This website is phenomenal and obviously a ton of work has gone into it fair play to all involved (Cathal and the people beforehand). This forum used to be one of the best and most active in the country I remember first following it back in 2009, it was hilarious. All past banter, information and stories are safely stored in the archives of the forum.
Very recently the committee has started to revive the forum which is great but its a half measure at best. Trust me when I say that the only and I mean ONLY way that the forum will thrive again is if that group is shut down on facebook. At this stage I have heard all the arguments against this action and I am 100% convinced that deleting it is the right course of action,
First let me say that I was in this very same position a few years ago with the NUIG kayak club, we had an identical group page where everybody posted about funny cat videos, slagging, trips, safety issues and extra curricular events in the same place. Our forum became very dormant like this one has been since at least September when I arrived here.
Arguments I have heard for keeping it range from that
*It makes the club more accessible.
* People are easier to get a hold of with quicker responses.
* You can still search for previous posts on the FB page
* There are 400+ people on the group page who will miss out on happenings with the club etc etc...
* Better retention of members.
Fair enough, but here is where I call bullshit on those points and show you the negative effects the group has.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*We have a 'like' page with over 500 people signed up. This page's sole function is to advertise the club so that events and occasions show up on whoever has liked the page's newsfeed. This page is so quiet in compared to the group page. This makes no sense unless you assume that all 478 group members actually get active notifications. Here is the harsh reality, they don't.
Why? Because the group page is ridiculously overbearing where about 10 new threads start everyday, most of it will be jibberish talk to beginners looking to start paddling. Nobody with a slight interest in paddling is going to read all those threads and I can assure you that the vast majority of these 478 members have the notifications turned off. The end result is that they don't get the initial important information about how to start up kayaking from the like page and never look at the group page. It makes no sense even on a basic level.
The group is having the opposite effect to what you want, when beginners just want to get into the sport, on the group, they see ridiculous videos, jokes that you would only get if you are a long term member of the club and serious discussions like the referendum discussion today. The group is putting people off joining ULKC without a doubt leaving you guys with a worse retention of members.
In addition to the 'like' page Sean also set up event pages which is great and not overbearing, this trips can be well advertised through the like page
Other pro forum points
* Loss of information for future committees, incoming committee members who want to know something about how a previous trip was organised will have to troll through hundreds of unorganised posts to maybe find the information they are looking for on the facebook page. If this was on the forum the search function would drag up the relevant thread in a matter of seconds. Continuity is achieved making the club more efficient.
* Forum posts are more official so you get more definite answers making it easier to organise paddling trips and events especially for the committee. Its an absolute nightmare trying to organise going paddling on the group page. Take for example the 70 comment responses to Simon asking if anybody wanted to go paddling on kilmurry beach a few days ago.
* People take the time to think before they post
* Lack of craic. The banter is abysmal on the group page.
Yeah lads, I'm a Galway paddler giving Galway examples, but I am sorry NUIG webpage and forum have it down to a tee.
Its the most active forum I've seen bar UKRGB.
Check out the first thing beginners see when they click into it: http://nuigkc.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1
They have threads for:
Paddling today where anybody who wants to go for a short notice paddle posts up and gets some people to go with.
Videos from the internet There is an unreal library of hilarious videos and wicked paddling videos in one place
Swimmers Files Where people hilariously document swims, this thread goes back to 2004 and is an incredible resource to read over.
Trips are pinned to the top so everybody gets the important information straight away
Committee minutes
Session Timetable
Safety Rules
Yearly club awards Where everybody votes on most improved paddlers, funniest moment, best club moment, best party, funniest injury etc etc Its deadly banter
I can't stress how much of a success story it is and within a week or two of the group being deleted it was thriving again. If its possible to make our forum accessible without logging in I would be in favour of that (maybe its not possible due to legal reasons, Cathal maybe you can answer that one).
We can also feed the website with a ton of information and make it something to be proud of. I would love to come to a committee meeting and discuss this more with ye if ye are still unsure on the best course of action. I have so many more benefits in my head but this post is long enough at this stage...
The forum won't work to its potential until the group disappears.
I realise I'll look like an idiot if ye planned to do this anyway, at least I'll be a happy idiot!
Andrew signing off
#deletethegroup
