Are we doomed?

I agree with some elements of Tinwheeler's post as the evidence, or lack of it, is there for all to see for some of the points he makes. However I am not sure that Club Together as an online community is on the way out. 

Before thinking about Club Together let us take a look at the Facebook page. Am I alone in thinking that the Club may have opened Pandora's box by introducing this element of its online presence? I am sure in terms of having a social media presence they can't really manage without such a page. As far as I know anyone can contribute to the Facebook page without registration or being a member. As lots of other organisations have found to their cost such pages have to be carefully monitored hence the reason the Club have to devote so many resources to it compared to here. 

As far as Club Together is concerned TW is right to say that we seem to be getting even less "official" feedback than we once did. The subjects covered in threads on here are many and varied but there are often some very pertinent questions raised and also good suggestions made which do seem to do unanswered which does give the impression of hittings one's head against a brick wall. On a more positive note I was talking to Graham Turner the Social Media Manager at the NEC and he was quite enthusiastic about Club Together, particularly the 400,000 people signed up to use it so in no way did I get the impression that any time soon it was going to be ditched. I think Graham was perfectly well aware of the shortcomings of the forum in it's current form. The one thing we have suffered from on Club Together since its inception is what is it actually for? If it is there to provide members with an opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues as well as providing the opportunity to give and accept advice it works reasonably well. What it's role is in terms of providing feedback to management is a lot less clear and I agree that it would be nice to have some idea of the importance of Club Together in that respect.

David

I'm sorry to read that you feel CT is doomed and I would like to assure you we really value our members posting on Club Together and that the feedback you give us through conversations on the forum are monitored and appreciated. We don't post on every discussion as we want this to be a forum for members, but we do always try and respond where requested and the staff who post on Facebook also have (and will) post on Club Together too. However, unlike Facebook we won't reply to every comment as we want members to be able to chat without us posting on every discussion. If there's ever anything you feel that needs a Club reply please let me know or report the post. 

I know there are defects with the forum, some of which have been fixed, and some of which are planned to be fixed in the future. I apologise for any frustrations these have been causing.

We do hold a lot of value and pride in our forum and have tried to get more teams involved in the forum including CLs and the technical team. We will continue to look at making improvements to the forum in 2018 and I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you so much for all our contributors for your support and being part of our community.  

The system handled bookings and the forum but at the expense of other parts of the site, Easy. I believe CL searches was a casualty, for instance.

The system, apparently, couldn’t cope with everything which points to it being stretched with no spare capacity.

I actually signed up to Facebook years ago, but very quickly became disenchanted and bemused by a lot of it. It just isn't something that appeals to me, and trawling through a heap of in the main nonsense ("I'm just having a cup of tea".......whoopee do) isn't helpful when trying to find help or advice about specific topics. Hence, although I wasn't on CT right from the early days, I did sign up not that long after, and as a forum it used to buzz! Lots of input, lots of help, lots of just general chit chat, but all categorised, and quite easy to follow. Yes, as forums go it was clunky, had some issues, and had its share of let's say "characters" who required a degree of careful management! But on the whole, looking back and with hindsight, it was a damn sight better than the forum as it is now. Forget the technical side for a moment, there is little members can do to influence this, accept for the techno ones to work a few things out, and the odd moderator to keep a lid on the oh so scarce transgressions that happen now, it is dying through through lack of commitment from the Club. We get the occasional input from CM, Maddie updates the new CL list, and I am guessing DK tries his best to have a moderating presence. But that basically seems to be it. 

Having criticised, I am now going to have a think to see if there are any ideas that could possibly be taken on board to keep something that a few of still enjoy, up and running!

They could easily have switched off the forum for an hour if needed TW

Thankyou for your input, Rowena. I note what you say about reading, listening and staff contribution but, sadly, the appearance created is very often to the contrary.

Can you throw some light on the issue of the booking system being rehashed? It’s rather odd that no staff member has commented on this issue when thread after thread has appeared and run on at great length about the perceived shortcomings. A couple of sentences would have sufficed and let people know they were being listened to as the lack of input creates the appearance of everything being ignored.

You’re missing my point, Easy, and can you imagine the fallout from that!

As far as I can recall CT has been suspended for frenzy day. I was surprised to find it working on frenzy day this year. I didn't or haven't ever participated in frenzy day.

I think it is such a shame that CL seem to take the brunt of the knock backs on the website. They were knocked out this year can't comment on previous years.

Booking sites online is contingent upon being a member of CT. That does not mean that the majority of this mythical 400,000 have any commitment at all to the Forum part. I would guess that the 'suits' wished they'd never started the Forum part and that online membership was solely for bookings and site reviews and I have my doubts about their enthusiasm for the latter.

I have reported your post Tinwheeler, in line with Rowena's post.