Yet Another Cycling Forum

General Category => Audax => Topic started by: Philip Whiteman on 13 February, 2019, 03:28:53 pm

Title: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: Philip Whiteman on 13 February, 2019, 03:28:53 pm
FAO Event Organisers.

For those not aware, we have a Facebook Group exclusive to event organisers to discuss management matters related to audaxes. We already have 86 members. If you are an event organiser that is interested in joining then you will be more than welcome. Please remember to complete the questionnaire at the point of applying, stating your event and agreement to terms.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/261130014538117/

Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: iddu on 14 February, 2019, 12:55:04 pm
Which is well and dandy, but percludes those that want nothing to do with the Zuckerberg empire...
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: Ian gaggiaport on 14 February, 2019, 05:35:50 pm
And.. we have a new website?
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: ian_oli on 14 February, 2019, 07:10:41 pm
And.. we have a new website?
Which has nothing as far as I can see for organisers.

It's a useful forum and not a whingefest about dumb customers or about Audax HQ.
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: vorsprung on 14 February, 2019, 09:37:39 pm
Which is well and dandy, but percludes those that want nothing to do with the Zuckerberg empire...

I do occasionally look at the organiser page but don't see why we can't have it on the AUK forum.  Now it has over 80 members it probably has enough momentum to move it.

And more people now "get it" why facebook is poison
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: mattc on 15 February, 2019, 08:41:26 am
Which is well and dandy, but percludes those that want nothing to do with the Zuckerberg empire...

I do occasionally look at the organiser page but don't see why we can't have it on the AUK forum.  Now it has over 80 members it probably has enough momentum to move it.

And more people now "get it" why facebook is poison
One downside of that "momentum" is that facebook people tend to act as if those outside don't exist
[or are too stupid/luddite to use Facebook!]

To the point of putting key announcements on that channel, amongst other effects.
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: Delph Cyclist on 15 February, 2019, 08:48:57 am
Which is well and dandy, but percludes those that want nothing to do with the Zuckerberg empire...

Yes, I'm not on Facebook either.  Wasn't the AUK Forum set up for just such purposes?
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: bairn again on 15 February, 2019, 10:01:24 am
Which is well and dandy, but percludes those that want nothing to do with the Zuckerberg empire...

I do occasionally look at the organiser page but don't see why we can't have it on the AUK forum.  Now it has over 80 members it probably has enough momentum to move it.

And more people now "get it" why facebook is poison
One downside of that "momentum" is that facebook people tend to act as if those outside don't exist
[or are too stupid/luddite to use Facebook!]

To the point of putting key announcements on that channel, amongst other effects.

I'm the same

I was on Facebook under a pseudonym but have since deleted the account as it was more trouble than it was worth. 

An organisers group would have some attractions but when I saw details I was content to miss out due to my decision not to use Facebook.  The person who set it up is at liberty to use whatever medium they want imho. 

(as an aside I do find it irksome that Edinburgh Road Club appears to be increasingly using a closed Facebook Group for details of its summer time trial series)
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: Philip Whiteman on 15 February, 2019, 04:21:18 pm
The AUK Forum was chosen as it does not restrict membership to just organisers.  Furthermore the AUK Forum was created and established by Audax UK, whereas the Facebook Group does not fall within AUK's jurisdiction. It is a private group created by event organisers exclusively for the benefit of organisers under 'Chatham House' rules and away from the insipid politics of YACF or similar such forums..  Now people can hold their views on Facebook but I am not a public servant paid to create websites, so Facebook provided a useful medium.  Given that nobody else had taken the initiative before, I hardly think that people have the right to complain although you have the option of not joining.
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: Greenbank on 15 February, 2019, 05:29:37 pm
Given that nobody else had taken the initiative before, I hardly think that people have the right to complain although you have the option of not joining.

There's also the right to say/request that AUK should create a sub-forum of the official AUK forums where this discussion can be had. The forum software (SMF) has add-ons that selective access to sub-forums, and it should be much easier to ensure organisers (and cherished ex-organisers) have access due to the AUK forum using membership numbers as base usernames.

As has been demonstrated, the insipid politics of Facebook itself is enough to turn away potential organisers from being able to contribute to and gain from the discussion if it is held only there.

(I'm not an organiser though, otherwise I'd probably kick off such a discussion over on the AUK forums.)
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: bhoot on 15 February, 2019, 07:07:12 pm

There's also the right to say/request that AUK should create a sub-forum of the official AUK forums where this discussion can be had. The forum software (SMF) has add-ons that selective access to sub-forums, and it should be much easier to ensure organisers (and cherished ex-organisers) have access due to the AUK forum using membership numbers as base usernames.
There already are controlled access areas on the forum eg delegates, board,  which cannot be seen by others, so it should be possible to restrict an area to organisers (and I guess the forum administrator)
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: vorsprung on 15 February, 2019, 09:17:27 pm
...Facebook provided a useful medium.  Given that nobody else had taken the initiative before, I hardly think that people have the right to complain although you have the option of not joining.

No one is complaining about the group and some have taken the option of not joining.
It's rather like you are saying, Tory party HQ gave us a free room to use.. no one had done a group like this before
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Pages
Post by: Jaded on 15 February, 2019, 11:57:28 pm
Facebook provide a medium that appears to be useful. Useful to Facebook.

We have a local Facebook page that the owner trumpets as being vital giving information about the town. But it is membership only group, so no one else gets to see it, and he arbitrarily bans people (like, for example, if they run a business that competes with his). Then on the group things like threading and duplication are very badly handled, and Facebooks algorithm gives you whatever posts it thinks are best at the top. That’s before considering the insidious tracking of users and the deliberate pushing of filtered stuff to them that Facebook does to make its money.

I don’t see why this is better than a forum, which has precious few of the downsides of Facebook.
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: Kim on 16 February, 2019, 12:03:50 am
Privacy and usability issues aside, the advantage of doing this sort of thing on a forum that AUK controls is that potentially valuable information doesn't get buried into obscurity by the advertising clickbait algorithm just because it's a bit old, or worse vanish completely at the whim of some change to a third-part's terms & conditions.

The main reason for *not* doing it on a forum is that they have overheads to set up and maintain.  But since AUK already has one, that's a non-issue.  Seems silly not to use it.  But I'm not an organiser, and I lost the trying-to-persuade-people-not-to-use-Facebook argument years ago, so whatever.
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: frankly frankie on 16 February, 2019, 09:35:42 am
Since organisers are required to be current AUK members then a sub-group on the Forum should work.  Though a Forum admin would need to allocate the requisite permissions per member.  Around, what, 200 organisers?  In theory Forum privileges can be dictated by settings within aukweb but in practice that mechanism has been overridden so that some Forum drone has to deal with them manually.  So how does this admin know that a member is an organiser?

You can see the attractions of an autonomous group that is also not absolutely limited to AUK members.
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: Kim on 16 February, 2019, 01:02:03 pm
So how does this admin know that a member is an organiser?

The same way a Facebook one does.
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: Phil W on 16 February, 2019, 01:31:46 pm
 
So how does this admin know that a member is an organiser?

The same way a Facebook one does.

What, it tracks you stealthily through millions of websites, tracks your location, and correlates that with you being an organiser, which events you organise and how often you did the test rides? :o :o
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: Kim on 16 February, 2019, 01:33:09 pm
So how does this admin know that a member is an organiser?

The same way a Facebook one does.

What, it tracks you stealthily through millions of websites, tracks your location, and correlates that with you being an organiser, which events you organise and how often you did the test rides? :o :o

Nahh, that's Facebook.  The group admin just sees $random_name asking to join the group, and guesses whether they're an AUK organiser or not.
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: Ian gaggiaport on 16 February, 2019, 04:29:47 pm
So how does this admin know that a member is an organiser?

The same way a Facebook one does.

What, it tracks you stealthily through millions of websites, tracks your location, and correlates that with you being an organiser, which events you organise and how often you did the test rides? :o :o

Huh huh.. funny.
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: L CC on 16 February, 2019, 08:36:34 pm
I'm not an organiser so it's not my 'problem' and I am willing to risk the tentacles of Facebook.

I never (OK, very rarely) go on the Audax UK Forum. I'm far from unusual.
In the same way that this forum's Audax Board has more visitors and activity because people on it, are on YACF anyway, anything on Facebook will have more activity because people are on Facebook anyway. Just ask Google Plus.
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: hellymedic on 17 February, 2019, 12:23:39 am
I concur with fboab but also feel organisers might want some space where they can 'vent' without too much fear of censure.

I too am not an organiser.
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: phil d on 17 February, 2019, 09:29:55 am
As an organiser, I've never felt a need for a special group, of felt I've been missing out because I don't do Facebook. There's plenty of organiser related content both here and on the AUK forum. I suppose I would probably "keep an eye on" an organisers' sub-group on the AUK forum.
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: whosatthewheel on 17 February, 2019, 03:48:15 pm
The advantage of Facebook is that it alerts me on my phone if Will has posted a recipe on how to make chocolate flapjacks...

The AUK forum is a bit like those abandoned villages in the midwest, with tumbleweed rolling on empty, dusty roads... I don't think it is a suitable host and also membership can't be restricted.

Anyway, Facebook is working very well, so no reason to abandon it
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: LiamFitz on 18 February, 2019, 01:45:28 pm
FAO Event Organisers.

For those not aware, we have a Facebook Group exclusive to event organisers to discuss management matters related to audaxes. We already have 86 members. If you are an event organiser that is interested in joining then you will be more than welcome. Please remember to complete the questionnaire at the point of applying, stating your event and agreement to terms.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/261130014538117/

If you are an organiser there are some very useful threads concerning the dull minutiae of brevet ordering and Paypal surcharges; i.e the annoying stuff that eat up time when you organise event. It's a good initiative.

It has the advantage of most of the discussions being technical and it doesn't get sidetracked (too far) into wider topics. It's practical and not (very) political.
Title: Re: Audax Organiser's Facebook Page
Post by: whosatthewheel on 18 February, 2019, 05:40:03 pm

If you are an organiser there are some very useful threads concerning the dull minutiae of brevet ordering and Paypal surcharges...

... and printing of addresses directly on Brevet cards...  :thumbsup: