Change of ownership

[Tim]

Hello All,

I would like to let you know about a change of ownership of the forum.

As some of you will know, I have been busy with work and my other website poultrykeeper.com, so I have only had time to work on the admin tasks to keep the forum running. After 14 years of running the forum, I feel that for the longer term, a new owner would be the best for the forum and its members.

I first had contact with the new owner, (username JoshB) a few years ago. We have kept in touch and exchanged ownership of the forum this week.

So (drum roll!) please join me in welcoming JoshB 08

The "Poultrykeeper Admin" username has been deactivated, but I still have my "Tim" username.

If you have any questions about the change of ownership, please feel free to ask them in this thread.

Kindest regards,
Tim

 

[Marigold]

On behalf of us all on the Forum, I’d like to send a big THANK YOU to Tim for all the hours and hours of unseen work he has done for us, for years on end, starting the Forum in the first place back in 2009, registering thousands of new members, zapping spammers, and sorting out software glitches. As moderator, I’ve found Tim to be unfailingly helpful and always on hand when a problem arises. Although he’s so knowledgeable about chickens and other poultry, he is truly a very busy man, with a family, a smallholding, and a demanding job requiring a lot of travel, not to speak of his work on the encyclopaedic Poultrykeeper site, so it’s pretty amazing really that he has been willing to keep us going for so long. I hope that maybe, now, he’ll find time to get in there with the rest of us, and post for fun now and then.
And a big welcome to JoshB, the brave man who is taking us on! Thank you,Josh, we look forward to knowing you better. We’ll be interested to hear what you think of the Forum as it is at present, and will be happy to support you in whatever changes to the running you feel would be good to consider. We are a mixed bunch, from far-fling places - Shetland, Ireland, France, Portugal, Wales, the Western Isles, and even England. Few of us have ever actually met, we could mostly pass each other in the street without realising, but we are good friends who value this forum for support and laughter - and now and then, we even talk about chickens!

 

[LadyA]

Indeed, big thanks to Tim, and [emoji112]hello and welcome to JoshB!

Sent from my SM-A415F using Tapatalk

 

[bigyetiman]

A BIG BIG thank you Tim, for sorting things out when they went wrong and all the hours you have put in.

Welcome JoshB

 

[dianefairhall]

Many thanks, Tim and a big welcome to JoshB.

 

[JoshB]

Thanks Tim! And thank you everyone for the warm welcome!
I'm excited to take on this new project. I have some ideas for some improvements but I'm also very much interested in hearing what you all would like to see happen here as well. Tim will be keeping use of his proprietary logo so that is first on the chopping block. Other than that, I would like to upgrade the site eventually to newer forum software that will be much more user-friendly and even mobile-friendly (if you're a mobile browser).
I'm not a poultry expert like Tim is but I have been keeping chickens for almost three years now. Attached is a photo of my small flock when we had 7 birds! We've lost two to predators since :'(
I'm looking forward to getting to know you all. If there's anything you need you can reach me at [email protected] or [email protected].
Thanks again for all the well-wishes!

Josh

 

[JoshB]

First things first, I increased the limits on avatars so we can upload regular photos and such.

 

[Marigold]

Hi Josh, yes some more user-friendly software would be great. Tim upgraded to the present version some years ago, as you know, and it works OK once one understands its quirks, but it does present difficulties when new people are trying to post photos, and won’t accept videos except via links to an individual YouTube account. And you’re right about the avatars - I remember it took a lot of time and help from Tim to upload mine, years ago, and I’ve never dared touch it since!
I’ve been concerned for a long time that Tim has been paying much of the hosting costs of the forum out of his own pocket, as well as doing all the work and not having time to join in the action. The system whereby people can become Full Members if we contribute a subscription to cover running costs in return for not seeing the ads is a fair one, but you’ll need to review this, I think, as it’s simply not acceptable for the admin. to pay hosting costs as well as doing all the work.There aren’t many of us, but we’re not an exclusive club and really welcome newcomers who somehow find us, an unusually safe and friendly space in the nasty world of the internet at large. So I hope your revamp will help us to attract more people.
Hoping for pics of your chickens now, please Josh!

 

[Margaid]

Huge thanks to Tim and a big welcome to JoshB. Interacting with people on this Forum has helped me through some very dark days for which I will be forever grateful.

 

[MrsBiscuit]

I am more of a casual user as I don't have chicken any more and I live in Portugal. My sense is that we spend more time in social chat, which I greatly value because I find it interesting reading about different experiences we have in different places and also everyone on here is extraordinarily friendly! However, given this is called poultrykeeperforum.com perhaps we ought to make more of an effort in that direction. Many of us have had birds for a long time and between us we have some wisdom, encompassing both the day to day issues, but also some more niche subjects like genetics, breeding or showing.

 

[Marigold]

Huge thanks to Tim and a big welcome to JoshB. Interacting with people on this Forum has helped me through some very dark days for which I will be forever grateful.

Yes - for example, see the 123,197 posts between February 28, 2020, and May 11, 2022, in the Coronavirus thread. This was a daily support in lockdowns, and will be a real historical record of our own lived experience, I feel. We’ve also shared stories of divorce, bereavement (human and animal) and a LOT of jokes, some of them of a dark and questionable nature!

It seems fairly common for newcomers to poultrykeeping to join, share their questions, photos, and achievements, get lots of help, encouragement and advice, references to the archives and to Poultrykeeper etc. Then, once they’ve got going, and their flock is happily settled, they disappear and we never hear from them again. A few seem to make the transfer to the ‘club’ in the Dustbath, but I don’t know what more we could do to encourage new people in the first place, and to keep them posting longer-term.
Keeping a few back garden hens seems a hugely difficult project at first, and with a bit of help a lot of common problems can be overcome or avoided, but once you’ve got a good secure setup and are in the routine, chicken keeping isn’t really very difficult, is it? I’m not sure what the undoubted experts on here could do to write more articles etc that are not already covered on Poultrykeeper, or how we would bring these to the attention of potential new members.

 

[Icemaiden]

Thanks ever so much Tim. If it hadn't been for this forum, I'd have naively put a coop on the back lawn, put my first ex-batts in there & lost them to foxes within 48 hours.

The forum is a great source of help, reassurance at times & a regular lift of the spirits. What I appreciate most of all is that it's NOT on Facebook (which I detest). I also think it's great that non-members can read it too & learn from past threads. The searchability of the threads puts Microsoft Office to shame!

Here's a big welcome to Josh. You've got big shoes to fill!!!

 

[JoshB]

Thanks Tim! And thank you everyone for the warm welcome!
I'm excited to take on this new project. I have some ideas for some improvements but I'm also very much interested in hearing what you all would like to see happen here as well. Tim will be keeping use of his proprietary logo so that is first on the chopping block. Other than that, I would like to upgrade the site eventually to newer forum software that will be much more user-friendly and even mobile-friendly (if you're a mobile browser).
I'm not a poultry expert like Tim is but I have been keeping chickens for almost three years now. Attached is a photo of my small flock when we had 7 birds! We've lost two to predators since :'(
I'm looking forward to getting to know you all. If there's anything you need you can reach me at [email protected] or [email protected].
Thanks again for all the well-wishes!

Josh

 

[JoshB]

Yeah... maybe I should be doing the software upgrade sooner rather than later
Posting pics is less-than-intuitive!

 

[Marigold]

Nice pic, Josh - lucky girls!
Josh, I see that a lot of pics which were originally posted as links copied from elsewhere are now appearing as a coded reference, and when you click on it, it says that the selected attachment does not exist any more. Eg, see the last two posts in Nature Notes in the Dustbath, and other places. ??

http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=10518&start=770

 

[MrsBiscuit]

I see you have some orpingtons (well I can see the buff,and maybe a gold laced tho I can't see her comb, looks like a black, and the one in the foreground could be a red with that large frontage!) my favourite breed, thanks for posting!

 

[JoshB]

Nice pic, Josh - lucky girls!
Josh, I see that a lot of pics which were originally posted as links copied from elsewhere are now appearing as a coded reference, and when you click on it, it says that the selected attachment does not exist any more. Eg, see the last two posts in Nature Notes in the Dustbath, and other places. ??

http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=10518&start=770

Looks like a couple images fell through the cracks. I think I fixed it though!

 

[Marigold]

Thanks, Josh!

 

[bigyetiman]

Many thanks Josh, and lovely hens.

 

[JoshB]

Here's a sample of what we'll be working with.
This is a work in progress so some features may not be working properly or at all. There's still additions to make and settings to tweak.
It'll take some getting used to but for the most part it should be more intuitive and user-friendly.
You can poke around, use your same username and password as on this board. Test it out.

https://poultrykeeperforum.com/xf/index.php