2024 AGM

Whilst I share the frustration of other DTCA members over the problems with the Forum, I have decided that I WILL be renewing my membership shortly. I must also admit that I have not contributed a great deal to the forum, even less to the Journal, but I have managed to attend most of the AGMs since joining several years ago, as well as participating in several displays at Gaydon, Stoneleigh and Newark along with other members, and represented DTCA at many other hobby shows and venues around the country individually. I look forward to the arrival of each Journal, and would miss it if the association were to fold. Hopefully, enough of us will remain to see the survival of what has become a 'friend'.

Hello Jan, I'm sorry but I didn't receive your email, so hopefully it will be okay if I pick up your comments here. While I'm still working on a replacement website, unfortunately I haven't been able to prioritise because of my urgent real work commitments. Hopefully I can get the project over the line before we step into the new year. Last year there was some technical ultimatum requiring a replacement - an ultimatum that has since been wound back.However, this current website is working as well as it ever did (it was always a bit ragged), barring that I've had to ask members to use other image hosts if they want to post pictures, and the comment notification has been damaged. I see some members appear to be struggling with using picture hosts - basic services that pervade the internet - and I'm not sure what to say about that except to suggest try again Jacques. Comments that the site is 'unusable', 'broken', 'not working' I feel are considerable overstatements. And as for drawing comparisons to Facebook, JP .... honestly, this forum will never be Facebook, nor will Facebook ever be a forum.

Dear Al, I wouldn't dream of making a comparison with Facebook. What I did was state that there is a Facebook alternative, which happens to be very widely used. What Facebook doesn't have, of course, is the considerable reference material that we have here.That notwithstanding, Facebook offers simple photo uploading, easier interaction and free membership.Best wishes John

In response to Al's comments above -- firstly, I totally sympathize with Al in terms of struggling with work commitments. I don't understand why the board continues to place this work totally on his shoulders instead of investing in some assistance.I also agree with Al that Facebook is in no way a forum, but is rather mostly a means of wasting time (I should know). The leading Facebook group devoted to Dinky Toys likes to boast of its more than 16,000 members, but really only has about a dozen individuals who are really knowledgeable about Dinky. Even then, the content contributed consists almost entirely of pretty pictures -- pleasant, but offering no more than one would find in the Dinky Toys Encyclopedia or an auction catalogue.However, I do defend comments by myself and others that the DTCA website is 'broken' and 'not working.' As I have said in a previous comment here, using external hosts for images is not an acceptable solution, at least not for any serious content. These external hosts come and go, and some require their users either to have paid accounts or to not exceed a specific bandwidth. The result over the years or even just months is 'page rot,' wherein the externally hosted images disappear. One can see this in various forums all around the Internet.

I completely agree with Jonathan. Uploading photos should simply be in the program itself, as it used to be. Absolutely not with external programs. Then new members will not know how it works. Al talks about that too easily and the board thinks it can be done that way. That does not help us at all. That idea must absolutely be discarded. It is now absolutely nothing more than a regular text program. And the notification is still annoyingly broken. In that respect, the website is indeed broken. Someone who would now become a member of the DTCA will be in for a very unpleasant surprise regarding the possibility of communicating with photos. With all due respect for Al's work, but if Al cannot solve this himself due to his own workload, he should get help if possible or transfer the work to someone who does have time for it. The delay has lasted long enough. We need to get down to business with regard to the approach to matters and setting deadlines. We as members have shown enough patience for that. Improvements must now be noticeable to save the website and with it the continued existence of the dtca. Impossible promises are of no use to us. And mind you, DTCA without a properly functioning forum is dead.

To my great surprise, the upload of photos does work in the frame of the personal messages of the DTCA website. I have sent 2 messages with 2 photos to a DTCA member and the 4 photos have also been received. If this tool could be moved to the forum, we could send photos in the forum again. I find sending photos in the forum more important and functional than via a personal message to a DTCA member via the DTCA website. Personal messages with photos can always be sent via each own email, if desired. I am sending my message as a reply to Al Keeling and hope that Al reads this and wants to respond to it. If this works, we will soon be able to send photos in the forum again. In any case, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.