DIY Forum for DIY Plumbers?

[turnpin]

If it ain't broke don't fix it....regards Turnpin

 

[Harvest Fields]

Do you mean, a whole new website? or just a specific DIY sub section within this one Dan?

 

[Best]

I was told this forum originally was trying to open up to DIYers doing all plumbing/heating work including gas, but didn’t happen?
Now it is going the complete opposite direction??

At present we still have the old set up of the Arms section and the other sections locked to new members, so we already have the separation if we need it.

 

[Chuck]

Incidentally, IIRC, links in "What's New" in the old UKPF took you straight to the first unread post in the thread. In the new PF.net it only seems to have links to the first or last post, which is not quite as convenient.

Either I was mistaken, or this has been fixed recently.

 

[Welder]

IMHO, this forum serves two purposes. 1 - to talk to fellow professionals for every reason imaginable & 2 to help others...

On a personal level I've found myself much less inclined to proffer advice since it was made more global. Having some experience of the plumbing from other nations, I know the UK to have either better or worse standards which means those of us based here could possibly suggest something very wrong in Timbuktu ! We already see some of that with dear Oz.

It occurs to me that offering incorrect advice can be as damaging to the site as ignoring people so I'm not sure how ambitions of global domination in plumbing forums can work at this point in time with the overwhelming majority of contributors being UK professionals.

Perhaps the answer is to create DIY advice sections for each of the worlds 195 countries? At least that way one is more likely to offer 'pertinent' advice. Remember, due to the British Empire, many countries use British standards even to this day rather than reinvent everything from scratch.

 

[Timmy D]

Don’t think you should split the diy. Keeps the forum active and interesting.

I enjoy reading and mentally solving the diy issues that come up. Pros would solve the issue while on the job and it’d never get posted.

 

[Dan]

Ultimately Dan it will be your advertisers that will decide canvas them, but maximum exposure to an appropriate market calls the shots. Diyers are often laden with highly disposable cash and will buy and with our input will flash the cash or press the buy button.
centralheatking...there are 60m people in uk with 20m combis eg hanging on their walls,plus taps bathrooms wc etc. how many plumbers & Ch outfits ?and then only you know how many regulars on here. chking I suppose its a lot like a football club, the supporters think they control the club, in fact its the owners, shareholders and advertisers that call the shots. Dont get me wrong I am happy whatever.

No.

We create the forums and their categories for members, and traffic. We do need some sponsors, but they haven't ever suggested I do or change anything, ever. Since 2006. On all forums.

So please don't start repeating that. It couldn't be further from the truth.

 

[centralheatking]

If I offended Dan I am sorry, I will always try to be constructive I like
UkPf...and cherish being a member centralheatking

 

[Dan]

I can see where you're coming from.

But it's just not the case.

I just want to open up the lovely forum to more people than just the usual 50.

The other forums are booming. This is getting back there. It was very cliquey a few years ago. They seemed to have something going with GSR that was questionably dodgy. So they always gave other plumbers the boot the moment they could. It tarnished the site a bit. So we need to get that community feel back. But not a cliquey one.

And if that meant losing every sponsor. I'd do that.

But they totally leave me to it. If they wanted to make their own forums to shape those how they want to, they could. But then they become biased and an easy target for independent forums and their users.

So they want it to be constructed the way it naturally would be. I listen to you guys, have a look at what other forums are doing, see what Google can send us traffic for, take a look at what percentage of all plumbing traffic we get here in the UK - And time and time again it just makes sense to open it up to everybody, and see who picks up on it - then shape it for them.

The sponsors don't really get a say at all in the shaping of it. In fact @CorgiDirect has just been left to it since he came on board and I actually feel a bit bad about it!

I've setup advice forums for sponsors on our other forums. And will setup those here too in a couple of weeks. Because we can all be working together a bit better on here to make it something much bigger than it is.

While mentioning goings-ons - Worth thanking the lads who have stood on the door during it's cold nights sorting out bitchy comments and dodgy advertising spam posts and stuff. Thanks people.

But we're starting to need more avenues now. We have a lot of unregistered traffic for the amount of new thread we have created. I think the content we've had for years serves us well. But it needs to be used to gain more traffic ongoing really.

Anyway. Not up for discussion right now. I'll give you a shout when I'm after some comments from members, like I did with this thread. Which is now off-topic thanks to me lol sorry!

 

[OffshoreGas]

Personally I'd suggest the pretty much boiler plate answer from some members of "get a plumber, its far too complicated for you to understand" is what puts many off. Some members are really helpful, others are aggressive bordering on threatening.