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Lady-Bob
08-11-2004, 10:55 PM
Is there any way that I could search for members by area (e.g Kent - surprise surprise!) and be able to do 1 email to all that allow their email address to be shown in their User CP?

Trying to think of ways to contact people who obviously don't log on all that often and trying to find out who's active in Kent area and who's not.

Have we thought about a cull for all users that haven't logged on in the past 12 months? then if they wanna get back on-line they'll have to re-register?

Just a few thorts mulling over in my head :rolleyes:

bod
09-11-2004, 12:45 AM
Sounds like a good idea .where are all the MONSTERS in South Yorkshire there must be more than me and Macca around here...ain't seen any post's recently from any other peeps :)
I'm bored of riding with me mates on their vfr's, ;)

nik_the_brief
09-11-2004, 01:16 PM
Hi Bob,

Why not post up a general thread asking all of us interested Kent peeps if they're interested on going on a Kent rep PM list, you can just send us all the same PM then.

You could even use this post and just get Kent peeps (and any other comparative locals) to cut and paste their names on the list. :o

Lady-Bob
09-11-2004, 02:51 PM
.... but CAN you do a multiple PM ... never tried it... thought you could only PM one member per PM or have I been a dimwit all this time??? - Be nice now!

The problem is that the Kent lot don't seem to respond on the ukmoc site so there's no point in asking them to respond to a thread that Nik the Brief suggest??!!

It would be handy to know who's around at least rather than trawl through the complete member list one by one :D

nik_the_brief
09-11-2004, 03:18 PM
I think multiple PM's are possible (although I've not tried myself). Ask JMo as she does a multiple PM to the Sussex Monsterites (and a couple of kent extremities like myself as they're just across Romney Marsh from me!)

Northman1
09-11-2004, 05:10 PM
Yes. I think that you just have to seperate the addresses with semi-colons.

Northman1
09-11-2004, 05:16 PM
Sent a PM to Bob, Nik_the_brief and myself.
This arrived in my PM area so I presume it worked, however the PM does not show any of the other addressees.

JMo
09-11-2004, 06:47 PM
Northman1 - quite correct, the other recipients are not shown when you've been sent a multiple PM...

Bob - I don't think there is a facility to check members by region, so the best thing to do is add the names you already know to your Buddy list, then keep an eye out for any new members joining (there's a little box somewhere that says "welcome newest memeber:" or something like that ), and check their profile/location and add it if you feel appropriate...

As for multiple PMs - if you click on "open buddy list" in the top menu bar, you get a list of the names in your buddy list and a check box by each one - just click the box to each of those you want to PM and then the "PM users" button at the bottom of the list, and you'll be forwarded to the write message section as usual - as Rep you should be able to PM up to 30 people at once - check with Sami (Le Marsu) or Fatbloke if you can't...

Don't forget to let myself and Surrey rep (currently Muttley), and also Essex know your plans, we always fancy a run y'know...

xxx

fatbloke
09-11-2004, 07:51 PM
if you go to "members list" then click on "advanced search" scroll down select your county and that should be it

JMo
09-11-2004, 08:19 PM
Well stone me! - we have the facility, and it works!

Love the new website fella, love it...

xxx

gary tompkins
09-11-2004, 08:38 PM
Bob,

Sorry missed this post last night. I sent out PM's to all the members listed in Kent a few months back, asking if they were interested in meets, rideouts etc... As FB says you need to do an advanced search in the members listing, and select 'Kent'

The good news is I found we had 29 members in this area, but the bad news is that out of the 29 I PM'd only 8 bothered to reply :mad: This confirmed my suspicion that a majority registered either never used the forum, or no longer have any interest in the website or UKMOC. A lot of these guys first signed on several years ago, and still show a zero post count which says it all TBO :(

I personally think the website/club is long over due for a spring clean. Having so many time wasters registered makes the reps job very frustrating. I know FB thinks a club subscriptions a bad move, but not charging a nominal annual membership renewal or joining fee further complicates the issue, making it difficult to define current valid membership figures.

I've always found mobiles/texts a better and faster way of contacting locals, and it gets round the problem of peeps missing events due to not logging on regularly. Perhaps we could start a local Kent contact list (mobiles etc..) as a back up to the forum & Kent events postings?

Sorry if this sounds like a bit of a rant, but this was one of the reasons I gave up the reps post. I'm sure things will improve and you'll have my full support as promised.

fatbloke
09-11-2004, 08:41 PM
Perhaps we could start a local Kent contact list (mobiles etc..) as a back up to the forum & Kent events postings?

Good idea Gary but we could not have the list of phone numbers on the web site data protection act and all that, plus it would be open season on w**nkers trying to sell you s**t you don't want or need.

gary tompkins
09-11-2004, 08:54 PM
Agreed, it would be strictly for local (non forum) use only. Perhaps Bob could control access to the list as Rep, and everyone was asked for permission before passing mobile numbers or other info on to other UKMOC members.

Most of us have mobile contacts for eachother anyway, so it wouldn't be that difficult to get a full set?

Scotty
09-11-2004, 10:34 PM
purge em out thats what i say , burn , destRoY , etc,
though i see someone has registared just to sell their bike (or attempt to)

maybe it should be ok to post in the for sale section without registaring or is that a stupid idea forught with possible abuse

Lady-Bob
10-11-2004, 10:59 AM
Thanks for all this info everyone, it really will be a great help.

Special thanks to JMo for the great idea of a buddy list! I can use that to keep an account of the active Kent lot as opposed to the inactive, and then use the search to get to all the others. I might put a poll up and see how many Kent members would like to get more active - just to see what replies I get ... if any!

I seem to be sitting on the fence here... I can see Fatblokes point of view here in regarding Data Protection and, sure, I know I wouldn't want unsolicited canvassing if I gave out my tel no. that's for darn sure.

Perhaps the registration process of new members could be considered going in for a "makeover" - have a section asking for a contact mobile tel. no for text alerts as to forthcoming events only (and only allow the area rep and the administrators to access that info) with a tick box for the new member to give permission for it's restricted release. :cool:

But then again, I really don't fancy using my mobile to send a load of texts every time - I don't get free texts as I am a pay as you go mobile user.

I think Scotty and I have the best idea... a cull. thwart them at every turn :twisted: Delete all members from the website that have not logged on for, say, 9 months. Send them all a PM first giving them a date by which they must log in to keep their membership open, or after that date they will have to re-register. January 1st 2005 seems a good date to cull on.

Seriously ... would someone consider a cull of some descript?? :confused:

Northman1
10-11-2004, 11:21 AM
Probably not suitable for mass texting .... (sounds almost rude!), but here is a link for sending free SMS messages.

http://www.cbfsms.com/

Lady-Bob
10-11-2004, 11:36 AM
Thanks Northman.... it seems I can do this from work as I have quite a firewall in place here, but will try it from home where the security on my pc is, sadly, lacking!

I did the search by county and it worked. but how do I then get all those, names into the address section of a PM without having to type each name individually? I mean... there are 22 pages of members with over 40 members to a page!!

Perhaps we could update the members info on these lists to sho "Date last logged in" that would be mega useful certainly more so than knowing how many posts they've put up (altho that IS helpful at times)

JMo
10-11-2004, 06:17 PM
Bob - if you get the list of members up (selected by county for example), all you need to do is click on their individal name to get their profile page up, then there is a button in the grey strip below their avatar section that says "add [whoever] to buddy list" - just click that and they'll be added to your list...

Don't know if it is actually quicker than typing the name individually, but it is simpler - and you don't spell their querky names wrong either...

xxx

Mark Walker
12-11-2004, 03:11 PM
Friday afternoons........they don't half drag.....so I find myself being nosey and looking through all sorts of sections......

Perhaps a cull would be a good idea and would perhaps free up a abit of 'web-space' on the server....probably not much, but I'm also a bit anal and like nice tidy things......

Also, I know I would be quite happy to pay a nominal membership fee on an annual basis.....I don't think 10-20 quid would be too much to ask. Could be used to subsidise the weekender or other club-wide meetings essentially ensuring that people get their investment back in some way. Perhaps membership could include a cap/keyring or other trinket so people don't feel like they are being asked for something for nothing?

At least then you would get those people who were serious about being members and not just joining up to sell a bike. I know you should be careful not to exclude people just for the sake of it and then there are issues of collected money and whether you need to register as a business or charity......but perhaps Fatbloke might like to instigate a poll asking people what they thought?

Well that's my twopenneth......guess I shall go back to the heady world of NHS R&D.........probably just spouted a load of bo**ocks anyway

Richard_S
12-11-2004, 03:15 PM
i think that it makes a very welcome and refreshing change to have a club where it is free to join, free to use and free to all. There is very little that can be had by the masses these days without restrictions and I for one think it would be shame to go down that route.

Mark Walker
12-11-2004, 03:31 PM
It depends on what the membership fee would be used for. If the members don't see any benefit from paying that fee then I agree, it would be a waste of time. Generally, I would say I was against a fee, however I would be happy to pay a nominal fee if it was used to benefit the club as a whole. If it was used to subsidise club-wide meetings, it could make them more accessible to members who could otherwise attend. Wouldn't be a perfect system, but there is not such thing.......except perhaps my special system for roulette.

Like I said, it's Friday afternoon and things are very quiet....I'm probably just rambling.....too much sugar from all the tea and biscuits.....

fatbloke
12-11-2004, 07:50 PM
I really cant see the point of membership fees
1 what would we do with the money? we have a fantastic UKMOC weekender, loads
of you meet up together all over the UK. We had a track day that only cost £100.
what do we need the money for?
2 UKMOC of course promote Ducati, Ducati dealers and stores so thats why we let
them advertise on the site and in return they pay for the website.
3 someone will have to look after the money and be responsible for it.
4 if we had a load of dosh in UKMOC how could we use it to benifit all members?

I'll add more as I remember them.
Just as a footnote the tresasurer of another Ducati club tells me every time we meet
that his club is turning over £60,000 a year I keep asking him what he does with it all
...............he hasn't answered me for the past 4 years so I guess he's still thinking.

Richard_S
12-11-2004, 07:56 PM
nice one Terry :)

A Yerbury
12-11-2004, 10:45 PM
if somebody wants to join to sell a monster what better place?

Lady-Bob
13-11-2004, 06:20 PM
I think that Fatbloke and others have all been down the route of possible members fees, and I would not wish to discuss the pros/cons of bookkeeping, VAT, annual reports etc not to mention the collection of subs etc., :(

I just think that what we have is the winning formulae and don't think it should change. :D

All we really want is, in exchange for free membership - a little bit of enthusiasm and effort from EVERY member not just the same few each time.

I still say cull the members that have been inactive for 12 months and over.

Fatbloke ... would you give this serious consideration please?

Mark - Your not rambling. I don't see why any meet should subsidise the active members when the inactive members will still have paid subs - they don't get the benefit.

Fatbloke .... I guess that treasurer you know will be having a nice summer vacation for the fourth year in a row??? That account must be getting a LOT of interest over the years!!

Lady-Bob
13-11-2004, 06:26 PM
Out of interest.......

Where in the UKMOC website can a person cancel their membership to the club and erase user details??

gary tompkins
14-11-2004, 10:50 AM
Bob,

I think you have to request to be un-subscribed by one of the site administrators, as I can't find an option for this as a user.

Out of interest I just did an advanced search on the members list. I specified a post count of zero, for anyone registered before mid November 2003. It came up with 4 pages of names totalling 105 members. Some of which had been registered for over 2 years!

There must be a way of asking members to confirm annually that they still wish to be registered with UKMOC, perhaps via email? Then if no confirmation was received after a stated period, the users details could be purged from the database and they would have to re-register to use the forum. This would keep the number of inactive users to a minimum, and give a more accurate idea of the clubs actual membership for a given region :confused:

Mark Walker
14-11-2004, 04:12 PM
Oh well, just thinking out loud.....like I said that's the trouble with slow Friday afternoons.....

Lady-Bob
16-11-2004, 12:06 PM
I think you have to request to be un-subscribed by one of the site administrators, as I can't find an option for this as a user.
GaryT


So surely one good suggestion has to be to make it blatently obvious where on the site people can cancel their membership? :)

There probably are some conscientious (is that spelt right?) ex-members who actively looked for a way to cancel their membership and didn't think to PM an Administrator - so gave up and never logged back in.