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ORIGINAL MECCANO DINKY TOYS FACTORY BOX ART 175 HILLMAN MINX SALOON + DRAWING

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Visitors

  • Total Visitors: 1640815
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  • Since: 03/22/2024 - 09:58
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dinkycollect's picture
dinkycollect
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DTCA MemberFrance

Welcome

 

I would like first to welcome the new members of yesterday : wahale, denis chick, Joan, SiVoll, le.passeur and ask them to improve their presentation by tellig us where they live and what is the subject of their collection.
 

Like Talk Model Toys, the old DTCA website has been put off line without any warning, is the content lost or has it been transfered to this new site.
 

There has been a lot of activity last week on the old site, unfortunately the pictures are lost and only the texts can be read on the emails. As several of us were attending the DTCA AGM, we could not participate and It would be nice if the last few messages posted could be duplicated here.

 

The use of this new site is not obvious and some explanations would be welcomed but it seems that we will have to wait for a few weeks before we get these instructions.
 

My first opinion about DTCA.2 is that it is very slow and where is all that work that has been done behind the scene in the past months ? Also the post editor (the window in which posts are been typed) is NOT WISIWIG.
 

Jacques.

 

dinkyfan's picture
dinkyfan
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DTCA MemberUSA

Jacques....I also would like to extend a welcome to any new members, and please do give us some background on yourselves and your collecting interests.
I also would suggest that the powers behind this new site please post some current information as to the status, how things work, and a guess as to when the site will be fully operational. There is nothing worse than to be involved in something, but be completely in the dark as to what is happening; we really need some form of periodic updates!

johnnyangel's picture
johnnyangel
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DTCA MemberUSA

Having worked in the past as a webmaster, I know what a frustrating task it can be, and especially how difficult it can be moving existing content from one "platform" to another. It's not welcome work even when one is being paid for it, so I can only imagine the frustration of the volunteer staff.

 

That said -- and as one who had spent a considerable amount of time contributing text and images to the old site that I thought was novel and valuable -- it is very unfortunate that contributors had no warning that the old site was going to be taken down, nor that content was going to be lost forever (if that's the case).

 

There was a *lot* of useful information on the old DTCA site. I'm assuming that the intent is to copy the posts from the old site onto the new one, since such an operation is possible in many cases. If not, may we at least have the old one accessible in a "read only" form?

 

I had at long last joined the DTCA within the last month or so specifically in able to be able to post content and interact on the forum. No disrespect to the DTCA Journal or any other print publication, but these days online content and information sharing is more important -- the website ought to be the dog wagging the tail, not vice versa.

 

So yes, please, let us know what is going on -- a status update should appear right on the home page. We understand how difficult the digital heavy lifting can be, and that it may take some time. We can be patient -- but let us know what is planned, and what is possible.

 

Thanks!

 

janwerner's picture
janwerner
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DTCA MemberNetherlands

Hi all, I'm glad to see you here! I'm not primarily responsible for the communication about how things are changing at this moment. I have asked Dave Kaun to have a good look at what's posted here and what the experiences and worries are among the present users of the new website (and I share most of these). May be I can give my perspective on this all. We have expressed in Derby (last weekend) that a sudden closure of the old website would be 'unacceptable'. However, as I understand it, the site was hacked recently and that apparently made this sudden action unavoidable. The hacking seems to have been easy because of the obsolete software used for the old website. So the closure was unvoluntarily, both for the users and for Dave Kaun. As I understand it - and what I stressed to be of utmost importance - all information of the old website will be transferred to the new in the end, but it will take time. I especially stressed that the forum information must be saved and transferred, because it is unique and all energy and time put in it by many individuals cannot be overlooked. In fact Dave started transferring all other information (catalogues, drawings etc. etc.) but that is not unique, it's on the harddisks of all of us who have supplied that information and adding more can wait. Now it must be of primary importance that our communication stage - the website forum - will be full functional within a very short time from now. It is not full functional because we were surprised by the sudden shutting down of the old one. So we experienced already that things do not look practical, discussions are not accompanied by email notifications of new contributions in a thread, images are not presented the way they should be and, after all, directions must be written about how to use the site. So there is a lot to be done, still.

Dave Busfield, John Beugels and I were asked by Michael Driver to help Dave Kaun a little bit in filling some basics into the new website, both for the contents and for the testing if things worked for that the way they should do. The three of us supplied the list of names of all Dinky items known to us (Dave British, I French and John prewar) in order to create discussion categories (like talkmodeltoys). I tried posting pictures in general by filling the collection category with one sample collection (mine). For a similar purpose John made a lot of his catalogues available and Dave B is still busy adding trade boxes to the forum categories.

You, very welcome new registered members, must go on with testing and crying out what's wrong, what has to be added, what has to become more functional, etc. In fact I should not be the communicator, but I hope to have explained a little bit about what's going on (from my limited perspective). Both at the AGM and in private emails Dave, John and I have continuously stressed to both Dave Kaun and Michael Driver that we all must be well informed about what's going on at present and what the expected track into the future will be. And I repeat this urgent request on this place.

In the mean time, this is the only shared communication we have,so please use it and let's hope our experience will contribute to a quick  revival and improval of the new website. Mind you, nothing is definite here and Dave Kaun made very clear that almost everything is adjustable, so feel free to ask for corrections and additions.Your feed back is highly appreciated, no, indispensable! 

Kind regards, Jan

 

Dinkyman's picture
Dinkyman
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DTCA MemberSweden

Hi all,

Just testing and saying thanks to the crew behind the new site. Dave K. has just helped me to create the new account since I couldn't for some reason.

Let's remember, all work is done voluntarily. I can just guess how time consuming it has been, and still is, to make this work.

Thanks guys!

Ragnar

And now for the image test:

No, couldn't download image from my computer.

 

dinkyfan's picture
dinkyfan
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DTCA MemberUSA

Jan--
Thanks so much for adding your update, explanation, and take on what is happening....it is much appreciated! I think all the folks here are patient & understanding as long as they are told what is going on; not knowing is bad, so any updates are surely appreciated.
As many of us jump in and try the site, areas will come up that either don't work right or doesn't make sense, so all we can do is report our experiences and recommendations.....knowing full well this will be a work in progress!
Regards,
Terry

starni999
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DTCA MemberUK

Hi all!

I'm not dead! Made it home again.

Phew!

Chris Warr.

janwerner's picture
janwerner
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DTCA MemberNetherlands

Hi all, I asked our website manager by email if he could give an update of the present situation of the website, because we all are concerned about that, and I stressed that such updates are really necessary in order to keep us reassured and informed as the developments and future of the website is concerned - and our expectations about that. The core of Dave's clarification is:

"Unfortunately the big issues that are outstanding must remain in the hands of our providers, for the moment.

1. the migration of the old Forum to the new one. I have asked for a status on this but the provider has been busy having recently had to take a full time job. The migration work is now secondary but he has promised to get it done as quickly as possible.

2. new Forum formatting including both the image display and the manner in which text and images are added to a post. The first part of this is to display images without cropping. The second part is figuring out how we can structure the posting box in order to be able to mix text and images. There are a number of other issues that are being addressed by our provider as well.

The stuff I need to do is moving slowly for a variety of reasons but I am making progress."

Kind regards, Jan

(Don't shoot me, I am just the messenger)

 

dinkyfan's picture
dinkyfan
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DTCA MemberUSA

Jan--Thanks so much for at least getting us some update & response, even though that information is not very specific or detailed. It would appear that this is going to be a long process!
Regards, Terry

alkeeling's picture
alkeeling
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AdministratorAeroplanesPostwarPrewarUK

i comment and upload images

David1971's picture
David1971
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DTCA MemberItaly

Hello! I have been a member for one month and two weeks and I would like to congratulate the DTCA staff for the great work. My interest for old diecasts (especially Dinkies and Corgis) has greatly recovered after abandoning resin and white metal handbuilts that lately gave me much more troubles than pleasure. So back to the roots and there's still plenty to learn! I hope to give my best contribution to the association and to the site and hear from you all soon. David

johnnyangel's picture
johnnyangel
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DTCA MemberUSA

Wonderful it is to see content from the old site coming back online, and congratulations to all who made it possible!

dinkyfan's picture
dinkyfan
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DTCA MemberUSA

I would also like to say a big thank you to all who have been involved with getting the new site improved and working much better; it has been a bumpy rode, with some delays, but it now appears to be working well and posting is fun again!!

     Regards, Terry