Access to this Forum from June 2012 – please read

[Wilfried]

ok, thanks for the education

If the forum becomes a closed forum in the future I want to see all my posts to be removed here

Kind regards

Wilfried

[Jon Hodges]

As someone that has championed the Scott Club website from it’s inception by Geoff Harland I feel sad that the decision has been made to deny non members access to this part of the Club’s site. I agree wholeheartedly with views expressed so far in favour of keeping the forum open to all. I myself spent good deal of time collating all the Yowl articles relating to Silks and badgering Paul to have a Silk page put on the Club site knowing full well probably people interested in Silks would not be Club members. It was done in the same spirit that grew the internet, the freedom of information for all.

I think at the very least something that has such a profound effect on Scott interests worldwide should have been put before the membership at the AGM. Has some sort of proposal about the forum access been put on the AGM agenda and will the minutes of the Committee meeting be printed in the April Yowl?

Jon Hodges

[BLaine]

I am not a member.
I am not much of a poster on this forum either.
I do have a few different makes of predominately two stroke bikes and typically one of the topics of conversation when I have guests are my bikes and by and large it’s a wide ranging audience.

On occasion the interested party(s) want to know more and we move on to the computer and as one of the Scotts is parked in the living room this is one of the forums.
Looks like June will be the time to plonk another two stroke in it’s place.

I wish the club all the best for it’s future but in terms of marketing this choice does not add up.

I like Motorbikes and even most people and I love information. You have given me a stark choice subscribe or be excluded.

ATB

Blaine

[richard norris]

My feeling is that if you want to join the party you should be prepared to pay the entry fee but given the general reaction maybe a pause for reflection would be a good idea?
I think the club is excellent value and the forum is brilliant – my daft questions are always patiently and helpfully answered.
Maybe this is an issue for a formal consultation.
Hoping everyone is ready for a good season’s riding,
Richard

[Steve Bowles]

It is certain from the responses on this forum that regular users are against this move.
Lewis is a stalwart in supporting the decision but his replies do not carry any confidence in purpose.
I’d like to see some support for the decision to balance the discussion – where is it? – ……..
There is no doubt that a united front showcasing the Club is the ideal.
The alternative is having a breakaway group using the internet as an effective tool for communication as is already starting with the excellent Scott Newsletter.
Maybe time to go to an AGM….
Steve

[jonathanjoy]

I agree, my first reaction was “so what” I’ll start a forum on another site, but this was a knee jerk reaction. It serves no – bodies interest to have break away groups, we are all Scott enthusiasts or potential enthusiasts and our interests and the future of Scotts are best served by having one community, one club and
one forum.

Regards Jonathan 😥

[Wilfried]

@Steve Bowles wrote:

I’d like to see some support for the decision to balance the discussion – where is it? – ……..
Steve

it is probably in the hidden-for-non-members-section ….

It looks like there is a clash of cultures
The established club culture versus the open – free for all – web community

there is no doubt about the outcome, it is only a matter of time

but in the meantime all Scott enthusiast will loose, there will be no winners

Kind regards

Wilfried

[Erik]

@Wilfried wrote:

@Steve Bowles wrote:

I’d like to see some support for the decision to balance the discussion – where is it? – ……..
Steve

it is probably in the hidden-for-non-members-section ….

Is is not Wilfried. So far all discussion on this subject is in this thread. As it should be as it concerns all forum users.

Cheers,
Erik

[RJV]

I wish to add my voice to those against the committee’s decision to restrict access to the forum. This decision, the consequences for the SOC and most importantly its effect on the Scott marque require more than a committee decision. Luddites is a word that seems to fit the mind set. Will the Scott eNewsletter be the next committee target. I guess there will be one less member next year.

[Mike Fennell]

The concern is the “fall in membership” of this (and similar) Clubs but nobody can be definite about the causes. It is obviously a very complex issue and may be inevitable. Even Civilisations experience decline and fall.

What evidence is there that restricting access to the SOC Forum will improve matters? It could have the opposite effect, judging by the responses so far.

The online forum idea has been a great success worldwide, the modern consumer expects it, and it can only grow bigger for the foreseable future.
Only this week I registered on two Forums to aid research into the subject of those feeble front brakes on post-war Shipley Scotts. I found some promising leads.

So, in my opinion, this is no time to rock the boat by being inward-looking.

[Wilfried]

Do we need a club?

There is a community of people dedicated to a german motorbike called D-Rad (1920 – 1932). D-Rad was the biggest motorbike manufacturer in germany in the late twentieth and the D-rad R9 was the best selling 500 in 1929. Nothing special, “only” a sturdy but very conservative and reliable bike.

This community is not organized in a club and no structures exist. There is only an open web-forum and two private websites. The better one is run by an 18 year old swiss boy. There are annual gatherings with 60 – 80 D-Rad´s taking part together in a 100km ride. This gatherings are organized by enthusiasts. Who will run the next gathering will be decided at the end of a gathering. Every year it is on different places and every organizer is trying hard to show his hometown/area at its best. All communication and information about parts, help … goes via the forum and the website. All pictures from nearly all gatherings, stories, all technical information, old pictures, everything is downloadable for everyone for free from this website. The D-Rad community has grown over the past years, more and more parts are made and the D-Rad is now a very interesting bike for many.

The last D-Rad club was recognized before the war.

[Erik]

@Wilfried: I think the discussion whether we need a club or not goes way too far. But I see your point (and know of the D rad club you are talking about).

I too am a member of a few very active classic motorcycle and scooter forums that only exist on the internet. And they seem to do better than some “official” clubs. But then, what is “official”, when is a club a club…? That is a totally different discussion. 😉

But this all is besides the point i.m.o.

I think that the main question is: what is the goal of the SOC?

I sincerely hope that it is to make sure that as much Scotts as possible can be kept on the road now and in the future! And it is obvious that this can only be achieved by sharing as much information as possible. An open forum is one, very logical, way to do this. As is the Technicalities website etc.

I also think the fear of losing members because of having an open forum is not very realistic. The club offers a lot of other benifits like the Spares Scheme and the great Yowl magazine. Enough reasons to join!

And I also think that the SOC cannot be compared to lets say a Triumph club. We all know there are only a handfull of Scott sites on the internet. And just as few books. There also is only one Scott club in the world. There are plenty of sites to get info on Triumph and there are also lots of Triumph clubs. And metres of books. I think that is a big difference!!!

I also like to compare to the Vespa scene. I have been a committee member and treasurer of the largest official Dutch Vespa Scooter Club for many years. Our reasons for existance were our activities, rallies, the clubs magazine and the social gatherings. Not knowledge and information! Of course we shared the information we had with everybody that asked, being a member or not. But with Piaggio (maker of Vespa) being the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world, information is to be found everywhere. Just like with Triumph.

We all know this is not the case with our beloved Scotts… We must face the fact that, although quite some people write good technical articles for Yowl, these information hardly ever gets out. So chances are very real that with the years knowledge will get lost forever. In my opinion this knowledge should be shared with as many people as possible and in as many ways as possible. So my kids will know how to keep dads Scotts running when I happen to be gone.

If the Scott Owners Club is able to achive that, then I think they have done a very good job!

So again, please reconsider this decision. Print out this forum thread and talk things over at the next meeting. And I hope you will then come to the conclusion that the decision was not the best in the world and it would be best to put it aside and leave things as they are.

Cheers,
Erik

[Wilfried]

Hi Erik,

I confess I wanted to tease a little bit. I believe it needs sometimes very contradictionary opinions to see the whole picture.

If the SOC concentrate on the core targets with modern technique and open minded thinking I will join again ASAP!

Kind regards

Wilfried

[Anonymous]

Wilfried,

There is a critical difference between Scotts and D-Rads or any other more popular bikes. That is there is enough demand for companies to invest in parts supply of more popular machines. The biggest single thing the SOC brings is the spares scheme IMHO and a fine job it does. There are only a very few individuals daft enough to plough their own money into batch manufacture of Scott parts that will take many years to sell and realise a break-even so the club fills these gaps. The SOC does this because no-one else will so setting up a rival online scott club has little practical purpose as, unless it has a means to generate decent amounts of funds, it cannot produce the spares scheme or the Gathering or Yowl to share and record knowledge. This started as a disucssion about web access for members and non members. I’m a member and vis-a-vis I therefore pay for non members to use this forum, along with everyone else who is a member. But I see no reason to drag the SOC raison d-etre into this website discussion.

Asking the question “do we need a club” is a little unfair as I believe you are outside looking in, you should have asked “do you need a club” and the answer would be a “yes”. You are welcome to join, then you can table a motion for the AGM next month!

Best regards,
Richard

[Anonymous]

Of course I forgot the membership sec who puts local people in contact, machine registrar who holds a mountain of info I regularly use, tech secretary for info and queries, the list goes on….

[Author]

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