Kinetic Forum Changes

[Anmer]

I've just visited the Kinetic forum (not for the first time today) and noticed the announcement shown below.

I'm not sure where Chris expects to find Feedback as his announcement is locked?

Then I went to view my unread posts (having viewed them about 10 minutes ago) and there are now 318 of them.

I'm not sure what's going on but something doesn't seem right and it looks like a vast history of posts have disappeared?

Has anyone else noticed this change?

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[Thermionicmick]

Have now and all the unread posts except one I had read before, looks like the"Mark as read" button could overheat .

[Anmer]

I've never been able to find the Mark as Read option on the Kinetic forum?

I think we have to view each one 

[Thermionicmick]

Top right hand side under the time stamp looks as if it could do the job, but I have not tried it  .

Well I knew what I meant  .

[Roadrunner]

I have just been in and confronted with approxz 500 unread items plus all the groupages appear to have been dumped into one public area. What was a relatively tidy and easy to navigate system (albeit could get difficult to search) is now an absolute farce.

I am very surprised that such drastic action has been taken without at least asking a few people that have been using the forum for years to comment on what they like or dislike about the site. After all I thought the idea behind the forum, and its reason for being, was to help people with Kinetics products find information relevant to their product and lots of the "public" area stuff was easy to find and quite tidy under the groupings that used to exist (Especially logos)

All I can see happening is that the number of people using the forum may tail off - or maybe that is what is wanted by Chris - perhaps the forum has outgrown its usefulness in their eyes.

One rather disgruntled forum user.

Mike

[Ian K]

Where as we had a section just for logos & requests, looks like they have all been lumped in with all the other posts now.

[Roadrunner]

Ian,

Despite all the hard work by people like yourself, looks like they don count Logos as being relevant to the new Kinetic forum 

[Anmer]

One rather disgruntled forum user.

And another.

I've been a member of the Kinetic forum since September 2005 and have made over 7,000 posts.  Surely some advance notice or consultation would have been a better tactic rather than an "out-of-the-blue" fait accompli?

That's what I'd have done.  My members deserve it.

[Ian K]

I think I would only need to visit the forum to check the requests & post logos and silhouettes, can't see the need to visit for anything else, seeing as the aviation section has vanished. 

[Anmer]

As some of you will be aware, I've (privately) been of the opinion for some time that Kinetic had lost interest in its own forum.  I think it's a commercial mistake and I've mentioned this to Chris many times.

If it were my business I'd have put more resource into ensuring I had an effective and productive channel to communicate with existing and future customers, as does nearly every successful company, large or small.  However, it's not my business but I am a customer.

David Goodman has posted:

"The purpose of the Forum was to allow Kinetic to communicate with its customers and not to become a hub for advertising, spam and other non appropriate activities. The current number of Topics will be slashed again as alternative options for the provision of resources are made.

The plethora of alternative forums (eg www.RadarSpotting.com , www.RadarSpotters.eu, www.FlightRadar24.com ) for generic posts, offers and resources will ensure that customers with an SBS device are supported."

I wonder if he's visited these forums on a regular basis?

[Anmer]

I hope DaveReid won't mind me quoting verbatim from his post on the Kinetic forum?

Dave joined the Kinetic forum a few months before I did and I have the utmost respect for his knowledge and am in his debt for his invaluable guidance and help over the years.

I think his post this afternoon sums up what I can only describe as Kinetic's Gerald Ratner moment:

"While it's hard to argue with Chris and David when they say that moderating the forum is taking up too much time and resources, I think the action taken is pretty draconian and, frankly, poorly thought out.

There are lots of resources directly relevant to SBS users which are now going to be very difficult to find amongst everything else that's been lumped together under "Public Resources".

And even useful threads appear to have vanished - I posted earlier today in a discussion about spurious altitudes being displayed by BaseStation, and I'm blowed if I can find any trace of that thread now.

Sorry, guys, but from here it looks like you've chucked out the baby with the bathwater."

I can confirm that a useful post started a few days ago by Keith D and to which I also replied has totally disappeared.  What a shambles.

http://www.kinetic.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=15445&p=124205&sid=601a91e15ff910f84450674a4b5f4900#p124203

[Roadrunner]

here is the text of my response to Kinetic Daves text that I think was aimed at me

Kinetic Dave,

I and many more have your devices as they are in my opinion the best in the market. One of the things that attracted me to it was the fact that it can be customised to ones own tastes - a step you took as a company was to allow third party add ons. Having done that you now appear to be saying that you dont want to support these 3rd party add ons, and the forum requests that they generate. Only a day or so ago Chris was applauding the PP changes that allow your SBS3 device to be used as a scanner, are you now saying that we Must use the PP forum for anything related to that even though it was changed to support your SBS3. Iank Paul Mustang and many more have spent hours supporting the additon of logo columns to your database to make your devices that much more interesting to use. Now you have slapped them and us in the face by totally wiping out the neat and tidy series of sub groups that supported this important add-on to your original idea. If you dont want the bother of people wanting a central point for all things SBS devices why dont you come clean and just shut down the forum. At least then we will know where we stand.

Mike

May be we should get the logo makers to have a section on here then Kinetic can go stuff themselves

[Roadrunner]

Sorry if my last post was a little over the top but I just want people to know how bl**dy annoyed I am

Mike

[Anmer]

May be we should get the logo makers to have a section on here then Kinetic can go stuff themselves

I have considered this before and having a logo gallery.  The only reason I didn't was because Kinetic was providing support and I didn't want to be accused of trying to undermine its forum.

Silly me.  I should have realised it was more than capable of doing it itself. 

Sad day in my book.  What else is in the pipeline?

[Anmer]

Sad day in my book.  What else is in the pipeline?

No forum at all.   

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