DTCA website upgrade 2023

Jan, like Jon said your spot on. There is no communication or updates and as members of our club you think there would be. Jon, please do reach out to Michael. I never heard back from him when I emailed him on October 7th.

For me the main reason for being a DTCA member is this wonderfull website loaded with all this knowledge. Ive got lots of great rare findings i want to share with you all, so please get this website working. An update is much appreciated.

I can only agree with the opinions expressed above. This site should be where the world comes for Dinky knowledge and advice yet things here seem completely static. Meanwhile, the Dinky Toy Collectors Group on Facebook goes from strength to strength with 11k members.

I sent the following open letter to Michael Driver today. Hopefully he will respond and take action.Dear Michael,I don't think we have corresponded before. I wish we could meet in person over tea and biscuits (make mine Digestives and Bourbon Creams please), but since I'm in California and my health makes travel difficult, this will have to do.I'm writing this open letter on behalf of myself and at least half a dozen other DTCA members. As I know you are aware, the DTCA website has been out of order since March 2023, nearly a year now, with the result that members cannot post images. This has brought useful communications to a halt.Progress reports regarding a fix have been few and far between, and unless I am mistaken, the DTCA Journal has not published any information regarding the state of the website. Further, the July 2023 Journal reports regarding the AGM made no mention whatsoever of the complaints/comments about the website that were raised on the behalf of overseas members by the late David Busfield.From this lack of information, as well as the lack of participation online by DTCA officials, it seems clear that many view the DTCA website as an afterthought at best. Perhaps some are just too old to be comfortable with technology? But no, I don't think that age can be an excuse. After all, DTCA member Jacques Dujardin was, I believe, born in 1941, yet he has singlehandedly created a website on disk that is the world's best Dinky Toys resource, continuously updated and going beyond any previously published books. In fact, Jacques has said he would be willing if suitably compensated to see the Dinky Toys Encyclopedia made part of the DTCA website. Requiring a member login of course, it would be the ultimate perk for members.Getting back to the present, the DTCA website needs to be repaired at once before all remaining momentum is lost. Not only do overseas members rely on it for our lifeline to the club, but also the articles there are a vital source of Dinky information. They become all the more important as many collectors who had first-hand knowledge sadly pass away.As you know, some DTCA members have left, or are planning to leave, the club because of the website issue. (Personally, I am stubbornly hanging on.) Meanwhile, the largest group on Facebook devoted to Dinky Toys -- there are multiple such groups, actually -- now has more than 11,000 members. That growth is despite the fact that Facebook provides no way to organize information well or publish articles. The search facilities are also poor. Yet, collectors are turning to it out of desperation and a hunger to share information. Can you imagine if even one percent of these 11,000 Dinky collectors, much less ten percent, were to join the DTCA?Al Keeling has been doing his best with the website, I know, and his efforts are appreciated. But it is past time for the DTCA to hire professional help and get the site working -- at once. This is nothing less than an existential threat to the club.Professional assistance will cost money, but this needs to be prioritised over every other expense. If necessary, Vectis should be asked to assist, extending its existing support for the Journal. They could be rewarded with ad banners on the website, which would link to the latest diecast auctions and would be a 'win win' for everybody.I understand that things are not easy for you and the other DTCA members volunteering their time to keep the club going, especially with none of us getting any younger. Perhaps with those of us who remember Dinky Toys drying off, the DTCA will inevitably dwindle and turn to dust. Perhaps even a well-functioning DTCA website, with innovations such as an online Dinky Toys Encyclopedia, would not bring new members to the club.Obviously, I am not ready to listen to these counsels of despair, as I hope you are not. And, even if Dinky Toy collecting has passed its peak ... Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Yours faithfully, Jonathan #754

I share other members frustration concerning the difficulties with the site, and the problems encountered in posting images. I am in no way tech-savvy, quite the opposite in fact - 'cyberphobic ' might be a better description - but somehow (don't ask me how! ) I managed to post a photo on the 582/982 Pullmore - dark blue cab/dark blue body section. For some unknown reason, around a quarter of the image is missing, I don't know whether I did something wrong, or the witchcraft within the site did something. It took me quite some time and several attempts to get that far, but my message is that if I can do it, almost anyone else should be able to! don't give up, if at first you don't succeed etc.!

Jonathan, you have put my thoughts exactly to print, the web site should be the holy grail of information regarding Dinkys, in fact as a collector of all things that came out of the MECCANO factory would like to see a super site to combine all. I look forward to once again contributing. David

Well put, Jonathan. The DTCA website is surely central to attracting new members to succeed we oldies. Also, so much information is still in the heads of long-standing members and, if there's no viable means of disseminating that information, the world of Dinky will be the poorer.

I appreciate the support that other members have given to my open letter to Michael Driver regarding the status of this website. Unfortunately since writing it I learned (via receipt of the January Journal) that Vectis is, for unspecified reasons, no longer supporting the Journal's publication, so I presume that my notion they might help fund the website operation is a non-starter.Meantime more than a week after writing Michael in what I had meant to be a kind and constructive manner, I have had no reply from him. I see above that esteemed member Jan Oldenhuis, whose contributions to the forum have been detailed and wonderful, never received the courtesy of a reply either . Nor does there seem to be the slightest inclination for Michael or anyone else in DTCA officialdom to actually deign to use the website.Are we now witnessing the collapse of the DTCA? I sincerely hope not, but for many of us, especially overseas members, who have felt spurned and ignored for nearly a year now, it is going to be hard to 'forgive and forget' and contribute as in the past -- either financially or in any other way.

Jonathan. This is very sad news that you too have not received any response from Michael Driver or anyone else from the board. This strikes me as very heartless. The fact that Vectis has withdrawn in terms of financial contribution is of course very unfavorable for the financial stability of the club. This is, now that the website needs to be updated and an x amount of money costs, will be very inconvenient. It would be nice if, for example, QDT or other related auction sites could fill that gap. But that is outside the communication you would expect from a chairman. I expected to receive a message with a possible solution and an estimate of the costs involved. We can then look at how this can be tackled and how we as a club can obtain the finances. The board could do its best for these plans and implementation in collaboration with the members. I'm thinking about what else can be done about it. Jan Oldenhuis

Thank you very much, Jan. If you have any more thoughts about it they will be most welcome.P.S. Thank you for overlooking the typo in the spelling of your name, now corrected. That shows how flustered the situation had made me.

How to upload photos on the DTCA web site.Register to Serving.com servimg.com/view/13856402/1079 ] 1 - drag your picture on this window 2 - clic on the blue 'send all' button 3 - using the slider on the right side of the window go right down 4 - select all the line 'show picture to a friend'go to your post on the DTCA site type paste the line from Serving type write the caption and clic SAVEIf this does not work, do contact me.

Hip Hip Hooray!! I managed to create a new topic 914 in the normal way and upload photos in the normal way. See topic 914. Who's next. Jan Oldenhuis, 24 March 2024