I've been using the Internal Fire forum for some time and just submitted an application for Peter Forbes' stationary engine forum after occasionally lurking there for a while. IMHO neither matches this newsgroup at its best (yet?) though it has to be said that things here ain't what they used to be. Still be looking in of course, but it seems the time has come to admit that for better or worse the world has moved on.
NHH
You'll soon be an expert on Im-mobile homes and tedium :-)
ttfn
errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm??
I musy admit that I have not been lurking much of late, just too busy, but have noticed that there hasn't been much traffic. Just read NHH's posting and realise I may have missed something - has everyone migrated to these two forums rather than posting here?
Spose I should have been paying more attention :o(
dudley
The various stationary engine forums have been in existence for some time, the one that I run was started in 2006 by Steve Naill, there are a couple of smaller ones as well.
The main attraction is the ease of access with no special newsreader software needed, plus the ability to post pictures online. Most are moderated.
We also offer stationary engine third party insurance for Forum members at an annual rate of £3 per person, with reductions for families.
Smokstak is the biggest, although slanted towards US-built engines.
Some use both formats, newsgroups and forums according to their preferences, but forums in general seem to be taking a lot of the old newsgroup traffic.
Peter
Sorry guy's it's my fault.
I've just been looking at the figures for this group. I started posting late 2003 and Nick is quite right, it's been in decline since then. From a high in Jan 2004 with over 750 posts, it's dropped to progressively. Last month, there were 96 posts. We haven't had >100 posts since last summer.
John
I just took a peek, one forum even has an "Engine dating" section. Whatever next? "mating surfaces" perhaps:-)
Mike
All becomes clear!
Any chance you could mail me the links to the various forums?
Quite a few newsgroups I have lurked in seem to be falling by the wayside and replaced with forums. Personally I quite like newsgroups apart from all the spam/junk that they attract, but i am sure these new fangled forums will grow on me ;o)
Dudley
Sliding joints and interference fits.
But the newsgroups are falling by the wayside because people are turning to the forums because the newsgroups are falling by the wayside :-)
I always find them a very clunky way of getting "just the facts" across - many drawbacks if all the user wants is discussion.
I have seen one or two sites that tie a web-based forum and an email list together, and that seems to be the best of all worlds as people can choose the heavyweight web-based interface or the simpler (and more flexible) email route.
cheers
Jules
On 15/02/2011 13:38, Jules Richardson wrote:(snip)
I certainly agree with that; Usenet is unrivelled for fast bandwidth efficient sync and most news readers provide very easy navigation of threads with options to display only unread posts etc etc all of which which seems to make neswgroups much more conversational. Perhaps it is just a matter of getting used to the new format.
NHH
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