[HighlandNick]

The GeoX Forum has reached a crisis point. The functionality of the site has started to suffer and unfortunately, I as the only remaining Admin, have not been able to fix these issues.

I have been contacted by a potential new forum member who has had problems with his registration. Both Big Wolf (Angus) and myself (Nick) have been investigating.

It appears that new Registration is not possible and also that no current members have access to their own Profiles. I would really like to get these issues sorted, but cannot do so.

The hosting company, phpbb, only recognises one Forum Admin, and this person is not me!
Only one Forum Admin can report issues and hold the passwords to do so. You may remember that the GeoX forum was set up byWildlifewriter (Paul McMichael). Paul has been ill and his sight has failed. He has ceased Geocaching and despite my emails to him, and also those of others in N. Ireland, he has remained uncontactable. Paul last visited both this forum and last cached last year. He holds the access info.

Attempts by me to contact phpbb have failed, and indeed when I have accessed some of their webpages (as indicated by Google), my antivirus system has prevented me due to alleged Trojan activity on some pages. This is disturbing to me personally.

It has also become apparent that fewer "current" cachers are using the forum. I suggest we are down to half a dozen "active" members.

I therefore intend to carry out no further maintenance to the site from today. This announcement should also serve to inform potential new registrants that there is nothing I can do unfortunately. (if they read this far)

I have also noticed that other smaller caching groups have started up that are using Facebook and Twitter as their preferred mode of communication (Moray Geocachers for example).

Whilst it is possible for existing members to continue posting and for others to read these posts, that is about it. No new members will be able to join or post.

All the best,
Nick

[cooltshirt]

Hah! .......... I've just commented elsewhere on the profile thing and as part of that I noticed that the easyphpbb support forums are increasingly full of unanswered requests for help.
I agree that this forum has very little activity beyond a small core group, although I suspect rather more do keep an eye on it for a heads up about events and so on.
I would be happy to migrate to a Facebook group, but I do appreciate that wouldn't suit everybody.

There is an argument that goes:

'geocaching is now so established that local forums are not as necessary as they were in the fledgling days of the hobby'

or:

'geocaching is now so widespread and intensive in some areas that using some form of social media to voluntarily coordinate local activities is helpful'

??
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[HighlandNick]

This is just one of the issues I remarked upon and has also been referred to in another couple of posts lower down the Forum.
I too searched the forums for info and saw the non replies to similar problems - some going back a number of months.
It's possible that phpbb have a greater problem - especially when I get the Trojan issue with a number of their webpages.
Have they been hacked?
Have their Admin all left?
Been arrested for being members of Lulzsec?

[Big Wolf]

Clearly its now time to decide what to do with our broken GeoX forum and rather than see it suffer a death of a thousand cuts I think it is probably best to call it a day and shut it down gracefully. (sorry Nick you may need to help here!)

It does appear that the underlying issues are not going to be fixed any time soon and this, coupled to the fact that the number of posts have steadily fallen to a trickle over the last year or so, makes me think that its not really viable to move camp and set up GeoX_II.

I agree with Nick that Social Media tools have become the prodominate means of communication for 'interest groups' and there are already a number of Scottish geoaching groups on Facebook. I think the largest is a closed group called 'Geocaching in Scotland' with currently 113 members.

Equally if we want to set up a GeoX group on facebook then thats straight forward to do as well and it could be either an open or closed group.

So :
1) do we limp on when the service is only going to get worse or close it down gracefully?
2) just use the other existing forums ?
3) set up a GeoX forum on Facebook ?
4) all just use the existing 'Geocaching in Scotland' group.?
5) something else

Your thoughts please.

(for whats its worth I favour decanting to the the 'Geocaching in Scotland' group on facebook)
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[Flyfishermanbob]

You'll have to allow me some leeway to offer an opinion .... I'm a regular "looker " but infrequent "contributor".....

Agreed , Facebook has taken most of the site traffic from the 3 Scottish forums GeoX ;Geofrees and Ayrshire caching ....., however social media such as Facebook ,might well suffice for day to day bleathering , but its shortfall is that it is transient .... threads disappear into the ether ...

The strength of forums is surely in their traceability , and the ability to set important topics as "sticky" for all to see in the future ???
Just my 2d worth .
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Aye Right !

[Flyfishermanbob]

Duplicated
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Aye Right !

[Flyfishermanbob]

Duplicated
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Aye Right !

[Original A1]

Very sad, if the speculations prove to be correct.

I had pondered about putting a post on here to query whether there was some intra forum on the site that I didn't know about as there's so little apparent activity, and yet it seems that there's quite a regular "footfall", going by the details at the bottom of the page.

Alas, I don't use Facebook, nor do I intend to start, so I guess it's Geofrees or the official GC.com forum for any caching chat for now. Shame, as I view this as a kind of "thinking cacher's site"!

[Haggis Hunter]

Although it doesn't come as a surprise I am saddened to hear confirmation of Paul's ill health.
Paul's innovation of setting up a forum that is moderated by all of the members was truly inspirational. It worked, this was a forum that you knew you could come onto without worrying about angst, bitterness or backstabbing that did and probably still does happen on other forums.
Paul should be applauded for his efforts and I certainly thank him for what he set up. I just hope your health improves Paul.

Given the current situation and low traffic on the forum, I can't help thinking that it is the end of the line. But FFB has a very good and valid point, what happens to all the past informative, funny and just good to read topics? I would hate to see them disappear, as I have found myself doing a search for an old topic that I remember about, just to answer a question for myself.

Facebook has taken over, but it most certainly isn't the same as a forum.

So what to do? Well it is evident that this host site is dying and there appears to be nothing we can do about it. We could let it run it's course and allow it to slip away. However, forums are there for newbies as well and it would be a shame not to have that sort of input into the pastime.

Is it possible for a new forum to be started with the relevant topics explaining how it is ran and moderated being copied over, and then a link back to this forum, so that it can be viewed as an archive. Presuming of course that this host doesn't collapse completely?
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[stufio]

[Big Wolf]

[Haggis Hunter]

I suppose I'll just have to adapt to not having a Scottish forum that I am comfortable of being a part off.

Seriously, it would appear that you are correct. I suppose our own lack of use has killed the need for the forum.

I suggest it gets left as it is, and when it dies it dies. People can decide for themselves as and when they wish to move on.
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[englishpete]

This is sad!. As an outcast who now lives in York I fear I will loose the ability to contact other geocaching friends who I have met at various geocaching events around Scotland, all were good intresting people who put time and effort into geocaching and making it good for people like me. Good luck to you all and I hope to meet again.
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[Firth of Forth]

Like others above, I have no intention of joining or using Facebook (ever!) so this is not a replacement option as far as I am concerned. The same applies to my husband Jack Aubrey, I'm afraid.

We are guilty for not having used the forum much lately, though have been pretty regular contributors in the past.

There may or may not be a need for an alternative to the social networking sites.....
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And now Mrs Aubrey

[ayr_lad]

Hi

I've been more of a lurker than an active contributor recently, but do look intermittently at the site. There will always be a core of people who regularly contribute and those that dip in and out infrequently.

It would be a shame to lose this virtual community. I personally dont attend any events, so dont really know that many geocachers, but have used this for advice and answered some questions myself in the past. It would be a shame to lose a virtual community.

If there are any Facebook Communities can they be posted here so that we can join? There is always Twitter and the use of hashtags. i.e. if you add a #geoxforum hashtag into you tweet anyone can search on it and get the relevant tweets.

If there is a desire to keep the forum, this is worth a look - http://www.freeforums.org/about.php

If there is a desire to keep a community, I'd be happy to help setting things up as I'm a techie at heart!

Cheers
David