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Marigold

Marigold

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Please see http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=10752

I'm just posting this link to Tim's thread at the top of the list, in Forum Rules, because I wonder if there may be some people who have missed reading it if they don't use the Unread Posts search button, which would have highlighted the link to a section many of us don't look at very often.

It's really good to know that people now have a way to support the Forum, and to show our appreciation of all Tim's time-consuming hard work keeping it running so smoothly behind the scenes. It's good also that he's getting some support towards the annual server hosting costs - the forum doesn't run for free, and I think it's unacceptable that Tim should pay for it entirely himself, as well as putting in the hours he does. Many of us were desolate when Practical Poultry Forum crashed last year, and it's lovely to see that so many 'refugees' found a home on here, and provided the numbers and the lively contributions which made it possible to keep this site running as well. So let's hope that more people will either want to join the 'Team' and contribute a small annual donation to costs, or else keep assiduously clicking the ads each time they visit - about 120 clicks per person per annum should do it, I think.....

I hope Tim will soon post a more prominent link to the hosting payment page, but in the meantime it can be found in the thread linked above.
 
Will click regularly, and would be more than happy to contribute towards running costs.
 
Everyone who contributes is thereafter immune to ads! The trouble with clicking them is the spam generated by the link you create. £10 a year works out at less than 20p.per week, what else can you buy for 20p which gives you such entertainment?


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I have sent my £10, the forum is such a lovely place, not just about chooks and I am pleased it exists and am very happy to support its existence. Its worth it to me not to have to engage with adverts, although the banner one across the top was fine, but I heartily dislike those sites where there are ads all over the place. I dislike the bbc site for that reason, as well as the content which masquerades as news. Anyway, I also think its a good thing not to make contributions mandatory, not everyone is a regular and we don't want to put off users, and in any case I'm not sure that regulars should get a worse deal than casual visitors. I know that's not anybody's intention either, so it seems to me the current solution gives everyone a choice to do whatever suits them best.
 
I’ve submitted £10 too. It does seem remarkable value for a years entertainment. But then again so does three pints of Deuchars IPA. That’s Indian Pale Ale for the uniniated. Which brings me on to tonic water. For years we’ve enjoyed Indian Tonic Water. Do we really need slimline when the measure of gin has about a thousand times as many calories. Do we need tonic flavoured with basil going under the name of Mediterranean Tonic Water. Or elderflower tonic water. Who is going to be impressed down the Horse and Jockey when you order a Plymouth Dry with Mediterranean Tonic. Now I love a G and T before dinner. Do I put in half a strawberry on a cocktail stick. And ice. Do I want to swig it like an alcoholic before the ice melts and waters it down. No. Keep the gin in the freezer and the tonic in the fridge. It’s not rocket science.
Bet you never thought a request for £10 would lead you down this garden path.
 
I've been looking through the list of registered forum members (click the Members button on the top line of the page) to try to get some idea of how many active members we currently have, i.e, people who have actually posted something at least once in 2018. I think I found around 20-30 people who have contributed to threads, other than just introducing themselves in the Welcome section. Of these, quite a few have joined to get help with a particular issue or problem, and once this has been discussed, are not heard from again. One or two have posted about birds or equipment for sale. Round about Page 53 on the list, in May 2017, there's a sudden influx of 'refugees' from Practical Poultry Forum when it closed, and many of these are still active on here. Assuming that we have around 15-20 actual, regular members, that puts the donation scheme into perspective - those of us who want the forum to continue may be just about be able to keep things afloat if we all contribute our annual £10 Full Member subscriptions.
But what surprised me is the huge number of people who have registered recently without posting anything at all, not even in the Welcome section to prove they're not robots. Take a look at the last few pages of the list - there are dozens of names which Tim has registered, who haven't checked in. The first column says how many posts each has made, and the end column says when they were 'last active' which I suppose must mean browsing without posting if the number of posts is 0? Let's just hope that, whilst they're enjoying the Forum, they're all clicking away like mad on the ad links!
 
OK HG, I will take up your gin based chat, being fond of the odd G&T. I couldn't care less what T I use, its normally own brand, or Schweppes. But I do have some G preferences - Tanqueray10, Copper House (? Copper Something anyway, made by Adnams), Ophir (? not sure that is spelt right either), and Hendriks (with cucumber of course!) We are lucky as visitors know we drink gin and often bring a bottle of something exotic, so we usually have a bigger range than if we were buying! As we have our own lemon tree it gives me enormous pleasure to make a G&T with our own slice in it. I sometimes make ice cubes out of lemon juice as well. When my Dad was dying, a man who had had his fair share of G&Ts over his life, my brother and I would come home from the hospital and demand a G&T to relax us, and to remember him by. Simple pleasures. He was also fond of Samuel Smith's IPA.

Marigold, we seem to be a small (but select obviously) band.
 
We need more chicken pictures!
Have you seen the Chilton Rail ads lately at stations with the hybrid family out on excursions? Its brightened up my commute :)
 
All done. I only check in occasionally but happy to pay£10 per year fit the privilege.
 
Hen-Gen said:
I’ve submitted £10 too. It does seem remarkable value for a years entertainment. But then again so does three pints of Deuchars IPA. That’s Indian Pale Ale for the uniniated. Which brings me on to tonic water. For years we’ve enjoyed Indian Tonic Water. Do we really need slimline when the measure of gin has about a thousand times as many calories. .... Do I want to swig it like an alcoholic before the ice melts and waters it down. No. Keep the gin in the freezer and the tonic in the fridge. It’s not rocket science.
Bet you never thought a request for £10 would lead you down this garden path.
Click to expand...

Hen-Gen: I get in enough trouble putting home-made sorbet in the freezer, taking up space. If I dared put a bottle in there, hubby would be appoplectic (sp?)!

For what it's worth, I like the pink "aromatic" tonic plus a chocolate peppermint leaf from the garden in Plymouth Gin. Sainsburys own brand gin is perfectly good enough for my pink grapefruit & gin sorbet; the gin stops it from freezing too hard (that's my excuse, anyway!).
 
rick said:
We need more chicken pictures!
Have you seen the Chilton Rail ads lately at stations with the hybrid family out on excursions? Its brightened up my commute :)
Click to expand...

That's a good point, Rick. Can you find a pic of this to show us? It's lovely to get the clean text without adverts, but when a new person looks in for the first time, it does look a bit grey, doesn't it?
Tim, could there maybe be a colourful chicken-pic banner across the top of the Index page, similar to what can be put on a Facebook personal page?

And could we please keep this thread on topic, i.e, discussing membership and ideas about how to ensure the future of the forum? Gin connoisseurs are very welcome to have their own space by starting another thread.
 
Oh dear, sorry if that came over a bit heavy, Mrs B - it wasn't meant to.

It just feels good sometimes, now most of us reading this are part of the 'team,' to have a space to discuss ideas about where the forum is going and how to ensure its survival - I love it when threads wind round and round into unexpected areas, like a personal conversation, but sometimes it can be good if there's a focus we can all contribute to.

As always, do feel free to shoot me down.....
 
You are right, Marigold; as usual you are the voice of common sense. No offence taken!
 
£10 here buys you 8 litres of wine, which entertains me for days!

I did see an ad for mail order oil seals. Turns out to be a pretty useful site as they may stock something suitable for our old rotorvator. The usual solution to worn axle seals is to fill the gearbox with grease but that causes a lot of heat and also robs the machine of power.
 
Some more statistics;

Poultrykeeper Forum started in 2009, with Tim as the founder member.
Total number of registered members now = 1586.
(Tim occasionally prunes the list and deletes people who haven't posted after registering, as too many members who don't contribute puts up the server costs.)

New registrations Jan - end of September 2018 = 236. (See page 56 onwards.)
Of these, people who haven't posted at all = 173
Very nearly 75% of the total registrations for the year so far.
Sometimes people register and then 'lurk' for a while before posting spam. Tim puts in a lot of time checking IP addresses to try to weed out suspicious ones.

People registered in 2018 who have posted more than 3 times = 12
Of these, those who have posted more than 8 times = 5

and the winner is..... Tweetiepie, with 202 posts! Give her a big hand, folks! 0:-) 0:-)

I guess this accounts for the often quite large numbers of people who are seen browsing via the Who is Online? box at the bottom of the page, but not actively posting. Our archive of advice and experience is available freely to everyone, hopefully more accessible following the recent reorganisation and editing of the main subsections. This is very good, of course, - but it would be lovely if more of these people would like to check in, make friends and add their experiences, ideas and problems, not necessarily about chickens - and, of course, once they feel comfortable in the club, become Full Members.

How could we encourage this?
 
chrismahon said:
£10 here buys you 8 litres of wine, which entertains me for days!

I did see an ad for mail order oil seals. Turns out to be a pretty useful site as they may stock something suitable for our old rotorvator. The usual solution to worn axle seals is to fill the gearbox with grease but that causes a lot of heat and also robs the machine of power.
Click to expand...

Keep clicking on it, Chris!
 
and the winner is..... Tweetiepie, with 202 posts! Give her a big hand, folks! 0:-)
[/quote]

☺ Its great being part of this "hen party"
 
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