reb78 Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Well, there you go: http://forum.lro.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=99005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Not much of a surprise, the actual layout/software hasn't updated for years, the place is very quiet recently, I was thinking about closing my membership there anyway, LR4x4 is a much better place to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reb78 Posted December 11, 2017 Author Share Posted December 11, 2017 That idiot rust proofer was the last straw for me. I stopped posting on there because of his nonsense and the lack of tech chat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Hmm faceache probably helped as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reb78 Posted December 11, 2017 Author Share Posted December 11, 2017 I expect so (I don't have an account) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lo-fi Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 It's not the only forum that's been very quiet lately. I've been a member of seriouslyseries.com for a good while, and it's never been so quiet despite being a very friendly, close knit bunch. Plenty of chatter on the Facebook group, but it's like YouTube comments on there (I'm sure everyone will know what I mean) with the wider rabble only one "join" click away. The photobucket ransom hasn't helped either... When in contrast, Facebook point blank refuse to delete anything. So many old threads are now dead unless you've discovered the joys of the chrome or Firefox fix plugin... If only they'd asked for a more reasonable sum, they'd probably be rolling in it now and the Internet would be a better place for it. Shame about LRO, I've found answers to many a Google in that forum. Other forums seem to have a similarly good archive, but again not so much happening lately. The wider question is: are the years of the independent forum numbered? When an overload of Facebook noise is ever present, will people bother to sign up and get involved in yet another community that doesn't try to invade their lives and grab their attention so pervasively or present it in a nice little "feed" for easy consumption? Another aspect is ease of use... Lots of people struggle uploading and linking images, photobucket nonsense aside. Facebook makes it easy as could be, particularly on mobile. User experience is also the same, no matter what group you're a member of. In a lot of ways this is "better": Single sign in. Unified user experience. General ease of use. Free, unlimited, unrestricted image uploads. Tapatalk is supposed to help with this, but frankly I hated it, and not every forum supports it anyway. I guess it boils down to a balance between ease of use and the barrier to entry being high enough to keep the empty vessels who make most noise away. Sorry for the essay, lots of interesting stuff buried in this one. I'll look forward to more informed discussion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snagger Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 I think independent forums like this should be OK. The associated forums like LRO have to tow a company line to keep the parent company's advertisers happy, so the range of discussion and certainly the integrity of answers suffers. At the other end oft he spectrum, the Facebook groups are a free-for-all, very easy to join and comment, but hard to find information and always a disaster for anyone asking a sensible question and hoping for reasonable answers. This forum sits nicely in the middle, highly informative, not welcoming to trolls and idiots, and very honest as it has no masters to please. There are other forums that lay in similar middle ground, but they're too model specific, often taking it to the point of discouraging anything non-standard from that model, to attract many members, failing to reach the critical mass required to keep going. The Lightweight Land Rover Club's forum has become a bit like that - it's a good club and a good forum, but it's quiet because of being too narrowly focused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arjan Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 As I said on LRA, the owners of the titles are in it for the short term money and have no real connection to the marque. Goes for most magazines that specialize in someting... Gone are the days that companies seem to be in it for the long term.... Oh well, progress I guess.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snagger Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 I think most of their staff are in it for personal gain, not just the publishers. There are several of the staff who are clearly enthusiasts, but much of what they write is clearly to boost sales of one product or another. There are some staff who appear to have enthusiasm for the marque, but have no technical knowledge at all, and I can't understand how that occurs - over a period of years (months for many of us), we build up a lot of knowledge because our interest, so when these "professionals" show such a lack of it after many years of writing for a specialist magazine, one does have to wonder about the sincerity of their enthusiasm. And then there are those in that very publication who have earned themselves a mafiosa reputation amongst traders, demanding lots of freebies in return for endorsements and threatening the more honest traders. I heard such accusations from many traders at Billing, Stoneleigh, Gaydon and suchlike. At least on here, I'm confident that any advice I see is meant as an honest contribution based on the writer's experiences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davo Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 I think that since the usual internet rubbish is so obviously not tolerated here, it puts off the usual internet types. Keeping that chit-chat down is the best thing about this forum because it discourages that type and leaves the technical stuff up front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daan Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 Interesting, but it is the same as the predecessor of this forum. I do think a forum needs to be independent from a magazine for it to work. As for Facebook, I haven't find much content with any depth to it. Daan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybrid_From_Hell Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 As Daam says big forums (like here) use lots of bandwidth and are not cheap to run and maintain. LEO see the forum as s drain on profits so bye. hard and simple commercial desicion we are non profit making and with support from membership via the supporters scheme and donations are relatively financially safe...report to no one in terms of profits costs drains etc. all A&M team do all work for free and it's pretty self funding . shame LRO are doing this....but with dwindling distribution erg hardly a surprise to cut what is not a core business cost. lr4x4.com is it's core business big difference Again a huge thankyou to all forum financial supporters Nige 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happyoldgit Posted December 13, 2017 Share Posted December 13, 2017 A forum funded by a magazine publisher can never be truly impartial as they have to be aware of potential damage to advertising revenue should products and services receive slating by users of the forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 LRO forum/website is no more, my bookmark now takes me direct to the LRO facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/LandRoverOwnerInternational/?mode=login&sid=78d942997a94785be6fdbd7fdfe8c618 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dailysleaze Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 It was GDPR that killed it off. Bauer media didn't want to have to go through the process so just culled all their forums. I imagine there'll be other businesses in the next year that can't be arsed with it and will just turn off bits of websites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 Bizarre, GDPR doesn't just apply to websites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 GDPR? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reb78 Posted December 20, 2017 Author Share Posted December 20, 2017 The members have moved here if anyone comes here looking for it. http://thelandroverowner.proboards.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reb78 Posted December 20, 2017 Author Share Posted December 20, 2017 I can't see anything on the LRO Facebook page as I don't have an account. All I can see are snippets of people complaining about subscription gifts!! Doesn't make me want to sign up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 General Data Protection Regulations. Coming in May... Brace yourselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve b Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 Care to expand on that a little Bowie ? How does it align with existing Data Protection laws ? .....Has come through from the EU ? cheers Steve b Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dailysleaze Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 Yes came from the EU. Started in 2016 but businesses have 2 years to get compliant. It's meant to give more control to users over their data, seeing as the current law is from the 90's when companies like Google and Facebook, etc. didn't exist. For a business, it pretty much means you can't do anything without a user's consent. Like you couldn't email an ex-customer, because you shouldn't be holding their email address after they're not a customer (unless they'd given their consent). Consent will have to be explicitly given, rather than being implied or by having to opt out by default. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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