Another way to enjoy your hobby

Hello – I’m looking after the 'social media' for Model Engineer and Model Engineers’ Workshop and was wondering if you were a member of any of the most popular sites.

We are planning exclusive competitions and give-aways on facebook, twitter and pinterest that you won’t find anywhere else, and there’s something new to see every day.

It’s all about interaction – and as you can see, we value your input and love to share stories and pictures.

It's not to replace what you see and read here online but to add to it, drawing attention to model engineering news far and wide, reminding people what they can find here at model-engineer.co.uk and giving an opportunity to press the “like” button if you approve!

By following our pages you’ll get early information on new developments, share news, views and ideas – and have conversations with hobbyists around the world as well as with staff here the magazine’s HQ.

Logging into things on the web may seem a bit daunting if you prefer solid things made of metal, plastic and wood, but if you take a deep breath and dive in at the deep end you’ll definitely enjoy the experience.

Click on the link to facebook.com/modelengineersworkshop to see what we're doing. If you want to sign up and “like” our group then it's straightforward. You don't need to have any online “friends” unless you want to and you can just use facebook to follow your hobbies and interests if you wish.

Jump aboard and share our online journey at:

facebook.com/modelengineersworkshop **LINK** 
pinterest.com/modelengineers http://pinterest.com/modelengineers
twitter.com/modelengineers http://twitter.com/modelengineers

Edited By Patrick Astill 5 on 13/08/2013 11:23:51

Bump

Patrick

I think your proposal is very laudable and it will be of interest to many of us, whilst it not essential, this social media stuff is becoming more and more part of our daily life so it might as well include hone engineering.

There is a BUT though....

Would it not be better if, rather than adding something new, MyTimeMedia put its resources into getting the existing system working properly?

Since presumably you are new moderator I have no way of knowing whether you are new to MTM, new to the forum etc, or maybe a longstanding MTM employee tasked with introducing the new feature. As a consequence the points I raise may not all be pertinent to the subject.

• All contributors (including moderators) have the 'number of posts' shown with their avatar. Your posting does not conform in that respect, why is that?
• If you browse through the last couple of years postings you will see a substantial quantity is on the subject of the truly awful software that runs this site.
• To my knowledge, in spite of very many forum members making requests and suggestions to fix the various website problems and anomolies, My Time Media never appear to take any notice and don't even acknowledge direct requests.
• One of the forum topic subjects is 'Website Questions, Comments and Suggestions'. What is the purpose of allowing members to make suggestions if they are totally ignored?
• The editors have done, and still do, their best to solve some of the recurring website problems but surely that is not what they should be doing?

So, as a humble member, I welcome you to the forum and hope that we all benefit from your presence.

Ian P

Hi Ian,

Thanks for your thoughts and your welcome.

THE GOOD NEWS is that MyTimeMedia does listen and will soon be rolling out its new web template for model-engineer.co.uk. It will work better and be visually more appealling.

(I have no idea why the number of posts doesn't come up under my name. I'll find out)

Patrick

PS <edit> It's there now - must have been because I'd only made the one post!)

Edited By Patrick Astill on 19/08/2013 13:01:23

Welcome to the forum Patrick. I hope you can provide a useful link between the members and MTM.

Personally speaking, I could't care less about the "more visually appealing" part. It would be nice if the site just worked as it should and if the staff were more responsive to complaints.

There have long been complaints about the site not working properly with various browsers and operating systems. The first thing that should be done is to ensure that the code conforms to the published World Wide Web Consortium rules. As an example when I submitted this page to their validation service it came up with 16 code errors. It is not surprising therefore that users experience problems.

Russell.

Edited By Russell Eberhardt on 19/08/2013 13:58:04

W3C so that's not much guarantee. The best thing is not to use an obscure browser like Opera.

I think it would be very unfair to provide features to people who have been drawn into the snare of driveller.com and mugbook. Is it likely that those that frequent such media will in the end decide to subscribe to a printed publication? You may just be making more work for yourselves in maintaining it.

I hope this doesn't mean the site is going to turn into a

"I've just had cornflakes for breakfast and now I'm going to turn metal into swarf" - type forum.

If it does, I'll be taking my toys (carefully) out of the pram and going to play on my own in the corner....... But then I am a bit of an old fuddy-duddy, or so I'm constantly told!

John

W3C members include Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Opera so, provided a web page's code complies with W3C, you stand a reasonable chance that it will work with their browsers. If you don't comply with the standards then the results on different browsers are unpredictable. So the best, and easiest thing is to check your code!

I agree completely with your remarks re., Driveller and Mugbook

Russell.

The forum here is, of course, what you make it.

The new social stuff is simply another way to help US share YOUR enthusiasm of this hobby, because each time we post, it reaches new people who might just be enthused enough to enjoy it as you do ... people who may never have thought of taking it up until they saw one pictures of one of their workmates - or a friend of a friend who goes out every week to volunteer at a railway circuit.

There are already around 350 twitter followers of our news, and 40 or so on facebook. We’re posting hobby images on pinterest too and that’s starting to take off with 125 followers, despite only a few images posted so far. Youtube will also be tweaked in due course...

It’s about sharing, friends of friends, like-minded people and new audiences who will find us – and keep the hobby alive – via our varied channels. We can all take it or leave it. If we enjoy what you get out of ME through the channels you already use, that’s great news but I’d still like to help new people find us here.

I'm curious to know how you square this with your opening statement:

?

H.P.

Hello Patrick

Hmmm..... I do not have a Facebook page or a Twitter account.

Twitter space is for the birds. Birds with small brains that can only converse with a few words at a time. Good for politicians.

Facebook in the beginning was a useful tool until they changed the format, in favour of rather blatant exploitation of the users privacy. Identity theft is a real possibility unless all the security settings are turned on.

Maybe new media will bring in a few new chums to the fold but to keep their interest forums like this one are a better format, a format that enables real conversation and knowledge exchange.

I concur with the other comments made re getting this site working properly.

Regards
John.

Edited By John McNamara on 19/08/2013 17:55:01

Facebook, Twitter, pinterest (never heard of this one)

What use are they if the basis of them is a p!$$n poorly written site that does not fully comply with current web development practices!!

We have long been berating the site owners and have long been ignored!

Why is it that MTM are incapable of communicating with those who, in effect are the mainstay of this sites existence!!

We always seem to hear of these changes through a 3rd party.

Are MTM incapable of communicating with their readership?

Graeme

Hairy Pete - people share and join in!

John McNamara - Exactly! The forum comes first.

CoalBurner - Point taken.

"I've just had cornflakes for breakfast and now I'm going to turn metal into swarf" - type forum.

Was that one of Oubailie - Geoff's signature comments <ducks>

Seriously, though I can uderstand why you wnat to link into the social media, but as I keep banging on at work, its fine having loads of people following us on twitter, but its the ones using the website who count.

The challenge is to ensure the website is as engaging as possible so when they visit the look around and come back.

The good thing about this website is lots of positive freely generated content.

The downsides are poor functionaility and dowdy appearance (I don't want glitz, but the colours are a bit drab!)

Neil

I look at this as follows.

I am still workingfor a living so time for hobby activities is limited to evenings and weekends/vacation. Then trying to keep up to date on some forums lessens available shop time even further.

So, social media is something that I skip and don't read at all. Not facebook, not twitter and what is Pinterest??? Furthermore, the legal setup of facebook where you have to renounce your copyright to FB is something that I even less agree with.

Therefore any activities in "social media" is out of question to me.

BR

/Peter

Welcome,

Stay away from social media, just concentrate on getting this site working correctly, i.e autosave comments in replies,(other forums can do it why can't MEW?) on more than one occasion I have written comments & when refering back to other pages or my pc folders for information I return only to find the comments have been deleted (not saved) & I have had to start again,(as in this example), have now resorted to copy text to a word doc then at least I can copy & paste back again! another annoyance is having the ads cover comments on occasions.. the ads column has been located at least a third of the way in from the right & I have given up trying to read some posts due to this. A proper working forum site is worth more than some social media access... & what the hell is 'pinterest'? ... Oh I see... just clicked on link & found out that it is just a quick ref. to articles gleaned from the digital archives .

Cheers

George.

Twitter ?

Facebook ??

Bah Humbug.

Stuff this social media, what's wrong with being anti social ?

And before I forget only limp wristed wimps have cornflakes for brecky, whats wrong with kippers, black pudding and fried bread ?

LBSC / Edgar T / Geometer [ delete as required ] would be turning in their graves, even the celebrated George H had wheatabix.

> would be turning in their graves

I'm sure that's what they hoped to be doing...

Calm down hand have some gluten-free vegan muesli.

Neil

just get the freaking forum working properly !

people have been calling and screaming for it to be fixed for years yet they been taken notice of

theres enough old threads out there complaining of errors and anomalies to give anyone enough evidence that it needs fixing

if you want to be taken seriously, get it fixed

Edited By Ziggar on 19/08/2013 21:52:00

Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest? is perhaps something for a "different" generation....

Very good point from Ziggar about fixing the site problems first, this must be one of the worst BB layouts I have seen why dont you take a leaf from HSM or PM and use some "proper" and user friendly BB software.