CH - CH -CH - CHANGES

[Dave Watterson]

In the last few days of 2009 Jan and I have been doing some re-organising of the forum. We may do more bits and bobs of tidying up over the next few weeks, but as of 29th December we think the basic job is done.

Instead of one forum we now have several. If you log on to one, you can take part in them all.

The division of subject matter is a little loose - how could it be otherwise?

It has been fascinating skimming back over the last decade of posts. At one time we were quite ferocious in our comments! It is also sad to read words from people who have since died or dropped out of our hobby.

We have removed a lot of outdated announcements, spam and some blank messages where people hit submit by mistake. If you have time look through some of the older material. There is a great deal of good sense amongst the banter.

- Dave

[Stephen]

I'll buy you a pint and the Mrs for that recent work on the forum Dave.... most excellent !

much ....much......nay.... MUCH.... cleaner and easier on the eye!

keep it up man !!

[fraught]

I agree! Well done that man! ... and woman...

[Pqtrick]

Well done you chaps! It must have been an innovative way of digesting the turkey.

Now that we have the site divided into useful topics, I hope it may be a way forward in livening up the forum.

It is incredible to think that we are involved in one of the most creative activities, yet it seems to inhibit the flow of chatter.

So come on folks, have something to say and keep the forum alive.

[Mike Shaw]

Well done Dave and Jan! It makes everything so much clearer and easier to get questions etc 'noticed'. A very welcome advance to the forum. Great!

[Brian Saberton]

Thanks Dave and Jan for a wonderful piece of work in revamping the forum. It makes my brain ache to think of how many hours it must have taken to sort it all out - we all owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude.

[billyfromConsett]

Good work Dave and Jan. I haven't been doing much in December, but from my first look at the new-look forums - they look good.

[Michael Slowe]

Of course there has to be one awkward old b....r who disagrees with the majority! Of course appreciation for all the hard work that Dave and Jan do but personally I prefer just the one forum which covers many topics. You can easily scan down the posts for ones that may interest you (providing that the poster has named it aptly) and you can be sure you see everything. With multiple forums (forae??? surely not) there is much more searching to be done. Maybe I'm too lazy, too old or too busy editing videos.

[Willy]

Of course there has to be one awkward old b....r who disagrees with the majority.

Me too, I appreciate the work Jan and Dave have done and are doing. But, I was surprised to see my name so often in the discussions about festivals and competitions. I feel a bit embarassed by this. Maybe it shows one of my bad characteristics ... I am too competitive !

No, that's not true. This is a wrong impression otherwise I would not encourage good filmmakers to take part in competitions likie BIAFF, the Lily and AMPS. On the other hand I don't have to read all those boring things about new cameras, projectors and other technical aspects. Do not blame me for saying this.

A good camera does not make automatically a good film. In Belgium I know some friends who have a very expensive and sophisticated brand new camera, but who never make films and who never take part in competitions.I am not annoyed by that, but I find it very strange.

I understand Michael. He is interested in everything. In technical things, in making films, in competitions... For people like me with a limited technical knowledge it's good that there are different chapters.

[Dave Watterson]

Willy, your words are always welcome here. Some of our British readers are a little shy about writing, even anonymously, but you offer interesting views of our hobby in all its aspects. Your perspective is slightly and refreshingly different because the n-c film making scene in Belgium is different. That is interesting. As a highly-regarded international film maker, your ideas are treated with respect ... which does not mean to say we will not argue about them from time to time!

Going through the old postings, Jan and I edited many of them, removing those which refered to websites that are no longer available, taking out one-off references like promotions for events which are now long over. We also tried to tidy up some of the earliest entries which were written on a different bulletin board system and looked strange on this one.

Although a few of us have always written most of the posts, the sharpest comments and most interesting questions have sometimes been one-offs or from contributors who are less verbose. It takes all sorts ...
- Dave

[Willy]

Willy, your words are always welcome here.
- Dave

Today I tried to read the messages in "Help and Advice for Newcomers", but I could not ! It said : "You don't have the required permission to read topics within this forum."

[billyfromConsett]

It seems to be off the radar - I tried it earlier too.

[Dave Watterson]

Ooops! I may have accidentally turned off permissions yesterday. I do apologise. Please try again now ... and PM me if you have problems!
- Dave