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Calling South Wales geocachers


Matrix

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At the Annual South Wales event I spoke with a few people about a contact list and several people thought it would be a good idea and following the post about UK geocaching groups from Mandarin , I am wondering if there is still any interest in this and possibly a forum.

 

Feel free to contact me or post thoughts Ideas here.

 

Mike

Edited by Matrix
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At the Annual South Wales event I spoke with a few people about a contact list and several people thought it would be a good idea and following the post about UK geocaching groups from Mandarin , I am wondering if there is still any interest in this and possibly a forum.

 

Feel free to contact me or post thoughts Ideas here.

 

Mike

 

Hi Mike

 

Great Idea! Have been thinking the same myself! Give me a shout if you need any help at all.

 

Ellen

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I can see the use of having a contact list for local south Wales geocachers, but I'm not sure about the need for a separate forum.

 

There are quite a few "local forums", some of which are well used, others get very few postings. Rather than start yet another small forum I was wondering whether South Wales could join in with Abercachers and have an "annexe" on their forum? I'd rather see one forum covering the whole of Wales, with sub-sections.

 

MrsB

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For what it's worth, I have the resources to provide a forum on the servers that host my Underground History web site if this is required.

 

I don't have the time to do a full time moderation but I'm happy to set it up if enough people feel that it's required. I have however had the experience of setting up the forum software and maintaining a forum for a few weeks for people wanting to meet on the day Shoreditch station closed in London and it was a great success. Sadly, I can't post a link to this forum as I had to remove it not long after the event as the version of the software I was using became vulnerable to a security attack.

 

My web site has "unlimited" bandwidth - which was tested a couple of years ago when it got Digged and I got over 80GB of traffic in one day... :laughing:

 

I'm sure there are others out there with the technology and know how - I'm just offering my skills and web resources should this be needed.

 

If needed, I'm sure I could register and host a special domain name for the forum - I'd have to check on this though as I may already have reached my limit. Again, I'll check if there's interest.

 

If it helps, I'm also willing to spend some time to set up an "experimental" forum to see if there's interest. I've been wanting to play with the latest version of the software for some time now and this would give me an excuse to do so. Plus, I have some time on my hands over the next week as we've just come to the end of a software development sprint at work and I've decided to take most of next week off.

Edited by Eclectic Penguin
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I can see the use of having a contact list for local south Wales geocachers, but I'm not sure about the need for a separate forum.

 

There are quite a few "local forums", some of which are well used, others get very few postings. Rather than start yet another small forum I was wondering whether South Wales could join in with Abercachers and have an "annexe" on their forum? I'd rather see one forum covering the whole of Wales, with sub-sections.

 

MrsB

 

I agree thats why I thought long and hard before posting.

 

The original Idea was the contact list and it was only Mandarins :laughing: posting of a pinned topic about regional forum/fora that tripped that idea. On the subject of joining another forum as a sub-forum I have already had an offer from StuartP of a sub-forum on the GAGB site so that is another option as is Hywel's kind offer , I think I will let this thread run a little longer (subject to the permission of the mods of course :D ) and maybe with MollyJaks permission have a group discussion at the forthcoming Let's meet by the seaside event.

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I think the idea of an Wales forum is a great idea. north Wales just does not have a large enough population let alone number of cachers to support a separate forum and I'd like an all-Wales forum so that I've got somewhere to hang-out... :laughing:

 

Edit for typing with the fat finger beer gloves again.

Edited by scottpa100
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And can exiled Taffies like the Whitingiom's join too? 3 out of 5 born in Newport.

 

As far as I am concerned - yes :D:D:D

 

I agree as long as its only the 3 exiles :laughing:

 

 

StuartP has also offered to set up a mail list as well as a forum via GAGB so thats something else for discussion.

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And can exiled Taffies like the Whitingiom's join too? 3 out of 5 born in Newport.

 

As far as I am concerned - yes :):):)

 

I agree as long as its only the 3 exiles :rolleyes:

 

 

StuartP has also offered to set up a mail list as well as a forum via GAGB so thats something else for discussion.

 

The other two have two taffy parents & 4 Welsh grandparents........

Edited by whitingiom
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For what it's worth, I have the resources to provide a forum on the servers that host my Underground History web site if this is required.

 

ooh, is that YOURS? Great web site :)

 

Obligatory OT content : I think local forums, regular meets, contact lists, etc can only be a good thing. I would say go for it, but please let us interlopers in for a peek so we can see what's going on over the border :rolleyes:

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I can see the use of having a contact list for local south Wales geocachers, but I'm not sure about the need for a separate forum.

 

There are quite a few "local forums", some of which are well used, others get very few postings. Rather than start yet another small forum I was wondering whether South Wales could join in with Abercachers and have an "annexe" on their forum? I'd rather see one forum covering the whole of Wales, with sub-sections.

 

MrsB

:rolleyes: Thanks for the plug MrsB. Abercachers is open to everyone whether they are in Wales or elsewhere. It's a bit quite at the moment so some new "faces" would be very welcome.

 

Come and say Hi. :)

 

The website "owner" and designer is Al Cole (forcesofnature).

 

www.aber-cachers.co.uk

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More than happy to discuss it at our next event. :)

 

I would like a quick way of contacting local cachers rather than going into their contact info and then having to cut and paste with each one being sent individually. If there is a quicker way then please tell me ;)

 

count me in... how do I find out about South Wales events???? Preseli

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I can see the use of having a contact list for local south Wales geocachers, but I'm not sure about the need for a separate forum.

 

There are quite a few "local forums", some of which are well used, others get very few postings. Rather than start yet another small forum I was wondering whether South Wales could join in with Abercachers and have an "annexe" on their forum? I'd rather see one forum covering the whole of Wales, with sub-sections.

 

MrsB

:) Thanks for the plug MrsB. Abercachers is open to everyone whether they are in Wales or elsewhere. It's a bit quite at the moment so some new "faces" would be very welcome.

 

Come and say Hi. ;)

 

The website "owner" and designer is Al Cole (forcesofnature).

 

www.aber-cachers.co.uk

If the infrastructure is already there with aber-cachers, would it not be an idea for a rebranding (not changing the strucutre of the forums) to Wales geocaching or something? Anyone who goes to aber-cachers.co.uk automatically gets forwarded to allwalesgeocaching.co.uk or something?

 

I feel like a lone voice here (cue cute kitten awwwwwww) but I think an all-Wales one please?! The north-west of England has a population of nearly 7 million. They have a regional forum.

 

South Wales has a population 2.5 million(ish) and by the sounds of it is going to have a forum. North Wales has a population of about 500,000 (ish). And geocaching is not rugby or football. Geocachers are a small percentage of the population at the best of times. It seems like north Wales cachers (500?) are going to be the only people in the UK who not going to be able to join a regional forum due to naming.

 

If a new forum is setup, I just strongly advocate an all-Wales one. You may even then be eligible to business-eye funding, some Welsh Assembly outdoors / community funding? And by going all-Wales you help improve the chances of getting external government grant funding (possibly :))

 

AND - just though. An all-Wales forum my be able to support a Welsh language thread. I notice a number of cachers up here in Gog are using Diolch etc at the end of cache logs....

 

Thanks for the opportunity to vent my thoughts. If any help / input is wanted, I'll gladly come on board.

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With regards to an All Wales forum/mailing list, I wouldn't object to that by any means.

 

The reason I think South Wales has been mentioned several times is that as far as Geocaching is concerned, there's quite a tight knit community of cachers here who know each other reasonably well and the mailing list/forum was one idea to bring us even closer together and to help make people aware of local events/happenings that may not be appropriate for the main forum.

 

I'm not saying that other areas don't have an equally tight knit geocaching community - it's just how we feel things are going in the S Wales community right now.

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With regards to an All Wales forum/mailing list, I wouldn't object to that by any means.

 

The reason I think South Wales has been mentioned several times is that as far as Geocaching is concerned, there's quite a tight knit community of cachers here who know each other reasonably well and the mailing list/forum was one idea to bring us even closer together and to help make people aware of local events/happenings that may not be appropriate for the main forum.

 

I'm not saying that other areas don't have an equally tight knit geocaching community - it's just how we feel things are going in the S Wales community right now.

 

That's fair enough - I'll tell you what. I'll stick my neck on the block and I'll go and get a suitable URL. They're cheap as chips anyhow. You've offered to take up the hosting (many thanks!) so go with that? And then how about Matrix becomes moderator as offical OP to this thread?

 

First thread on the new forum - who is going to design the Welsh geocachers logo? :sad:

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Okay, I've purchased www.welshcaching.co.uk and www.cachingcymru.co.uk and I'll glad forward them onto any forum / mailing list signing up page. Let me know what the DNS entries need to be.

 

Hope I've not over stepped the mark here.

 

Not at all :sad:

 

I think we need a proper mailing list first and see how busy popular that is and then maybe move onto a full blown forum.

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Okay, I've purchased www.welshcaching.co.uk and www.cachingcymru.co.uk and I'll glad forward them onto any forum / mailing list signing up page. Let me know what the DNS entries need to be. Hope I've not over stepped the mark here.

 

Oh - I didn't realise we were going to be registering and hosting domains. DIYHost (the people who run my server) allow one primary domain on the account I have and then 2 add-on domains which then redirect to a subdirectory on the main domain. There's also domain name parking - but that means everything goes to the main site. From there you can write php to detect the domain as it comes in and then fire off the appropriate pages I guess.

 

I'm sure it's possible to get the server to host the new domains with re-direction, but ultimately, as it stands, everything gets re-directed to an underground-history.co.uk subdomain.

 

Now, that said, the hosting is incredibly cheap and although DIYHost don't take on any more accounts, their sister company does for a very reasonable fee (£6 pcm with 20GB/month bandwidth limit - more than adequate I suspect or £12pcm with a monster 100GB/month limit that Underground History doesn't even come close to hitting) and all the underlying tools and toys needed to set up anything we'd need.

 

I'll get on the phone tomorrow to see if it's going to be cheaper for me to set up a new account or expand the one I've got to allow more than one domain to be hosted. I'd be more than happy to fund and maintain the new account should it be required - but if we do go down the forum road, I don't have the time to be a full time moderator under current work load!

 

As to setting up the forum etc - that should be OK, providing that's what the community want. I've already had a play with the most recent version of phpBB forum software - the free version may lack a couple of desirable options but it'll certainly get us off the ground.

 

I don't want to jump the gun though - this is a potential Geocaching community project for Welsh cachers. I'm more than willing to invest time and the modest expense required to set any of up this (I'm even excited about it) - after all, it's what I do for a living too - but ultimately it's for the South Wales / Wales Geocaching community. Bearing in mind also that we have our colleagues on the Aberystwyth site too to consider.

 

Let's hear some more opinions on what we'd like to have (or indeed not want to have)!

 

Sorry to have rambled a bit here - I just typed my thought process and although I started out thinking a bit negatively it's all possible. (folks who know me, especially when it comes to software often tell me that when they ask for something new or complex, I usually jump off negatively and say it can't be done, only to provide the results 2 hours later!)

 

So, Forum : Definitely possible with new domain names.

Mailing List - probable - I need to look into software to provide majordomo type mailing lists. My current experience is only with a managed newsletter type mailing list but I'm sure it can be done.

 

Other ideas?

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Okay, I've purchased www.welshcaching.co.uk and www.cachingcymru.co.uk and I'll glad forward them onto any forum / mailing list signing up page. Let me know what the DNS entries need to be.

 

Hope I've not over stepped the mark here.

 

Not at all :sad:

 

I think we need a proper mailing list first and see how busy popular that is and then maybe move onto a full blown forum.

 

From my point of view, full blown forum is actually a lot easier to set up than a mailing list...

 

phpBB will install in its entirety on the site with a single mouse click in the cpanel environment. You then have to spend some time customising it, setting up accounts, adding custom graphics - but all nice and straight forward...

 

Personally, I don't like mailing lists - but that's just my point of view from past bad experience with them.

 

But.. I also see your point too Matrix.

 

Just my tuppence.

Edited by Eclectic Penguin
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Okay, I've purchased www.welshcaching.co.uk and www.cachingcymru.co.uk and I'll glad forward them onto any forum / mailing list signing up page. Let me know what the DNS entries need to be.

 

Hope I've not over stepped the mark here.

 

Not at all :sad:

 

I think we need a proper mailing list first and see how busy popular that is and then maybe move onto a full blown forum.

 

I agree with a mailing list.

 

This weekend at an event I was talking to Sat Kid who did not know about the next event in Porthcawl as he lives outside the usual notification area. Yet he is a regular event goer and I would hope/expect him to turn up to a S Wales gathering.

Not all cachers read the forums for information but it would be nice if there was a way to contact people with information about events, problems, etc when appropriate. :sad:

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Can I join in?

 

Although I live in England, I often feel more in tune with caching in Wales, as that's where I tend to do lots of my caching as I'm only a few miles over the border....

 

Caching? Wales? But your sig says you don't do hills! :sad::sad: Wales and hills are like strawberries and cream. They just go together! But I'm sure you'd be welcome :D Mailing list or forum.

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Okay, I've purchased www.welshcaching.co.uk and www.cachingcymru.co.uk and I'll glad forward them onto any forum / mailing list signing up page. Let me know what the DNS entries need to be. Hope I've not over stepped the mark here.

Oh - I didn't realise we were going to be registering and hosting domains.

 

No problem - HTML or frame forwarding are also available. It's just a 'friendly' name for peeps to remember. You're the leader. You lead, I'll follow. Cha cha cha.

 

From there you can write php to detect the domain as it comes in and then fire off the appropriate pages I guess.

Here comes a sweeping assumption. I'm guessing yes too. I don't know PHP, I've done toy forums with it etc http://www.colwynbayhistory.co.uk/boxhuntin/ and they've worked. However, we use IIS5 and 6 at work. I've set-up multiple websites hosting on one server and IIS can do it. And if Mickysoft can do it, the open-source community must be able to too!

 

Now, that said, the hosting is incredibly cheap and although DIYHost don't take on any more accounts, their sister company does for a very reasonable fee (£6 pcm with 20GB/month bandwidth limit - more than adequate I suspect or £12pcm with a monster 100GB/month limit that Underground History doesn't even come close to hitting) and all the underlying tools and toys needed to set up anything we'd need.

 

If hosting any forum / mailing list is an issue I do have a hosting package with 4Uhosting which is not being used. An idea I had and I didn't really see it through so I more than happy for resources that I have and not being used to be used by a hobby which takes up far more time that what it should! I've just had a look and it can do the mailing list stuff too - which I didn't know until now! I've got the basic package - but I'd more than willing to upgrade 'for the benefit of the greater good' if required. As I say, you lead, I'll follow. Cha cha cha. :sad:

 

I don't want to jump the gun though - this is a potential Geocaching community project for Welsh cachers. I'm more than willing to invest time and the modest expense required to set any of up this (I'm even excited about it) - after all, it's what I do for a living too - but ultimately it's for the South Wales / Wales Geocaching community. Bearing in mind also that we have our colleagues on the Aberystwyth site too to consider.

 

Absolutely, and yes I get excited and go and say things like "We can do this, and this and that..." but it will only be used if the community want it. What does the community want?

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QUOTE(Eclectic Penguin @ Sep 1 2008, 09:27 PM)

 

I don't want to jump the gun though - this is a potential Geocaching community project for Welsh cachers. I'm more than willing to invest time and the modest expense required to set any of up this (I'm even excited about it) - after all, it's what I do for a living too - but ultimately it's for the South Wales / Wales Geocaching community. Bearing in mind also that we have our colleagues on the Aberystwyth site too to consider.

 

 

Quote:

Absolutely, and yes I get excited and go and say things like "We can do this, and this and that..." but it will only be used if the community want it. What does the community want?

End Quote

 

Well this member of the community hasn't much idea what most of this techy stuff actually means :sad: But if you want the opinion of someone who would need to be involved please contact forcesofnature through his profile and discuss it with him. He is the owner/designer of the Aber-cachers forum and would need to be consulted on links etc to the south Wales forum and vice versa.

 

I am all for linking the two if it keeps us all informed of events etc.. which can be a bit hit and miss if you don't read the forums on here or keep up to date through the weekly blurb from Groundspeak. :sad:

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But if you want the opinion of someone who would need to be involved please contact forcesofnature through his profile and discuss it with him. He is the owner/designer of the Aber-cachers forum and would need to be consulted on links etc to the south Wales forum and vice versa.

 

Fair comment - I've done this and with Eclectic Penguin privately too. See what happens... Peeps keep on posting here too - we need ideas!

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:D:laughing::sad:

 

It seems my server's subscription was overdue on checking this morning :laughing: so in renewing, I made sure that it's now possible to host new domains etc. :sad:

 

It looks like a mailing list is definitely something people would like to see so I'll set up a prototype as soon as I get some time to check out what software's best to do this and maybe a couple of people will be willing to help me test it.

 

The need for a forum appears luke warm at the moment. I think a mailing list will really help with local communication.

 

I'll post here when I have more details. I'll get in touch with scott with regard to attatching the new domain names once I've figured out how to set up a new account on my brand spanking new ISP reseller package.

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I've now tried and tested a mailing list. Not on the proposed domains as yet but on one of my others and it looks like it's up for the job. For those who are technical, it's the Mailman list and can be moderated by multiple users. It's also relatively automated - all you need to do is sign up on a registration page and you'll get anything sent to the designated mailing address - it's also easy to unsubscribe from the list and moderate.

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All is set up on my end.

 

When you see the pretty writing and logo when using the above web addresses, the DNS has spread its wings and is now pointing you to the new host.

 

The mail-list server is up and running, undergoing some tests - all that remains for me to do is write the form letters that go out when people subscribe and possibly the wording for some of the subscription web pages.

Edited by Eclectic Penguin
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Cheers to the black and white flightless bird! <_<

 

I've checked and triple-checked the DNS entries, they're right. But they're going to take a while to get around the internet. Once the settings have gone around, as the penguin says, when you go to www.welshcaching.co.uk or www.cachingcymru.co.uk you'll get to a nice website. At the moment, you get the really simple text page I created this morning. When that changes, then the DNS gubbins have worked and we can all see the work that Penguin has done! :unsure:

 

Cheers Flightless One!

 

:rolleyes:

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{The need for a forum appears luke warm at the moment.}

 

That's bound to happen. When Abercachers first started we had loads of visitors and activity, now it seems to have cooled off a bit but we do get the odd topic cropping up when one of us has some news or a new cache is published locally.

 

I have looked in other forums and nothing of any consequence seems to be going on, it's just another way to chat.. which I guess is what they are for .. :rolleyes:

 

I don't think many of the Welsh cachers use this forum so it might be worth contacting them through their profiles to see what interest there would be.

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I've just found this site in my list of favourites. I must have added it when I first started geocaching, but it doesn't seem as though it's ever been used.

 

http://www.southwalesgeocachers.co.uk/

 

Cathy from Newport but now in Somerset :D

 

Didn't know this one existed. I've registered now.

 

I set that up as a test for the future but it can stay if there is enough interest . ;)

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After a hectic lunch hour of tweaking and trying to fix some problems, the mailing list is now live!

 

Go to the Welsh Caching home page and you'll see a link to a page where you can sign up for the mailing list.

 

Matrix has kindly volunteered to moderate (as will I as site admin) - this is the one bit I haven't got to work properly yet so I'll be in touch with Matrix once he's signed up with regards to setting up moderation.

 

I hope people will find this list useful - spread the word to those who don't normally read the forums.

 

[edit: Note, you may need to refresh your browser if you've looked at the previous page]

Edited by Eclectic Penguin
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After a hectic lunch hour of tweaking and trying to fix some problems, the mailing list is now live!

 

Go to the Welsh Caching home page and you'll see a link to a page where you can sign up for the mailing list.

 

Matrix has kindly volunteered to moderate (as will I as site admin) - this is the one bit I haven't got to work properly yet so I'll be in touch with Matrix once he's signed up with regards to setting up moderation.

 

I hope people will find this list useful - spread the word to those who don't normally read the forums.

 

[edit: Note, you may need to refresh your browser if you've looked at the previous page]

 

Ahem

 

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

 

welshcaching@welshcaching.co.uk.

 

Technical details of permanent failure:

Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 Requested action was not taken because this server doesn't handle mail for that user (state 14).

 

;)

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I don't know what was causing the problem that Matrix was seeing - I've made one tweak on the server that could potentially have given this error - but we've been testing it for a bit now and can't get it to fail.

 

I've put the link back up on the web page - the only suggestion I have (which doesn't really make sense) is to use a capital W for the first letter of Welshcaching - this really shouldn't make a difference though.

Edited by Eclectic Penguin
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