"Club" membership and CT

I joined fairly early on, not sure if was right at the beginning, and have continued membership even now we no longer have a tourer, so I guess we fall in other that category, David. I still think it's an excellent bonus to have former members contributing,  especially when they can offer years of advice on practical matters and sites for instance. I rarely post on club specific threads now except when I have some knowledge of how club matters compare with the forms of holiday we now take, for instance the latest furore over t&c. I think it would be a shame to have all that experience go to waste if former/non members were stopped from posting. 

My only comments would be about the very long delay for some who want to join the forum and the wait for approval, had it been me I would have given up! In the early days we could join rapidly and get involved. So whether it's members or non members the wait appears to be long.

I'm glad we have the forum as a social meeting place. 

I think a lot of what has been said on this thread is absolutely true. I wonder how people, members or not, find the forum. I have only been a member for a few years, despite being a Club member for yonks. I don’t know anyone on this forum, I don’t know whether they are members or not (with one or two exceptions). To me it is the quality of their posts that is important.

The debacle of the new booking site has undoubtedly led to a lot of new contributors, some who may have been lurking, but some are undoubtedly completely new to the forum. I do hope they remain contributors. It is also clear from some posts that contributors believe they are addressing the Club, which obviously they are not. And I think this demonstrates one major difference between this forum and many others. This one is embedded within the Club website itself instead of being totally independent.  I belong and contribute to the Autosleeper forum, which is separate from the user association. It is not a part of Autosleeper. (incidentally we no longer have an Autosleeper).
So because this forum is a part of the Club contributors expect input from the Club itself, and I think that apparent lack of any interest in members views by the Club turns people away. Especially as many of the quite justifiable complaints many had about the new web site seem no nearer resolution that at the start.

The Club’s poor communication record does it no service at all.

I also think the forum is not easy to navigate. I usually come to it via “recent activity” to see what is being talked about. But occasionally I want post on a thread that I know exists but isn’t current. Trying to find it is, i find, a nightmare. The search facility is dreadful. So I think that would also put off new members who have ventured in for a look around. But of course that is all to do with the Club IT department!!!

Pro’s 

meeting some lovely CT members in real life

Cons

boring and predictable.  

What do I mean, well as an example site pricing has been an issue since I first joined in 2012, new threads 2 or 3 times a year, nothing has changed except sites getting more expensive.

IT, another continual issue for the last 5 years.  The latest Booking thread has over 2,300 posts and nothing has really changed.

 

 

Just as an aside, I get the distinct feeling the thread about the new booking system may have been viewed by IT and we have seen the many fixes being listed (it's not all down to complaints on trust pilot or feedback elsewhere.) 

I look at other forums and they are much the same with familiar contributors popping up, I suppose it's become quite an old style way of communication but at least it has survived.

Yes it is very nice to meet people in real life Oneputt.....we are indeed real people on here! 

 

The user and all related content has been Deleted User

The trouble is that none of us know what the Club hierarchy think of Club Together. Easy to assume I suppose that as they don't take part that they are not interested? Perhaps they felt it would be good to allow members to communicate with each other and pass of tips and good practise rather than it being used as a tool to hit the Club over the head with a hammer so to speak. It's easy to think that all CT does is to provide a talking shop for the disaffected but a lot more goes on in the passing on of information about all sorts of things be that understanding why you might need a VPN connection to watch UK when abroad or Nellie's encyclopedic knowledge of CL's, so there is a lot of good out there.

When you get major changes like the name change and the new booking system it always generates posters in some numbers who we have previously not seen posting before and in many cases never see again. It could be that many of those don't normally take part in online forums but are so exercised by the changes they need to register their views. We can't even be sure they return to read any comments on their posts!

I feel the Club have missed an opportunity to use CT as a channel for communication with members and had it been more proactive in doing so maybe more people would find it a worthwhile place to spend time? It seems to me the Club lacks a Director of Communications who could coordinate  information across the board rather than us getting it is dribs and drabs, it always seems to be behind the curve when it comes to communications.

David

There seem to have been quite a few vacancies advertised recently at HQ around Marketing and Communications, so who knows, some things might change. I suspect the Club is very interested in the likely spend, and take up of different products on offer. There seem to be more such surveys arriving in my inbox on an almost monthly basis. 

I think the Club considers the Reviews Section, and Your Stories as part of Club Together, along with the actual forum. 

Currently for various reasons our caravanning has been curtailed. But I still continue to log on and read posts on CT. It “keeps me in the loop” and I can feel I’m still a caravanner, and when life returns to normal for us, we can slip effortlessly back into the lifestyle.

There are aspects I don’t like (sniping, nit-picking etc), but it’s easy to just scroll on by.

 

The biggest problem that CT has is that technology has over taken it. Anyone who regularly uses twitter, instagram etc is used to having rapid interactions, as well as the ability to say pretty much what they want, to who they want.

CT was designed for conversations on our hobby, as well as for the exchange of information and advice, but its inevitable that those used to using social media will bring those ways of communication to these forums.

I don't know what can be done to improve this, but I do feel that there is a desire amongst some members for more robust debate, as proved by recent posts on the Bookings thread. The trouble here is, that when things do get feisty, a moderator pops up and removes posts. This interupts the flow, and many subsequest posts are then out of context.

Now, I'm not saying that anyone should be profane, rude or name calling, but perhaps there should be an 'open' area, less moderated,  where honest exchange of views can be shared. Similar threads could be created outside of this area for anyone not wanting robust debate. They can also avoid the open area if they don't like it.

As to non members contributing, then they could have access to 'open', but not elsewhere, particularly if their MO is to be disruptive, but it would be a shame if ex or lapsed members were unable to come here and share their valuble experience.