ME clubs websites

[alanstepney]

There are some excellent club websites.
Some have lots of information about the club, its history, track layout(s), photos from events, technical information, and a whole lot more.

On the other hand, some are absolute rubbish.

One I looked at recently was showing forthcoming events for 2006!

Some have so little information that they are barely worth the space they take up.
Perhaps some contact information, and you then find that the person mentioned hasnt been around for years.

Now, I dont want to criticise any specific club, but just as a general question, why dont more ME clubs get themselves a decent informative website, and keep it up to date?

After all, it is one aspect of the "public face" of the club and can be used to advertise it thus attracting new members, as well as being good PR for people in the locality.

Comments anyone?

[Phil Sutton]

Well,I know ours is updated regularly...........

Phil

[lancelot]

I am a member of a club in Northern Ireland, very well run and an excellent team, but I still get the strong feeling that they are loathe to advertise too much...I would imagine on the grounds of security?

[gwrfan]

I am the Hon Secretary of our local ME Society. I took the job on in the hopes of improving our membership, and to that end I send details of our meetings to ME and EIM, as well as producing a Newsletter for members.

Our site is on private ground, on a farm site, and you'd never know it was there! Unfortunately there are a number of members who believe that to publicize our existence might create a security situation. The end result of this, in my humble opinion, is that we just do not get new members. Our membership number is decreasing each year, and before long our expenditure will be more than our income!

Most of our members are not on the internet, but I have 'advertised' our Society locally (Devon and Cornwall) on the County Library sites as well as on the Model Engineering Clubs and Societies List . That' I am sorry to say, is really as much as I can do

Geoff

[Tony K]

I agree with all you say Alan and I, like Phil, think ours is one of the good ones.

The website is how I found the club two years ago and was a great help in starting me off. I also like to find out how others do it and use the other club websites to help me visit - a very useful feature for any club I think.

Maybe the problem comes about because some do not realise that the easy task is to set up the website and the difficult bit is the constant updating afterwards when the "fun" is over! Maybe the site is set up by techies who lose interest when the site is up and running - it is then an admin task and that is boring to them.

Many things in life boil down to admin - boring to most e.g. taxation, banking, DVLA, insurance, law, politics. As I always say, there is only one thing admin people cannot do - ADMIN!

[mutley]

Surley security is only an issue if you leave valuable items like engines on the premesis? I dont know of many clubs that have that facility.

Andy

[Tony K]

mutley said:

Surely security is only an issue if you leave valuable items like engines on the premesis? I dont know of many clubs that have that facility.
Andy

Not quite - many clubs have some sort of clubhouse and possibly a workshop. Vandalism to track equipment is fairly common and other site bits and bobs are vulnerable.

gwrfan obviously has some fellows who just want to run their loco and believe more publicity can only attract vandalism - that is their right. Although we are told by government that all crime is falling and we all believe it as much as the rest of their clap-trap (!!!!!!), the truth is that any metal or cable is attractive.

Whether a website raises the profile to the scutter who commit the crime - I think probably not, but no doubt some believe it does.

Maybe we could redress the balance of some of this by using labour from people who are doing community service - now there is a challenge - I have not seen any chain gangs out like "Cool Hand Luke". Regret drifting.

[alanstepney]

I would think that most of those who steam or vandalise would pick a nearby target, and one they are aware of from their local knowledge.

As a counter argument, more publicity = more members, and thus more people using the club and keeping an eye on it when they pass by etc.

Also, and sad to say, but sometimes necessary, more bodies to repair the damage if it is trashed.!

[gwrfan]

"gwrfan obviously has some fellows who just want to run their loco..."

Well, there is the problem! Not many of our members actually run their locos!! I do try my best in my Newsletter, to make 'them' feel guilty, and have even (this time) suggested a big Summer (if we get one, LOL!) Steam-up and BBQ! ;D

Our situation is that our track lies at the rear of a farmer's private house, and some members feel that to publicize our track would perhaps be an infringement on his private property! This is not my view, and I see our situation getting worse vis a vis membership.

Our track site is nowhere near a town nor even a village, but out in the countryside, off the beaten track, so virtually no chance of vandalism or theft. We don't keep anything of value on site, and don't even lock our clubhouse door!

If I had my own way, I would create a website today! But I know the Powers that be, above me, would not agree to it.

Geoff

[JohnP]

At Bromsgrove, we've had two attempts at a website.

The first was produced by a member who was into IT and it was reasonably successful at first, but it suffered the disadvantage that the chain of information was too long, so it didn't get updated frequently enough. I've got to take some responsibility for that, since I was secretary at the time and since I was on dial-up for internet access, the idea of sending lots of picture files didn't appeal.

After a gap of a few years, I offered to produce a site for the club using my own webspace. I know it's not perfect; part of the problem of anything with a steep learning curve is that you soon realise you started in the wrong way, usually when it's too late.

As far as I'm aware, it's up to date, at least as far as the 2008 schedule is concerned, although when I'm going to get time to write the "History" page, I've no idea. Perhaps I shouldn't have put it in the navigation area.

So I'll lay myself down to the tender mercies of the membership - it's on www.bromsgrovesme.myby.co.uk. I'm quite open to comments or constructive criticism - my brother in law thinks it's old fashioned looking - for a site dealing in 19th century technology, that's fine with me!

One thing I have found is that not all browsers treat the same html code in the same way. With help I produced a page where the navigation always stayed on the screen, rather than scrolling out of sight as you read the main section. It worked a treat under Firefox, but IE7 wouldn't play ball.

JohnP

[alanstepney]

John, not bad at all.
I dont think it is old fashioned, but given my age.....

I do know that some of the high-tech sites create a lot of complaints for not being user friendly, so simple is often best.
I am sure that most people want the information, rather than to be impressed by a website.

My sole criticism is that in the "contact us" section it would be nice to see a phone number.

[baggo]

I joined my 'local' club ( North West Leicestershire SME) last year as it was the nearest club with a decent sized track for 2½" gauge locos. They don't have a website at the moment and I have thought of offering to construct one for them, because, in my opinion, they could do with the publicity. (They would have to provide the webspace though as mine is nearly full!)

The track is already very conspicuous in the middle of the local leisure centre so everyone knows it's there anyway. Advertising it is unlikely to cause anymore problems with vandalism than they already have. Apparently there have been problems in the past but the only thing that happened recently was that some-one broke into the coal bunker and nicked all the steam coal!

We seem to suffer the same problem as gwrfan in that the members don't seem very interested in running their locos and we often struggle for motive power on public running days which are the only means of raising funds for the club. These don't seem to be advertised so far as I can tell so often there's a lack of passengers as well!

I do my best to advertise 'open' events on this forum but I don't know if that helps at all.

Talk at the moment is of building a new clubhouse but I honestly can't see the club raising enough funds to achieve this.

John

[Chris Kelland]

Hi Alan and All,

My sole criticism is that in the "contact us" section it would be nice to see a phone number.

So would I, however at the end of the day it will be someones number that is used and will leave you open to 'crank' calls. As Hon Sec of COSME (Oxford) I think we have gone as far as we can. Contact details are fairly complete on the website and there is a phone number on our timetable for the Cutteslowe Park Miniature Railway, mine. 2 calls so far this year, but most people who want to contact the club have been able to get a phone number.


Regards,

Chris K.

[JohnP]

Alan et al,

I did originally have a simple email address on the "contact us" section. I was advised to remove that, and any telephone numbers, by an IT professional. Apparently web bots go round "harvesting" email addresses and phone numbers from websites. Given that it was likely to be my phone number, I preferred to leave it off.

The "contact us" message goes through a third party (free) who then forward the message to me and I reply directly.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback.

JohnP

[brozier]

A simple way round the 'bot problem' is to publish email address / phone number as a picture e.g. jpeg image.

This can be done easily using the "Big Felt Tip Pen" tool coupled with white paper and a digital camera! :-)

Thats what I intend to do on my site. The more shaky it is the less likely OCR will work on it.....

Cheers
Bryan

[Boadicea]

Bot - is this a well known term (not by me - have I missed it)? Is this the Bot from "Blot on the Landscape?"

A new term for a Nerd?

The only acronyms I can come up with are Build Operate Transfer, Bank of Toronto, Board of Occupational Therapy, Business Occupancy Tax, Business Office and Technology, balloon occlusion test - and of course Boring Old T****r.

Is that Paul driving the loco in Tony's avatar?

Sorry, it's Monday! ;D

[brozier]

"Bot" is short for robot.

It's sometime used as a description for a compromised PC which is under the control of a hacker.

In this case it's just a description of a program which is automatically scanning web pages looking for contact information to sell to spammers and scammers....

Often hackers setup huge networks of "bots" to send spam etc ...

Hope that helps...
Bryan

[JohnP]

And at the risk of veering off topic...

"Robot" comes from a Czech word meaning "worker". It was originally used in play called "Rossum's Universal Robots"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R._(Rossum's_Universal_Robots)

Hmmm I'm not sure if the link will work properly, the part in brackets should be in the link too.

JohnP