Matt if I still had a PC I'd be able to help but the small screen of my totally rubbish mobile makes it difficult. It's forever changing the words I type, they're not even similar words.
The calender used to be useful as it listed events that BM members either planned to attend or were organising themselves. For a few years this kept me happily entertained and allowed me to meet some great people, form some good friendships and generally have a great time. It was so easy. You would see an event that took you fancy, you could contact the organiser, put your name down and you went. About as good as it gets. Last year the calendar filled with events that nobody from BM was attending. How are new members expected to make new friends and meet people with that setup?
I totally agree with you Steve. I waded through event after event last year to see who was doing what and very few of the numerous events actually indicated attendance of BM Members.
I think perhaps the calendar would be more useful if it held events that BM members were actually organising or interested in and/or considering attending, rather than loads of events just to fill up the calendar.
I would imagine that most members will know where to look on the internet to find events which will interest them. Perhaps a thread with links to those places would be more useful, then once an event is identified by members the events could be entered into the Calendar.
Just my thoughts, but to coin the BM phrase K.I.S.S.
**Stands back and waits for the proverbial to hit the fan**
Yes your both right but on BM there are only a few members that can be bothered to get off there ass and put some effort into arranging events. Then we get complaints that there are ( No events in my area why dont you arrange a night out in ? ) So you can understand why I have had enough if the complants and putting loads of time and effort into sorting stuff and getting little or no interest. Last year there were a handfull of events that were put on by BM members some with good turn out other with not so good and a couple that where canceled due to lack of interest. so to have a calender that only had BM events would be full of tumble weed cobwebs and the odd stale beer. It dosnt help when you put events to the calendar last week and 4 days later there still waiting for calendar admin to put them on.
With regards to my comments, I was referring to the annual rallies, rideouts and events being listed elsewhere, which we all know about; The Bike Shows, MAG rallies, club rallies, MAG rideouts, The Ace events & rideouts etc, my thoughts were that if a BMer was definitely going to any of these then post it up on the calendar themselves, that way other members know that there will be BM attendance and can choose to go or not. Rather than having the calendar littered with things that are of no interested to the membership.
I wasn't referring to BM organised events. Those are a completely different beast. I think recently the site has changed a little from being 'social' to a lot more members joining for 'dating' purposes, therefore the dynamic has changed somewhat, leaving the BM events slightly out on a limb as they are definitely social events.
For some reason my post was unable to complete. (?) Probably too long (sorry) here is the rest ...
I know how much work goes into organising a large scale event and how soul destroying, infuriating and frustrating it can be when it is cancelled or poorly attended. So I do appreciate and understand your comments JP. Perhaps it would be better to say to those 'asking' for events in their area to sort a day/afternoon/night event, rideout, meet and post it in the forums themselves? The onus is then on them, not you or others. The social side of BM should also be the responsibility of its members. After all if you want to meet folk n make friends you make an effort to do so.
With regards to the 'team' who deal with inputting onto the calendar, I don't know who or how many they are, but if we had a calendar which only held events that BMers are intending to attend, as above, the workload of the 'team' would be much less and definitely speedier.
hope I haven't put my foot in it again, but just my honest opinion and thoughts as usual.
Thanks guys, I thought I was the only one. Of all the events I've organised there have always been a few no shows, but that's the nature of the beast. What I have found is that newbies appreciate turning up and been made welcome.
But I also appreciate many people don't want to do the ride out /social thing, they are either want to date or just enjoy the online experience. We might be in a minority.
Either way it's Matt's business and I expect he is doing what he needs to do to make that business a success.
Lists of biker events are adequately provided for on the internet, all for free and mostly on 'magazine' type websites with paid staff to populate the events listings and write articles and features.
We, the paying customers of BM, could duplicate those resources; but why should we? Well, because of the social opportunities they offer if we know other BMers will be there. Many of us will already belong to websites that offer a discussion forum, some might even had a chat room; but these tend to be either geographical or special interest (eg bike manufacturer). None, that I've found, offer what BM does.
As a relative newbie to biking and a total newbie to BM, I rode down to one of Steve_H's Dent meets to spend a weekend as the sole female in a field, in the pubs and careering around the Dales with half a dozen random bikers. It was exactly what I expected it to be and the start of my BM journey, bringing me many friends (some of whom I've still not met!).
As is often said in welcomes to new members: the more you put in, the more you'll get back.
Not living where there's much going on, I make a modest attempt to arrange something every couple of months, but I accept that I have to make the effort to travel to meet most of my BM friends. When looking at the events calendar, an event has much greater appeal if I know a BM contingent will be attending and I agree with Lindsay that folk should only submit events they plan to attend, not everything they can find just to acquire karma points.
As a photography lecturer once told me, "More isn't better, it's just more."
(Is there size limit to posts? I had to split this into two posts)
Just submitted into calendar,Maryport Blues Festival,Cumbria...last weekend in July...okay,not a Bike event,but as somewhere to enjoy good company,great atmosphere, brilliant un-heard of bands it takes some beating..if you've never heard of it,perhaps look it up...? :)>
Oh,nearly forgot...some of the roads are TO DIE FOR,along with the scenery on the way up through the lakes,so many places to stop and stare...:)>
I think BM organised events should stand out from other stuff, either a different colour, a big star next to it or something to sho wit is BM organised.
Lindsay why do you think you have put your foot in it or waiting for it to hit the fan your points are spot on. That is a realy good point you made about folk adding events that they are not going to there are plenty of events that have no bm membership turnout. I think there is a problem with the new set up of the site untill last years changes we could add pics to threads and that would sell events as we could have the event poster as the header for the thread. Then as it jumps a page just bump the header so you open the thread on any page and see the event in all its glory. As you say Lindsay K.I.S.S or If it's not broke dont fix it are you reading this Matt, Pay attention Matt some of these changes are not working and are detremental to BM
Maybe if there were less events to moderate there would be time to check them for accuracy of information and spelling. Important for events, especially the venue addresses. Also there is no uniformity to the entries. If every event had the relevant info in the same place it would be quicker to read.
Is that why some of my calendar requests were binned because I had spelt something wrong. There is no reason for any post to not be on the calendar after 3 days of submission it takes moments to check them out.
Sandi, my point exactly (as above) ...'but if we had a calendar which only held events that BMers are intending to attend, as above, the workload of the 'team' would be much less and definitely speedier'.
JP, I'm allus in trouble, but mainly when I give my opinion or thoughts. Someone usually spits their dummy out and I get my knuckles rapped ... Although come to think of it, I quite like it! I think I prepare myself for the worst, so that it ain't that bad when it happens!!
JP I have no idea why your events have not appeared on the calendar. I haven't been calendar admin for years but when I was I never rejected a submission because of incorrect spelling. I spent hours correcting text and looking up correct info such as post codes and sometimes filling in the relevant details for events. Some events would just have the title and the date, nothing else. A lot of the events may have been submitted by other members but it was myself that entered the details for a lot of them. The submissions probably take a little longer because the admin/moderators have full time jobs and a social life, I didn't and that's why I could spend hours making the calendar tidy. If an event is submitted over a weekend then it will take a little longer to appear on the calendar, but the general rule is wait 48 hours and if it's not been added then contact calendar admin and ask nicely cos all staff are volunteers.
Remember to submit events with plenty of time before they actually take place.
Really Like I don't have a full time job working up to 15 hours a day and getting up between 2 & 3am everyday. But I only helped sort a few events like 4 Wales camps kiss rally 1,2,4. Nights out for bands going for meals and Christmas party's. But I don't have the option of sitting at home all day because it's to stressful doing a bit of work. As for spending hours checking events ?? You binned as many as you added for excuse you could find and when I complained you blocked me so please don't tell me how it's a hard time consuming unpaid job. That will be me blocked again and slagged off by the keyboard hardman.
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