Forum Broken

[china]

The last couple of days ( for me ) the forum has become pretty much un useable again extremely slow.

[Dennis]

The fault is intermittent, but very frustrating, in that it freezes often after attempting to post a long reply, which is then lost.
I have been a member for many years, but my loyalty has its limits and I am on the verge of giving up.
The frustration is just not worth it and is likely to deter any new members, which are sorely needed.

I have the feeling that Cookson judge the forum to be of little value, since there appears to be no regular maintenance, and some time ago a link to the forum was removed from the header of the main website. Hardly encouraging. Dennis.

[Caro]

It does feel very neglected but it's a great resource and it would be a shame to see it go. It's well indexed by the search engines and numerous times I've put an enquiry into google and had the forum come up as a result.

I'm also finding it very flaky. I've taken to copying my text before hitting post so if it does die on me I don't have to retype everything

[CJ57]

All of the above, which is a great shame.

[josef1]

Its a shame, I'm guessing its a maintenance thing. I was involved with running a CAD jewellery form a while back and the same thing happened. If its not updated regularly then it gets slow etc then it becomes a pain to transfer to the latest platform because its not up to date. What I will say is once its gone its gone its a free resource that's really good. We tried to run the CAD forum on various other platforms facebook discord etc. but it was never the same. Facebook is an awful platform for sharing info. It seems to be the way of the world, you have a genuine forum with knowledgeable people but the younger people won't spend the time reading and being invested in something. They would sooner ask a load of clueless people with an opinion but not with any knowledge what to do because its an instant feedback. Or argue you are wrong because they watched a youtube video and the guy must be right in it because he has lots of clueless people following him. It really is messed up. aahhh I feel better for that little rant !!!

[CJ57]

Its a shame, I'm guessing its a maintenance thing. I was involved with running a CAD jewellery form a while back and the same thing happened. If its not updated regularly then it gets slow etc then it becomes a pain to transfer to the latest platform because its not up to date. What I will say is once its gone its gone its a free resource that's really good. We tried to run the CAD forum on various other platforms facebook discord etc. but it was never the same. Facebook is an awful platform for sharing info. It seems to be the way of the world, you have a genuine forum with knowledgeable people but the younger people won't spend the time reading and being invested in something. They would sooner ask a load of clueless people with an opinion but not with any knowledge what to do because its an instant feedback. Or argue you are wrong because they watched a youtube video and the guy must be right in it because he has lots of clueless people following him. It really is messed up. aahhh I feel better for that little rant !!!

How right you are Josef. Experience seems to be a negative and everything has become really ageist.
I had run a FB page for over 10 years for a conservation trust I was a trustee and grants manager of. I had never heard about grey accounts from Fb and suddenly they told me they were shutting it down unless I did this that and the other. It made no difference and I can’t access 10 years of photos and posts although I believe it’s accessible to its followers but I can’t manage it anymore. Absolutely gutted

[Andy Davies]

Hi Folks
Some of you will know that I am a brand-new follower of the forum with just a couple of posts to my name and I must admit when I first signed up to join the forum I entered the bit where you ask new members to tell you something about ones self and it was so painful slow I didn't bother coming back for a long time. I only came back for a second go some weeks later as I had a problem and thought this has to be the place to find answers.

But again I found it painful slow. I was pressing the 'Enter' button wondering 'What am I doing wrong??' nothing was happening, and that was just getting past the sign in page! But I guess that if there's no pleasure in using the site I won't bother to look in.

I'm sure it would be a shame to loose access to the collective knowledge that the forum must represent. (how many years experience would that add up to?) Maybe if the site owners slipped in a few adverts for there product along side the posts the added sales and interest could go someway towards site maintenance/updating. I hate adverts but I think I'd rather they did a bit of unobtrusive advertising rather than have a subscription fee to cover the cost. And Hey, who can resist some new 'must have toy or product' ?

Regards . . . Andy