Is this group being deliberately....

[alga]

Originally Posted by Ianr

Diminished?

I have spoken now to several Haynes builders who have not been able to register on this forum despite protracted efforts to join. It makes me wonder if efforts are being made to deliberately minimise access to this forum.
What does the team think?

That's an interesting question. My arguments for and against conscious suppression on the part of Haynes:

* the initial signup restrictions came into place when the forum was attacked by spammers. The software that runs this forum is proprietary and an ancient version. The administrators looked into upgrading it, but it turned out to be unfeasible or impractical. So, now the administrator has to manually approve all new users, and if there are spam registration attempts, the legitimate subscribers are drowned out in the noise. So that might be the reason -- the legitimate lack of resources on part of admins to approve new signups.

There was a team of moderators who could probably take on such a task, but all of them burned out or lost interest for one reason or another and are not active on the forum any more.

* Several months ago Haynes announced their intention to close down the forum, but after the petition by several dozens of active users relented. Maybe choking the arrival of new users is a tactic to let the forum quietly die?

[Ricky]

well I think this sucks and think Haynes is not being fair to the people that want to join . well seeing that a facebook group has been started we should put this info on the Haynes forum where everyone can see with the link and so people can join facebook . just my thoughts

[twinturbo]

I am a moderator and still here.

But don't have the power of approving registrations.

TT

[Bonzo]

Originally Posted by twinturbo

I am a moderator and still here.

But don't have the power of approving registrations.

TT

Me too.

As TT has said, as moderators we do not have the permissions needed to validate new user accounts.

Had we been given that access, we would have a lot more new members.

On a personal note:

My heath has been a real problem over the last few years, as a result, my builds have come to a grinding halt.

My build is a Sierra based one.
Most questions I see are MX5 related & I just do not have the answers

That is the reason I am very much in the background at the moment.

I will also add:
My email messages are checked several times a day.
If I notice a forum alert, I will take action if action is needed.

[The V8 Files]

Originally Posted by Bonzo

Me too.

Dont forgot Bonzo set up an alternative forum some years ago which is still running but not being used much. But it has admins on it that have full power to vet and approve new members which really doesn't take that long.

There is no reason why members still active on here cant duplicate there own postings on there as well as here.

When they tried to shut the forum down I was in contact with haynes to discuss adopting the data, as was locost builders as well. There was a good deal of concern about the branding references and also in the conversations I had I sensed an internal divide as to if it should continue or not.

They eventually decided to continue with it as is for 'the foreseeable future'. Take from that what you will.

[jps]

personally I think there will be no 'plan' by anyone at Haynes to throttle the forum, but they just don't invest any effort in it. I can see why, it generates no return for them.

I think they relented on closing the forum simply because they realised that it was actually wanted by a few people and it presumably takes minimum overhead at their end. I can't imagine there is much actual risk to Haynes from a business point of view if they do pull the plug.

the content on here is very helpful indeed to a builder. It would be a massive shame to loose it. It would be great if the content could be taken off elsewhere so that it was not at risk of disappearing. However a lift into a new forum that was supported by someone in the building community would also be vulnerable to whatever decisions that person then made... plus whatever costs Haynes *do* cover will need to be met somehow...

without checking where Haynes are based, perhaps a couple of us could come up with a plan and then pop into their offices for half an hour to speak to them?

[jps]

Oh, and Facebook is great for some stuff but not, I think anywhere near as structured /searchable as a forum...

and in terms of Haynes publishing an updated book I think the world has moved on in publishing terms - when 'amateur' builders are producing comprehensive CAD files and sharing them via the Web - I think that the physical book format has pretty much been superceded.