C&CC to Close Their Forum

TW... You are correct , it was a mess from day one of launch.  For my sins i agreed to be part of the original Beta testing of the C&CC Forum....Along with others most of our suggestions were ignored..I too objected to the personal identifier. In the end I just gave up and walked away..

You can read the C&CC spoke persons rationale for the closure below.

"Many thanks for your email sent to the Club’s Director General, regarding the closure of the Club’s Forum. Your enquiry has been passed to myself in the Customer Services team to respond to. We understand for some members the forum has been a useful tool to communicate with other members and can see why this decision would come as a disappointment to you. As with any decision, the Club does not take these lightly and we certainly do not wish to disappoint members. However, to continually improve our proposition to members we conduct regular research amongst the membership base to understand how they would like to Club to communicate with them and these decisions are based on that insight. The forum, whilst used by some members, the volume is considerably lower than on other social channels which allow us to interact using a boarder range of engagement tools, which more and more members are signing up to. With the member feedback and the constant evolution of our digital platforms it felt the right time to take this decision. In addition, these social platforms do allow members to interact with the Club and other members, as well as offer private communication channels should they be needed. I would like to reassure you that all decisions the Club takes are with members in mind and overseen by the Club’s governance structures that are populated with volunteer members who ensure members and the Club’s long-term interests are best served. I do appreciate the forum closing will be disappointing to you; however, we would encourage you to look at the Club’s social channels as there is a lot they have to offer. Kind Regards Naomi Kealey Customer Services Manager"

Looks like someone i knew from my old HR Dept has found a new job. That person brought to us " From today the phrase 'Brain Storming' in any meetings or elsewhere on our sites should be replaced with "Thought Showering" ....

Cheers, GTP. At the time of the instigation of the forum I had lengthy correspondence with the man running it - sorry, I forget his name but it began with G. He either would not or could not see the risks involved in using real names. I gave up in the end and told him I would never post on their forum in view of that stance. I kept my word and have only looked at it perhaps a dozen times since its inception.

I have proved to my own satisfaction and with no malicious intent that it is possible to positively ID a poster once real names become involved.

TW

I imagine they thought that because you could not belong to the forum unless you were a member and you had to be signed in to use it that was probably the rational behind using full member names. It is rather arrogant for the C&CC to think that just because its behind a member sign in that it was safe? I think I also contacted them at the time about the same thing. I have never got the impression that the C&CC were that much of an open organisation with reasons for decisions rarely passed onto members . I was almost surprised the see that they mentioned that two sites had closed and gave reasons! 

I suppose it does put the CMC in a reasonably good light in that we often get information via Rowena so can perhaps understand the reasons behind decisions even if we don't agree? Those of us that use Facebook are members of a couple of Facebook Groups for CMC members which, I should add, are nothing to do with the Club. Strangely I can't find similar for the C&CC. (If anyone knows of any such groups please flag them up) Is this because more older people belong to the C&CC? 

David

I don’t know what their rationale was for using real names, David, but they seemed completely intransigent and unwilling to consider an alternative. 

As for more older people belonging to C&CC, it’s always appeared to me to be the opposite on site but I can understand older folk being attracted by the age related discount so, overall, you may have a point regarding FB. 🤷🏻‍♂️

As a member of both clubs I find the forums a great source of information and help from fellow members and I regard this as an essential service both clubs should provide. I will miss the C&CC forum but due to the lack of anonymity I have not posted there myself and suspect this is a key factor in its lower number of posts. I do wonder if the introduction of the Online Safety Bill, and the new regulations this will impose on forum hosts, has played a part in the decision made by C&CC and hope this forum does not go the same way.

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WTG

My comment was really about the seeming lack of other online alternative forums like on Facebook which I can't find for the C&CC but there are a couple of large CMC focused independent Facebook Groups. Reading the C&CC forum on the closure of the forum, many suggest they "don't do Facebook" which is often, but not exclusively so, is how older people react to being told to use alternative social media? I image the younger members would be more likely to embrace the alternatives the C&CC are suggesting. 

David

I don’t know what their rationale was for using real names, David, but they seemed completely intransigent and unwilling to consider an alternative. 

TW...I think you will find the answer was very much similar to this clubs offering off the new booking system..in that it was software 'off the shelf".  Here at the CaMC we suddenly became 'Passengers"...