The site has been going for a whole year now, it’s younger sibling the forum not quite as long, and it is time for a little celebration. (Sound of party poppers and bottles popping) Whoo Hoo.
Annual Report Year 1
There are many people who have signed up for the contact database and the forums, more than I was expecting to be honest, and there are hundreds of people who visit every day without having registered. That is great and I’m quite happy. I hope you all get what you want from it.
I’m extremely happy with the calibre of the smaller group of people who contribute every day to the site and the forums. I just hope everyone gets the same from it as I do which is a sense of comradeship and family. It makes me feel part of something bigger.
I’m hoping this year is going to see a few meetings, as I know many of us are looking forward to that. Hopefully giving us the opportunity to meet, build relationships and to share knowledge on a more personal level.
But while I am happy everything is going forward I wanted to take the opportunity to gather some information to improve your experience. I’m interested in your input, you have all been helpful and despite our many differences in background, experience and thought processes we have worked well together in preparing for an uncertain future whilst helping those that are at different levels of knowledge and skill sets.
The main bottleneck to date from my perspective though is time and money. As you know I’m doing this at my own cost and putting my own time into it with help from other contributers and I would like to thank them because if it wasn’t for their input you would just have my view on everything and I just don’t know about so many subjects that the contributors have passed on their knowledge about. Plus you wouldn’t have had so many interesting discussions and a lot less articles to read.
During the last year I have had constructive input from people regarding improving the sites. Some I was able to implement, some not. Unfortunately my rootkit issue late last year lost me all my emails with your suggestions on. 🙁 What I’m looking at now is any views you have of the site as it is now. Where could it be improved? What parts are not helpful and could be and what is missing? I was going to do a poll and ask some pointed questions but that would narrow down your responses to what I think is important and what I think the weak areas are. I’d rather have a free for all and be honest. If there is something you don’t like say so, if there is something you like and want to see more, say so. Cover everything site theme, format, contents, and even writing style if it bothers you. I’ll make a complete list of what you suggest and comment on each one in a later article. Try and be clear as I may think you are commented on something different and miss a valid comment. Obviously, if I don’t understand what you mean I’ll ask for clarification. Let’s ensure it is constructive though. I don’t want to hear ‘It’s crap’ and no explaination. ‘It’s crap because the colours are hard to read’ is better but obviously I’d prefer the simple statement of ‘The colours are hard to read’. Thank you. 🙂
Let’s see if we can do better this year. We will with your help.
Fire away. I’ll stick this post at the top for a week.
I am perfectly happy with the site as it is, however, I do feel that you should accept donations towards the costs of the site. I benefit from all the valuable articles that are available upon the site and feel that I should contribute to its upkeep. I am looking forward to meeting members as often as I can, this can at times be difficult. Reasons for not always being able – old age, arthritis, I’m now 80 and I have a wife who is 80 and who has health problems. I am sorry about this. Kenneth Eames.
Congratulations on the first anniversary of Survival UK and thank you for all your hard work. Like Kenneth I am happy with the way the site is although I must try to make time to get involved in the forums. My only criticism, and it’s entirely personal, is the “Thinking Ahead” series isn’t helpful for me as I think there are just too many variables to be able to form an opinion on a given scenario. By that I mean sitting here in my nice warm house I might reach one conclusion but in a life or death situation in the cold, hard world my thought processes would be completely different. A minor criticism and, as I said, entirely personal.
Ken,
You do donate. You write articles for publication.
Moosedog,
That is the point of the thinking ahead. Everyone here has different variables as in supplies, location, skill sets and thought processes. That series is just to make you think that things are not going to be easy, they are not going to go as you think they will and you can never cover every situation. In many situations it is possible to do everything right and still not come out on top. Someone is always faster, has more experience or even simply luckier. Being aware of that means you can plan to improve your chances. When you plan you can run it through in your mind and test it. In a life or death situation in the cold, hard world you don’t have any time for thinking. Do that now while you can and discuss it so that if it happens you already know what to do.
For example you can secure your house and you can be happy with it but unless you test it it may not work as intended. What if a back door is left open, a broken latch not fixed or complacency has hit with the kids? I’ve spent a lot of time evaluating risk and you do need to think of cascade failures. This is where one failure leads to another and so on. You fall unemployed and after some heavy winds you have a faulty roof tile on the garage but can’t afforde to replace it. It get blown off, the rain gets in and some of your preps are ruined. You fix the roof up to fill the hole as best as you can afford but it isn’t done right and an even stronger wind pulls the whole garage roof off. You have to empty the whole thing and it is pouring down. A lot is ruined.
Well done, congrats to all.
Appy Birfday SUK, I love the site, and even the picture of a compost heap at the top of the page 🙂
Any possibility of an images archive in the future, and I agree with tothers you should have a Paypal donation doofah thingy, Though that mob from Bristol will prolly try to rob it 🙂
And again on a more serious but very important point, Thank you for the very sensible low key approach to membership and moderation, you have the balance just right.
perfect!!!
balance just right and we all change things by adding our veiws with no right or wrong real freedom?
Thanks people. It is good to know that our efforts are appreciated.
NR,
Image archive? That isn’t on my list. What would you expect to go in it?
Piccies of useful posters, maps, charts, how to graphics, images of peoples kit, vehicles, etc, if you look at my Flickr acct apart from the few daft cartoons at the start its all useful images such as solar maps, drawing of stoves, flood risk maps, knot tying techniques etc 🙂
I am so satisfied – if that is the correct way to describe it- that, judging from the use I make of it I am seriously thinking of no longer attaching my self to “another site” on which I havefrom time to time exposed my comments.
Here the balance is spot on and ther eis no feeling of superiority, or its counterparts, but a genuine desire to distribute the commonwealth. (Pompous old sod.)
More of the same please.
Thanks again.
NE,
That stuff will go on the Wiki when I get around to it.
In the last few months you have become part of what I might call my ‘routine’ when I log on. I have to agree with most of what has already been said. Just a suggestion – you could defray some of your expenses by having a few ads or a small annual membership donation/charge.
Overall I would say that the balance is about right – low key, non controversial, helpful and informative. Very many thanks – and happy anniversary – may there be many more.
Iaaems,
That makes it all worthwhile.
I’ll have a look at some ads, but I’m not a sales person, I’ll look at putting a PayPal button up or something else. Paypal itself is a poor company and I’m trying to avoid it.
I’d no idea you’ve only been going a year ! Well great job, the site is great, really infomative and very compulsive reading.I’d be happy to donate to the cause.