club website links page?

hi everyone.

i was searching google for info on a bonsai club semi local to me the other night to try and find out details on joining, when they meet etc and it got me thinking a section of the forum where any bonsai club could place a link to their site, contact info or meeting program etc would be a very useful addition. in a short space of time it would be a worldwide reference page to where the bonsai clubs and available meetings are......any one else think this is a worthwhile addition to ibc?

cheers Marcus

It probably would be a full time job and a half just to keep it updated and accurate.

Much of that information is already available on Bonsai Clubs International, American Bonsai Society, FOBBS sites. etc. and they are often out of date.

I recall, and once had bookmarked, a site that attempted to do that (and more), but with changes of computers over the years and lack of need on my part, I no longer have that site bookmarked.

hi jim, oops Jim !

i know the problem of fixed web sites going out of date is a pain but i mean can we create another catagory to add to the forums other 8 or nine topics? so club members can add their own info - fobbs only lists the clubs that pay to be members so large areas of the uk are not covered or listed and this is not a true representation of the available bonsai clubs in the UK, i dont know if the usa is the same?

i was thinking along the lines of a section along the lines of 'club info' - then leave it to the commitee / interested members to run the thread for their club info ie thread 1) may be Cornwall Bonsai society...1st topic - how to join, where we meet, when we meet. followed by the 2012 meeting schedule ....4th wed in January - pots and pot choice, febuary - early repotting etc etc, next listing may be a club in thailand, America or even Devon - this would soon give ibc a definitive list of active clubs with members who could be bothered to update info, and these are basically the only clubs worth being part of in my book.

run in this way no extra work would be required by forum administrators

cheers Marcus

run in this way no extra work would be required by forum administrators

I dunno . . . considering how no one seems to want to remove any of their announcements when the announced date passes, I'm not sue that we could make that claim stick.

We tried that on the "old" IBC site, and got very little participation.

But it is something to consider.

JimLewis wrote:I dunno . . . considering how no one seems to want to remove any of their announcements when the announced date passes, I'm not sue that we could make that claim stick.

Jim- as you have already acknowledged in the respose to Iris a post starter couldn't remove an announcment once other people write on it, and that admin have to remove it - as there are replies to virtually every anouncement it is therefore down to you guys to clean up the section rather than us. if the forum software has been, or can be changed to allow the topic starter to deleat it regardless of other posts then i'm sure many people would do what you request. (Last time i made an announcement i couldnt remove it and needed to edit the title saying REMOVE so it got spotted and dealt with)

it is natural progression from any newcomer to ibc, and many not so new comers probably, to want to find out about local clubs, where they meet and when.

to get the ball rolling if anyone can answer me I would like contact info and meeting dates / times etc for the Bristol Bonsai society that meet at failand hall? as google cant find that info, (only adverts for the various shows)

cheers for any help Marcus

Marcus, you can get that info by PMing Mark Cooper and/or Dan Barton.

Regarding adding extra forum boards, the moderators have talked about this previously and decided that too many boards is off-putting. I already spend far more time than I'd want to going through the forum. I'd be keen not to add to that.

However, at some point in the not too distant future we will have the website back up and running. I think your idea has lots of merit but I'd suggest that we wait until that part of IBC is active and then have a links page from it to club websites.

thanks Fiona - an addition to the web site in the future makes perfect sense - until then I'll keep the announcements up to date for our local club and hopefully others will follow suit.

regarding my Bristol request;
i know that i can call Mark for the info, or Dan or John, but the point of having the information on the forum is that the many people reading also have access to the information at a glance, especially as many new comers would not feel comfortable pm'ing or emailing someone they dont know - the forum statistics prove this every single day as there are a lot more guests just reading the information rather than members actually posting, and all these potential new club members wouldnt be able to pm or even know who to pm either

cheers for the consideration though - thanks again Marcus