CL Matchmaker - Find your 2018 CL holiday

Come on, CL owners, you can do better than to leave us in the dark until prompted.

Funny that we've not had a response from the CL owners, TW. You'd think that they would want to promote their network by replying to your post.

One way traffic, Nellie, I’m afraid. I’ve defended CL owners and done my best to help them both here and elsewhere, as you well know, because I believed they'd had a raw deal from the club. 

Perhaps there's that many members using CLs these days, because club sites as getting so expensive, they don't need to try and keep us regular users/supporters on side.

Hello all. At the risk of repeating myself...

As far as we are concerned this experiment is now over...

Nellie - the idea worked in principle, but in practice was rather labour intensive to administer.  We ran it for a limited 'Trial' period and helped around a dozen people find a CL. 

The new data-protection rules, adds another layer of complexity to any future attempt.  For the moment I don't think we are in a position to repeat this. 

An alternative - for those who are on Facebook - is to post your request on the CAMC Members Facebook group, which a growing number of CL's monitor.  

Ted

Ted, you missed the point.

Yes, we know the trial has ended but, after the fanfare and the favourable posts made on here, it would have been nothing less than courteous to tell us the result of the trial without us needing to prod and prompt. 

As far as I can see we were left dangling with “As a group we hope to develop this idea on a bigger scale but it will take some thinking about!”. So we’ve waited and waited and.....silence.

Many people, understandably, have no inclination to use FB. You are being rather short sighted there.  

An alternative - for those who are on Facebook - is to post your request on the CAMC Members Facebook group, which a growing number of CL's monitor.  

Ted

Just so there is no confusion this is not the official Club Facebook page but a private group not governed by the Club? If so it is also a closed group so people have to join and answer several questions before membership is granted and before they can read any of the contributions. Only you and your fellow CL owners can tell whether Facebook is the more effective means of promotion than say Club Together which has 400000 signed up members but hopefully you will encourage fellow owners to also post here.

David

OK, here is my final word, which I trust will address all the points raised above. 

1) The Trial was worth conducting, as it proved there was some demand and that some members appreciated the pro-active nature of the initiative.

2) In reality, it was a laborious exercise to administer, and in our opinion without significant IT expense would not 'scale' to be offered on a large scale.

3) The new General Data Protection rules mean that passing details between parties is fraught with difficulties and would now be almost impossible to administer 'within the rules' of GDPR as I understand them.

4) In conclusion, I do not see us repeating this experiment.  I apologise if this should have been communicated more clearly at the outset or at the conclusion.

So.. what is the way ahead for such an initiative??  Perhaps the Club will initiate something in the future.  In the meantime, although, this might not suit some of those currently here on the CL section of CT (I note that some people don't 'do' Facebook), there is a growing group on facebook, specifically geared towards positive discussions of all Club sites - including CL's. 

The CAMC Members Group on Facebbok is an independent group started by CAMC members and open to all CAMC members.  The discussion is limited to discussing Club, Affiliated and CAMC CL sites.  CL owners are encouraged to join and discuss their site. 

The Group now numbers over 2,700 and to my mind is much easier to use than CT.  It's easier to post photos and engage in a positive discussion.  The group is also actively moderated. 

I also have a gut feeling that whilst the membership of CT is 'larger' in theory, those who are actively engaged and monitor posts (in this CL-focussed area of CT) are probably counted in tens or hundreds.  Perhaps David can clarify? 

In my opinion, whilst it serves a purpose, CT is now 'clunky' by comparison to Facebook, and I'm afraid that until CT 'catches up' in terms of ease-of-use with Facebook, its popularity will wane. 

I for one have moved my focus to Facebook, where the membership is growing and seems very supportive towards CLs.

Ted

Thanks for the comments.

Re CT and membership it should be remembered that the membership covers not only the forum but also Club Site and CL reviews. So whilst the numbers posting on here may seem small, although I expect larger than people imagine, an even larger group use it for reviews. I can only agree with you that CT is Clunky and I am sure others might use a more colourful term to describe it!!! 

I am sure Facebook is popular with many. Its fine for instant replies but generally useless as store of information to look back on. I use Facebook groups quite a bit but find a traditional forum more to my liking which could of course be an age thing!

David

Yes, Ted, I think we got the message.

Thankyou for the eventual apology for not updating us earlier.