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suggestions

Discussion in 'Announcements and suggestions' started by samovar, Aug 3, 2017.

  1. walkman archive

    walkman archive Administrator Staff Member

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    Wow. I always liked the original Panasonic (which I have in my collection) but I was never aware that there was licensed to Grundig :shock

    DOCS, I'm listening to anyone that have suggestions, and I think I have been listening since day 1. I'm not ignoring anyone. I have not received any notification from the system so I wasn't aware there were your replies. I guess it's an issue about the maximum notification emails per hour, which is a known issue.

    What are you trying to say? Please explain.

    So you mean that me and the other owners don't love boomboxes and that's the reason of dying? Are you serious?
    It's curious that I have barely seen the old owner to participate in the old forum and I never heard such complain...

    I like boomboxes, as well as walkmans, decks and everything related to cassettes. The other three owners also love all that but they simply don't have the time to enter and participate frequently.
    Does that mean that this can be the reason for the die? I doubt it. I shall remember you that this is very common out there: there are many forums out there where the owner isn't a very active member, and that doesn't causes any grow or die in the community.

    The forum covers many different areas: from boomboxes to home gear and cassettes. You love boomboxes and you want this one to be very active, no matter how dead are (or were) the others, right?
    Well, as I said: you the boombox community are the reason of the activity in that area. If the activity increases, you're the reason; if it dies, you are the reason too.
    Me a dictator? I guess you didn't really wanted to say that and I'll try to forget, but it upsets me indeed! I think you must give a sorry.

    PS: Please try to use common expressions and avoid things like "sounds like trumpet blowing of the highest order" and the like because me and also many people here aren't native english and we have some difficulties with them.
     
  2. walkman archive

    walkman archive Administrator Staff Member

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    I agree with that. I like more the modern boomboxes rather than chrome ones but that's not the reason I added that one in the logo. Yes I have a brand new Toshiba 933 as samovar pointed, but I don't think the photos I have took do fit well in the logo.
    If I had to take some new photos I'd have to spend quite some time; not just for taking them but also to get it. It's actually resting under some boxes in a closed storage room of a friend. Only to pick it and bring it home I'll need 1 hour.
    Deech has proposed a new logo and I remember it was asking for help, but noone did help. I offered my photos to him, though.

    But all in all, I don't think a logo can change that. However, and although I don't want to spend more time on it as I had already spent dozens of hours working in the forum, I can remake it to make it more representative and iconic. I mean: to show a more iconic boombox, that could be the 933 as well as a deck (as for home hifi).

    But you guys should participate more in this, don't you think? (I'm talking to everyone here, not you Ball000)
     
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  3. walkman archive

    walkman archive Administrator Staff Member

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    @samovar , @Boodokhan , @Northerner , @Ball000 , I apreciatte your comments and agree with most.
    Any suggestion is welcomed. Complaints too, as well.
    Regarding the lower activity related to boombox, I think I don't have many things to say. But I shall remember everyone that:
    • the increase or decrease in activity can't be associated to the admin's profile or passion. Unless there is a problem associated with the plaform or some trolling or unwanted members, it's purely a matter of.. who knows?
    • The boombox forums (all of them) are the first in the board. So they all are the most visible. Some members said that they even don't ever scroll down so walkmans and the rest are in a much less privileged position than boombox. So they are in the best position of them all.
    • This is not an exclusively boombox forum. This is mainly a vintage stereo portable player forum, and this includes other devices than boombox. And all of them are welcomed, although cassette-based ones are the preferred ones.
    • Recovering the old database is always something to be desired, but only with good desires we cannot recover it at all. We need donations, and I'm sorry to say, but we need a lot of them. To achieve 4000$ is not easy. I'm open to suggestions but I cannot program a banner that automatically updates whenever we receive funds.
    • We have a few very generous supporters that even donate in monthly basis. I'd love to see more than just a few of these most generous members. Upt to now we have around 500$ in our account but in a few days we will be billed with the annual bill for the server, which will leave us with less than a half. That's all that we have received in one year. At this rate, I think we will need more than 10 years to afford the recovery of the old DB.
    • If every active member donate 10$/month we could do this in 2-3 years or so... If you know a platform that can help us to do this task, please share here...
    @docs , you are free to share your complaints, but only in a constructive way. I still don't know what your complaints are because I refuse to believe that you weren't actually kidding. So please stay within a positive behaviour; sarcastic, ironic and destructive complaints aren't useful for anyone and aren't allowed here.
     
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  4. davebush

    davebush Active Member

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    my two penneths worth....

    I think the logo isnt the worst but i think it can be improved upon, especially with that pana egg on it.......

    And also i think the site is so quiet because its got hardly any content....I understand thats its new but there was that much content on the old site, it was that content that attracted so many new members (me included 10 years ago)...It was such a rich resource of tech and chat that people looking at it for the 1st time would continually re-visit for info and then join in the chat....

    I know that it would be near on impossible to convert the old content to this forum but I think that is the only thing that would get this place buzzing again......

    And on a final note hats of to WA for saving this place ......I dont think we could ever make it what it used to be but im sure with more content we would be heading in the right direction
     
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  5. Northerner

    Northerner Well-Known Member

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    I agree with Dave...I think the loss of all the old info might have reduced traffic and new users. I don't think it's anything the owners have done or said, nor is it the logo. It's just a natural effect of the loss. It may pick up in time I guess, my worry is that if I can't find enough to warrant a comment then no one will cos I'll comment on anything lol. Grateful to the owners for saving the place still :)
     
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  6. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    Is there a facility to tag photos ?

    It might simply be me not realising how to do it but last time I posted one I couldn't find one.

    Like others have said most of the traffic on the old site was someone typing in a model number
    into Google and being directed there.

    Recently there was quite a bit of discussion here on the Sony WM22 so I searched for that in Google.

    Walkman Central was the top result. Stereo2Go was on the third page of results. Would tags on photos etc help ?
     
  7. docs

    docs Member

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    Agreed to an extent, there is nothing drawing any boombox lovers to come here.
    @walkman archive, with all respect, I'll say it as i see it, if you do't like that, I couldn't care less.

    The very first thing I considered when I messaged Paul was the thought of migrating ALL of the content to a new platform. This is not impossible and would not take thousands of euros either if it had been negotiated at the time of leaving the old platform or storing the entire content (indeed as T-STER has said he has done) which is exactly what I would have done BEFORE moving to the new platform.
    So this content exists with one of your administrators, make it happen and stop making up excuses about how shit the logo isn't and whatnot. Because making that happens IS the responsibility of the forum admins and owner and not that of the rest of the forum members.
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2017
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  8. samovar

    samovar Well-Known Member

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    I saw a crisis in the boombox community, and I pointed it out. I think the crisis is serious, because in the real world that community is more lively than ever. I wondered why nobody else hadn't noticed (in public at least). I found puzzling that the board hadn't noticed; and I find hard to believe that
    Yet the absence of one like AE_Stereo should have risen suspicions. After all, he was one of the newly appointed moderators in the transition from the old platform to the new (he's not anymore one). Even more so, the silence from one of the moderators, NickFish, should have rang a bell. How come that a boombox expert like him -- still a mod, according to his profile -- hasn't been posting since February (but was last seen here on July 28th)?

    I believe that these and other signals have been either underestimated or misread. One, in particular, is telling:
    Obviously, the new balance depends only marginally on the growth of the Walkman community; for the most part, it depends on the dramatic standstill of the boombox community. Hardly a success for the site: indeed, what's the use of a technically better platform if a whole community stops being active?

    When I asked the board to think over the problem, I was answered with my own question:
    Words fail me. Other people (notably docs, who may not be diplomatic yet nails the problems at perfection; but also Northerner & davebush) have pointed out very convincing reasons. Reasons that summon the board. Yet the board seems to have no clue:
    Trolls and unwanted members? Until confrontation with the real problems is avoided, good intentions, no matter how sincere, won't lead anywhere:
    You see, Walkman Archive? In the same passage where you say you're open to suggestions & complaints (ie, about what you should do), you feel the urge to chastise us questioners by pointing out what we should do instead.

    Well we're doing something already: we're asking for a change of direction. Of politics. Of attitude. We're asking for concrete measures. We've been doing so since the migration. These are up to the board to take, not to the members. And, incidentally: forums die because they get abandoned; but people won't leave a place where they share a passion without good reasons.

    But rather than looking for those reasons -- I should say, rather than paying attention to what has been pointed out time and again --, you keep beating around the bush. You buy time & promise nothing. One only has to read the answer you gave (in June 2017!) to the december 2016 post by deech on the Database thread, to see what I mean:
    [Walkman Archve]"I don't know why I haven't received any notifications from this thread... Well, I remember a technician told me it's unsure the exact amount, but knowing the amount of info it will be around 4000$ if I don't remember badly. Pretty high cost, though..."

    Better, one has to read the nonanswer you gave to deech's reply to the above, to get a better idea (and deech is another mod who has stopped showing up ever since):
    [deech] "Hugo Goodevening. My suggestion is to find this guy fast and start the procedures of bringing the S2GO SITE DATABASE back without wasting time because from what i can understand is that members are vanishing quickly. I can see its a Ghost town here these days"

    You may think that I am talking on behalf of a minoritarian part of the community -- the old guard, and possibly just the old boombox fans. Instead, I sincerely believe that I am talking on behalf of the entire community. But I always try to stop and think and put in doubt my own certainties. I may be off-topic after all. Younger members know nothing about the DB and could't care less, yet they keep registering. Hence maybe it's just a new ball game on this site, maybe I do not fit this site anymore. Maybe I'm plainly wrong. If so, forget about this thread, I too like docs give up. But if I'm right --even fractionally so--, I suggest that you stop evading the responsibilities of the board and start finding answers to the problems raised in this thread.
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2017
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  9. Northerner

    Northerner Well-Known Member

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    Sal, as usual, you explain clearly and eloquently and you are indeed speaking for me as well. Thank you Sal
     
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  10. Radio Raheem

    Radio Raheem Well-Known Member

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    same here Sal, something needs to be done
     
  11. davebush

    davebush Active Member

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    yeah me too...good shout Sal
     
  12. docs

    docs Member

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    Nice one Sal, hopefully you shed light in a less brutal way than I, which I appreciate can sometimes appear abrasive and borderline but where there is passion there are sometimes fireworks.
     
  13. Deliverance

    Deliverance Active Member

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    First up the adim need to listen to what long standing members have to say , Brushing there comments aside is not constructive and will only lead to grief . Securing the database from the old site should of been the first priority before this site began . As we all know the strength of the old forum was it's data and that is what attracts new members .. As for the logo it's a easy fix just add a classic BOOMBOX . As for moderators disappearing there were to many in the first place .
     
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  14. walkman archive

    walkman archive Administrator Staff Member

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    Yes, there is. I have explained all these in my tutorials here.

    Ok, so can you please tell me how much does it cost? But please bring me a estimation on paper with a detailed cost, not just what you think it will cost, ok?

    Let me put things clear:
    The fact that we saved the forum and kept it running in the old platform and then migrated to a new one doesn't mean that we are responsible of all the old content blended with the new one. Sorry, we are not. Just the same as Paul didn't saved the very old content (since year 2002) when he migrated to the previous platform.

    We decided to keep offering a place to talk for its users (and the contents if it was not damm complicated to do).
    If we didn't migrated to the new platform, the forum would die one day or another. With all its content. It was expensive, with costly monthly-based payments, ugly and a lot of bad things more. So migrating here was the only way to survive.
    The old platform was so closed that was incompatible with everything. I couldn't export the DB, the media, anything without paying. But we paid in the end and got the files, as I already explained.
    Xenforo can import many different DB from other platforms, but the old one is so rare and closed that there is no importer for it. These guys didn't even knew that platform! So it has to be done manually.

    So guys, sorry to say but there has been too much talk but very no action. Seems to me that we are doing turns around the same point. You are all pointing to the same thing: the old content. So let me nail down this. Please read carefully: if you want the old DB here we have 3 options:
    1. obtain around 4000$ to afford the work, which is the amount I have been told (3 estimation emails by pros).
    2. Re-post the good old posts from the repository, like @sotza or me did.
    3. Simply browse the big repository with more than 8,000 posts.
    So, you please stop complaining and doing turns and start being more specifiic:
    • How much are you willing to pay to help getting the old DB imported to the new one?
    Please don't repeat me the same things again and again. Neither I or @TJ Autoreverse , @mankamaz or @wmpip will pay that from our pockets. No way.
    I can manage the importing and help with my own money a bit, but we already spent more than 300$ (each one) until now on this forum.
    If you aren't willing to donate, end of the discussion. Nothing to do. Forget the old DB. Read point 2 and 3.

    So, less talk and more action.

    I can manage the import and do the work, as I already offered since minute 1. But I won't start doing anything until we achieve at least 3900$ on the forum account.
    No money, no DB.
    I have no problem in using a specific platform to help you donating, like patreon or whatever, if you prefer to see publicly the amount of money achieved at a point.
    I would prefer no intermediates, though. I have no problem in publishing the amount of money in our paypal account (we have a specific account for the donations as you may know) and screen captures if you prefer, by demand. The process of getting the money can be crystal-clear if that helps you.
     
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  15. docs

    docs Member

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    There's a fourth option and a fifth, however, what format is the old Database and what format is the new Database?
     
  16. Nickfish

    Nickfish Member

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    Hello guys.
    Without wanting to diminish anything that has been said so far; i though i had better speak up. After the migration i was still a mod and as such i dutifully checked in many times a day to make sure that all was well. As soon as problems cropped up, like spam posts or banned members being reinstated and abusing people, i found that my previously wide ranging abilities to sort things out were severely diminished and all i could do was alert an admin and wait for a response; pretty much the same as every other member. There did not seem to be any point in being a moderator any more, and a few new ones had been appointed anyway. I popped in from time to time to see what trouble Reno was getting into but that's about it.
    In addition; in common with the majority of us, I just had more pressing things to be concentrating on for a while. Work and non work stuff had to take priority and the constant temptation to be buying more and more stuff that i just don't need was getting on top of me. I have bought about 3 boxes this year including a lovely time travel Superscope in it's box but they are still in the boxes that they arrived in. I accumulated around 250 boomboxes in about 4 years. I needed help. You guys were not the cure! There are no midlands meetings of Boombox Anonymous for me to attend and though i heard about the UK meet i was pre-booked for that weekend and i am ashamed to say that i only looked at the report from that yesterday when i got my first email notification from this site in months. It looks like a great time was had by all and it proves beyond any doubt that there is an enduring passion and friendship among the collectors that will survive with or without S2Go being a success but if we are to be supplemented or eventually replaced with younger members; the database is vital.
    In common with some of you others I would gladly pay in a one off contribution to help to get this done as i can appreciate the monthly payments are not going to do it alone but if i do that; i would expect to be able to do my Moderating job as i used to be able to. I applaud the other guys for trying to get to grips with things and hopefully finding a more cost effective way of getting us back to where we were. I still don't understand how it can cost an arbitrary E4000; 'take it or leave it'. I am not putting more than a few quid a month into an allegedly bottomless pit. I would need guarantees. We all would.
    My motivation will return. We have all been there. It didn't help that a couple of supposedly respectable members sold me things that were not as described or took months to send them or they were missing bits that never materialised. I have learned my lesson there.
    Guys....please keep the pressure on and the momentum momenting. I am still here and a normal service will be resumed soon (if they will let me) if i don't find a permanent cure.
    N
     
  17. davebush

    davebush Active Member

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    Nick...good to see you back....

    Docs...I will agree with....

    I think we all know someone who is good with computers/coding etc.....If we knew the code of new and old site we could approach our friends and family and look for a way round this 4000 dollar thing...

    Cant do much unless we know a little of what wants doing
     
  18. docs

    docs Member

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    Indeed Dave, all I need to know is the format and details of both DB's and I can then establish if it is something I can have written to sort it.
     
  19. docs

    docs Member

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    Simply click the Watch Thread button and you will receive an email...

    upload_2017-8-22_10-13-30.png


    Or Unwatch Thread...

    upload_2017-8-22_10-12-36.png

    Then we might get some momentum continuing with this and get some answers since noone else seems to know the format of the two databases.
     
  20. Nickfish

    Nickfish Member

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    If T-Ster has a back-up of the old forum, can't he see what format the data was in? I am no computer geek; more a detective.
     

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