[blowin]

As I am sure you all know , this fully fledged forum was only intended to be an address book a few weeks ago but all of your support and enthusiasm has carried us to where we are now . Personally I think it has been great fun , not to mentional highly educational from day one !
So where do we want to go from here ?
The providers of this free site require it to generate a certain amount of traffic or they can close it down . I will check out what the min level actually is . I hope this won't be an issue but a greater number of posts would strengthen our case if we ever need to make one . I think they would also keep the forum alive and vibrant so I am in favour of spreading the word . In particular I think we could encourage more people to advertise crafts and suchlike in the " Market Place " . I am also going to see whether the other sites I visit will give us a mention if we do the same for them . Hype it up a bit ! What do you reckon ?
On the other hand we don't want endless totally irrelevant chat but I don't think that will be a problem either . This forum already seems to have found and will hopefully maintain its own level on that . And no-one has to click on that anoying topic anyway
Talking of endless chat !!! ........
It's that Admin person keeps dictating stuff to me

[wayland]

The more members we have the greater the chance there is that we shall achieve the activity level to keep this site open. If we look at the RC site which has many hundreds of members, it is only the hard core that post on a regular basis. This amounts to quite a few percentage wise. I would hate this site to go down the tubes. There are very few, if any other sites in Ireland that cater for the Irish smallholder. We must keep it me thinks.

[bref]

I agree with wayland, I'd hate to lose this site speaking from a panicky first time pig keepers point of view. RC and downsizer are fantastic, but a site with a 'local' perspective is just about invaluable. Thanks v much by the way.

[admin]

Thanks for the thanks and they go out to everyone because the quality of this forum is entirely down to the contribution from all our members .
One of the things I particularly like about it is that although there is a lot of humour and some banter the main focus is very much on practical issues . Even the rants have relevance to what the rest of us might come across .
But in an ironical sort of way this appealing quality ( ie: that we aren't a very chatty or pushy lot ) means that we aren't extending our network as far as we might .
I did have one momentary flash of thinking how ironical it would be if I ended up making millions out of a massive website, about which I know nothing, instead of breeding chickens which won't lay anyway but that has long since passed so I will own up to it and put your conspiratorial minds to rest .
The benefits of increasing membership , as I see it , include:-
- greater pool of knowledge
- more potential for practical and useful networking
- some suppliers ( particularly mail-order / nationwide delivery ) will offer us a forum members' discount if there are enough of us
- new members add a bit of sparkle , which has a kind of snowball effect .
- old fogies like me will shut up and take a back seat for once !

And the recruitment of new members will earn you secret tips on how to avoid being appointed Social Secretary when you aren't looking .
That should do it .

[tringle]

Im not here as often as I should be or want to be. But then as far as the grow your own food hing is Im also a wannabe. Thats why this site is good for me, encouragement and advice.

as far as keeping the site and numbers go
1: Im not sure it gets shut down with low numnbers, I set one up for college a few years ago that was only used for one month (one specific project) but its still there, not taken away yet.

2: Dont shout at me for this one, its my observation over a number of years BUT Irish people havent taken to using forums as quickly as in the UK. A couple of reasons for this, one is the age profile of the people that have previously fitted into a self sufficient liferstyle, another is lack of decent connection and I think the most important one is the fact that many are busy meeting/chatting to friends and neighbours that the need for advice from the internet isnt neccessary.
My friends and collegues think its strange that I "talk" to people on,.line and that I can "know" someone through the internet.

Where should the site go from here, just leave it to evolve naturally as it is. As already stated, numbers of members dont mean productive posts. Those that are here are benefitting, those that arent are losing out, or they have other ways of networking.

[Jack]

Gidday

Well I am hardly part of the local knowledge category being right down under, but I always read all the new posts that may be of interest to me daily. I am these days trying to keep up with 5 such places, and most of my problems are a bit diferent to ewe jokers up top, but I still find a lot of useful knowledge and even manage to get in and annoy ewes sometimes.

But hey, keep her going Eh!

[keithrawlins]

dont put your self down lie that jack (thats our job) some of you storys and tips are graet . i am trying the one with the bales of straw at the muinte.

[keithrawlins]

just because an idea comes from the other side of the world dosent meen it cant and shouldnt be don here . as an old boy once told me try every thing twice you might be doing it wrong the first time

[Jack]

Gidday

I wasn't meaning to be putting myself down, I am just about due to be put down for the last time so in the mean time I am wanting to keep my head up.

Andway, it was meantioned about the local thing but there is so much we can learn from forum like this. I am here to learn as much as let ewe jokers know what I think and that is the real value of the internet. I was invited on here but even though there are a lot of other sites like this, everyone is not on them all so unless every member were willing to transfer to another forum we would be missing some interesting information.

[blowin]

[bernie]

I'm not getting here as often as I would like but still learn things when I do manage it !

Not got any specific ideas on direction (not very creative). I came across this forum as a result of someone's comment in another forum, so that is defintely one way of finding more 'like-minded' people. As are links from other sites or forums with similar content and ethos.

Tasmania & New Zealand are both islands, but they're about as far apart as Ireland and Greece !!! (if not more - Jack ?)
Both have temperate climates so there is definitely common ground there, even with the reversal of seasons. And of course plenty of us Irish have settled out here and have a foot in both hemispheres so to speak ....

[Jack]

Gidday

Good point mate. We are exactly opposite Spain, but being an island means our weather is probably more like Ireland or England I suppose.

So yes, this forum is really relevant for us.

I think if I ever get a chance to get over to the land of Oz again I am just gotta make that a visit to South West Island.