Cycling UK Forum

Si wrote:As it is, we've had a handful of negative responses, but by and large forum members don't seem bothered one way or another....is this apathy or does it genuinely not bother people...who knows.

In forum terms this is far from apathy, which shows just how apathetic we usually are .

It's already twice the voter turn out that I thought we would achieve, about double the turn out for the poll to create the non-standard HPVs forum board and about double the turn out for the Troll Poll.

We haven't yet reached the dizzy heights of the ebay poll but that might change once somebody suggests the banner could be used to advertise ebay.....


Of course some subjects are deemed too controversial for a poll .

Does the CTC earn any money from the relentless "Tapatalk" spam generated when accessing it on an IPhone?

Possible "fix" for that issue on this thread.

Thank you Gaz - blessed relief!

I've tried posting a vote on Firefox and IE and the website rejects it

Anyway, I vote for having CTC related stuff only. It's probably been said up thread, but people will often come straight from a search engine to the forum, not knowing what CTC is. It really should be in the club's best interests to have some form of information on the club and it's activities to inform would-be members. This forum might be the only chance that they come across the CTC. It's certainly very likely to be the first encounter with CTC.

The CTC logo in the top left of the screen is not obvious as a gateway to the main CTC site - it doesn't look like a 'button'. Does the forum software pick up how many new people actually click on it for more information?

I wonder, is this more of an issue with people using phones? Would the banner take up much more space and be a pain to scroll through? On a laptop, a banner seems unobtrusive.

The CTC logo on the forum only serves as a link to the forum home page.

The link to the main site is even more discreet.

When are CTC going to make a decision?

Is this poll dead now?
Has everyone said what they're going to say?

?, No and No...as far as I know.

I could ask but that would risk reminding someone that this was a possibility and thus prompting action!

Word from the top: "there’s no rush, we wanted to take soundings and then give the subject careful consideration armed with an understanding of what heavy users of the forum think"
<is he calling us fat? >

Si wrote:As it is, we've had a handful of negative responses, but by and large forum members don't seem bothered one way or another....is this apathy or does it genuinely not bother people...who knows.

People usually take an interest in things they have some control over. The CTC has to decide whether it needs to use the forum to generate advertising income or even just to promote the CTC. If it so decides then it has complete freedom to do so. It's a bit fatuous to ask the members - it's really not up to us. It is very unlikely that anyone postively wants advertising (although some may be open to the argument that it will help the CTC ).

I think what would really help is if the CTC really laid out its thinking clearly ("It is important to us, we need the advertising, we cannot let this go, we're desperate - or not" etc etc) and then say whether or not the members will have the final say. If it is a genuine consultation then the CTC needs to write the rules from the start, not make them up at the end - "Only the fifteen usual suspects voted and complained so we are going ahead". That's what stops me personally from taking an interest - I really cannot be bothered second guessing what a CTC officer (much as I love them all) is thinking while having a doughnut and coffee during his break.

Steveo2020 wrote:Does the CTC earn any money from the relentless "Tapatalk" spam generated when accessing it on an IPhone?

No, not currently. There is an option with Tapatalk to make a small amount from inserted adverts, but I'd rather not do that.

I installed Tapatalk when several Forum users (with iPhones, I believe, it was some years ago now) requested it. So long as your browser accepts cookies you can simply cancel the Tapatalk popup and it shouldn't appear again.

There's an update to Tapatalk to be installed soon, which appears to do the notification a different, hopefully better, way.

Si wrote:Word from the top: "there’s no rush, we wanted to take soundings and then give the subject careful consideration armed with an understanding of what heavy users of the forum think"
<is he calling us fat? >

I'm not sure who the "heavy users of the forum"* are but I thought that the poll and this thread were open to all forum users. Nice to know that some arbitrary decision will be made about which opinions should actually be considered.

I mentioned upthread that I was going to get grumpy about this, rest assured that my grumpiness is directed towards the top, not the mods.

*An image of Neil from the Young Ones saying "Heavy, man. That's giving me some really negative vibes" comes into my mind when I read the phrase.

Don't we get enough ads? - just look at the magazine - probably over 70% and then there are all the leaflets which slatter onto the floor when the magazine is opened

I believe, although I couldn't swear to it, that sites displaying third-party ads earn their money per click rather than per display. If that is the case, then the CTC would earn precious little, from me at least. I've only ever clicked on an ad once, and that was to see what they were saying about something I'd already bought being advertised by a company I know. Normally I never click ads on principle - you never know what they're going to plonk onto your computer when you do.

BTW, if you run Firefox, try loading the Collusion add-on. It graphs all the links between sites that have dropped cookies onto your machine on behalf of other sites. Quite an eye-opener.

Audax67 wrote:I believe, although I couldn't swear to it, that sites displaying third-party ads earn their money per click rather than per display. If that is the case, then the CTC would earn precious little, from me at least. I've only ever clicked on an ad once, and that was to see what they were saying about something I'd already bought being advertised by a company I know. Normally I never click ads on principle - you never know what they're going to plonk onto your computer when you do.

BTW, if you run Firefox, try loading the Collusion add-on. It graphs all the links between sites that have dropped cookies onto your machine on behalf of other sites. Quite an eye-opener.

Mmmm very interesting this Firefox inf, will try - thanks
I also avoid clicking on all the stuff rammed in your face - the worst are the floating banner that you have to click to get rid of.