be a more open group as well.

This is really a tech support question! I am not yet convinced that this generates an email alert if a post you make receives a reply. I have that option ticked in my preferences but I have not had any emails.

I agree with Tim Farnham's comment. There's a good initial range of topics, and I'd favour letting them run for a bit before adding further ones - unless a very definite need is identified. Thanks to those who set this up. :up:

If you bookmark a discusssion (by clicking the star), you should then receive notifications for every comment on that discussion (assuming you have that notification option ticked). You should also receive a notification for this comment, Simon, because I have mentioned you.

I heard about the Ringing Forum only this week via a reference in the ringing-chat list. So I've signed up to see what happens. The structure appears to be identical to the Compuserve Forums back in the dark old days of DOS! Is this a forward step?

How does one tick or un-tick a topic to receive/cancel notifications? I can't see any tick-boxes on the 'Categories' page.

If you star a thread, you will get an email notification when there is a new comment on that thread.

Is there a way to "Like" a message? If not, could there be? That would be a nice way of showing appreciation for a helpful comment.

let's not go down that route. The forums should be for discussion and information exchange, not attention seeking. If a contribution is particularly valuable there are words in the English language to say so.

:up:

The likes system was turned off, because it generated a most liked poster list on the home page. I think that is a pity, as Likes provide a simple and concise way of expressing agreement with a particular post, or thanking someone for their contribution. It is also demonstrates engagement from a larger number of members than would necessarily post a comment.

One thing I find irritating is the icon shown with each discussion entry. It doesn't represent the topic (so no useful value) but the first poster. I keep hitting it by accident when trying to open the conversation, and then have to backtrack. Why not remove it?

good comment, where's the goddam like button. Oh, wait... :razz:

If people add a photo of themselves it shows that, and it would be clearer that it is the poster rather than the topic. This is a software package and its configurability is limited.

clarity isn't the problem. It obviously represents the OP. The problem is having something visually prominent at the start of the entry that goes somewhere else. But if it's Hobson's choice ...

>If you start a thread, you will get an email notification when there is a new comment on that thread. - GRAHAM JOHN<

Does that imply that if you stumble across interesting threads started by others, you can't activate notifications to follow it?

Just star the threads that you are interested in, and you will get notifications.

Sorry, I must be particularly slow on the uptake today. I have scrolled up and down this thread and I don't see any stars anywhere. What am I missing?

Bottom left hand corner after the last post.