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UKS - the way forward
Hello and Happy New Year!
Sorry I have been fairly absent for a bit. After the heart attack, various other aspects of life have demanded my time and attention - in particular, both generations, above and below, have presented me with serious challenges over the last few months. While life is still challenging for me, my health is, at the moment not the issue :) and I am looking forward. What is the future of UKS? IS there a future for it??
To members - This is the time to add your input. If you want UKS to continue, tell me what you want out of it. If you think you can help, feel free to PM me. What that "help" might be will depend on any input.
Also, you asked about a DONATE button in the past. I may have that worked out. If you see it appear, feel free to make use of it. Likewise, feel free to ignore it.
To sponsors - I have deferred the sponsorship email till I have a more concrete plan for UKS moving forward. Self-hosting has meant I need less in the way of new funds to keep UKS open, so I feel comfortable giving all a free month.
Let's have a chat. If UKS still matters to you, tell me what you want out of it moving forward. I'll see if I can make that happen.
cheers all!
Mary Anne
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Hello MaryAnne. first of all - thank you so much for all the hard work you have put in over the past years to create and run this site. Personally, I have found it invaluable as a source of advice, education and inspiration over the years. And the people who "inhabit" it are a really wonderful bunch. It must take so much of your time and it really is appreciated.
As for continuing - well, if you could manage it, I would LOVE it. It is my first port of call after my emails each morning. I shall watch this space with interest, as they say.
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Hi MaryAnne, sorry to hear you've been having a hard time, hopefully 2016 will be a better year for you.
I love UKS & would be sorry to see it go, I'll more than happily make a donation to help keep it going.
I like the challenges, the variety of them; the Teams & point collecting (very motivating) & I've adored the past events.
With so many people on facebook might a facebook page help draw people here & keep the chatter on UKS rather than on facebook which I think a group on there might steal. It could have a quick update on monday with the challenges that have gone up, other days in the week could have updates to links on here of interesting discussions, questions asked etc. I think it would keep reminding people of UKS & draw in new users.
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I would miss UKS if it closed. I like the chat and the social groups I'm in. I don't know many scrappers locally so it's great to be able to chat with like minded people. I also love reading the challenges although I don't complete many. Higher hopes for this year on the scrapping front.
Hope you have a better year in 2016
Cris
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Another massive thanks here for all your hard work Mary Anne.
I definitely want UKS to carry on! I am in the minority that doesn't have a Facebook or Twitter account and so I come on here most days for challenges, new products and inspiration. Being a member of a team also helps that.
I think that a posting somewhere, eg Facebook with an alert of new challenges, etc to direct people here is a good idea. I do have an Instagram account where I look in the crafting world for updates, so maybe using a few of the social media platforms to draw people in could be good?
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I would be so sad to see the end of UKScrappers. Although I'm not in a team anymore as there seem to be very few chatty ones I still pop in to my old red ribbons house and chat there. I do the challenges and post my lo's even though I'm not collecting points because it makes me use the mountain of stash I have (am in mid craft room de clutter so there's nothing forthcoming at the minute;))
Thank you for all your hard work MaryAnne
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I loved UKS in the old days, when groups chatted, cyber crops were eagerly awaited and swaps/RAKs were going strong. I popped on here at least 2 or 3 times a day. These days though the chat hardly moves and nothing to make you return regularly. I tried getting back involved with a team, but even there the chat was slow (lovely people though). Unless the old love of it can be re-captured, I don't know what the future holds tbh. Even magazines for scrapbooking don't appear in most local shops now. It was buying a magazine which started me off - but now it's under paper crafting, which OK I like, but where are the dedicated magazines that drove you to seek out UKS in the search for like minded individuals?
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Hi MaryAnne thank you for all your hard work behind the scenes and also for seeking our opinion.
I would really miss UKS if it were to close or go. I have made some great friends here and absolutely love my team. I love taken part in the challenges and it keeps me motivated to collect points and create more. I have also loved the cyber crops or house events that I have been part of in the past.
I really think that becoming part of social media as others have suggested is the way forward...so an active facebook group, using instagram and twitter may help to keep the group alive and current... I really hope we continue to be together. xxx
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Thank you so much to you MaryAnne and everyone else who has contributed so much and made UKS a great site. Im grateful and always will be, whatever the future holds - UKS was around a long time before Facebook and its grace to UKS that I met my teamies who have become some of my best friends and we have been together through thick and thin. Its also thanks to UKS that I scrap at all, for the inspiration and know how it has provided.
I am afraid that these days I come in here very rarely, I have only seen this post now because someone posted a link to it on facebook. I find facebook so much easier to use (none of the rigmarole with the gallery, size of photos and the need to upload by certain times and the space limits meaning stuff needs to be constantly deleted to make room) and its also much easier to have a one stop shop where I can keep up with all my friends and groups - not just scrapping ones, in one place. Its easy to add links, to show people stuff, share things as well as keep them private - I used to hate that anyone could read our social group thread on UKS, people seemed to be snooping on us (ex team members etc) ; now we have our team chat as a closed facebook group I feel much more able to chat freely knowing its only us that can see it and to include any photos without all the limits. Its much faster loading, available easily on all devices, even mobile ones but mostly it is the fact that everything is in one place. I am in several closed groups over there, and it is wonderful to be able to see new posts in all my groups without having to keep change sites .
If UKS was to be on facebook I would join the group, rejoice and continue to get all the news in my regular newsfeed along with news from other areas of life. If it continues on here, well, I wish it luck and will pop in when my team leader asks me too I guess but probably not otherwise
You ask what we think, well I think UKS needs to move with the times and get over to Facebook. I know not everyone has facebook but not everyone has the internet either !
Thank you again for everything you have done for us
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I think with the amount of downloads, links, advice etc here on UKS it would be hard to move to facebook. I love the fact that even if I dont visit often I can still come visit the gallery, see which shops are having specials or sales, or download some nice freebies from the cutting file forums. Alongside that I can get help and advice, find links to fonts or info in the library. I cant see how any of that would work on facebook. And to be honest how many people look past the top 20 or so posts on fb? Lots of stuff would be missed and it would all be mixed up over there where here it is easy to find the bits you are interested in or use the new posts button.
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I have to agree with the above posts, I seldom come onto the site now, only to check when my local crop is meeting.
I found UKS really helpful when I started scrapbooking and through it I have found some great friends however I no longer use it as a resource or source of inspiration. Pinterest, instagram and Facebook now provide a wealth of world wide material in a more accessible format. So I'd vote for a move to social media.
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Thank youMaryAnne for your hard work keeping this forum open. Would really miss it if it were to close as ive just got a cameo im visiting that part of the forum more and more. Love the challenges and the group chat.
Sandra
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First and foremost, a huge thank you for everying you have done for us all MaryAnne - it must have been such hard work for you and I do hope your health continues to at least stay stable, but more that it improves hugely!
At the risk of sounding "like daughter, like mother" I wholeheartedly agree with what Maria has written above. I am in a team and the lovely people in the team have become such firm long-standing friends. I do the challenges, but the restrictions on time and the need to frequently delete pictures does rather put me off. I also abhor the tendency of people to air their grievances/gripes/moans etc.etc. on the threads.
I am glad you have asked us what we all think. I may be in the minority but I agree that it is so so much easier on Facebook, even for an old biddy like me who often has to ask for technical advice over there. It is quick, in one spot and an easy read every morning. I, too, belong to a closed group on Facebook with my team where we can write things that are just for our team and pop photos on there that we perhaps would not want to put on here.
I do feel, seriously, we should all try to move with the times though.
That said, I have nothing but admiration and gratitude for all you have done for everyone who uses UKS.
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I need to post more too - I just miss the open forum discussions rather than the social groups. I do think the social groups were our downfall.
I'd like to say thank you to you too - I know how hard you work to keep UKS going for us. I will help in any way that I can - just ask! .... thanks again xxx
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Another one here who loves UKS, belongs to a wonderful team who do the challenges, collects points but doesn't chat much on here. My Teamies and I have a closed group on FB too for private chat. I have recently been trying to rouse the Red Ribbons house to chat more with some success. I have enjoyed Stash Bash and would love to see another year of that. Perhaps there could be a small prize from one of our sponsors, or even one of us, drawn at random from those entering the House challenge to encourage more interest
I do think that FB is the way to go with links to draw people back here for all the wonderful things this site has to offer and if it appears, I would love to make a donation to help keep the site going.
Thank you for all you have done over the years to help and support scrappers all over the world and for the lovely people I have met here. The world of scrapping would be a poorer place without UKS. xxx
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Hi MaryAnne
I hope 2016 is a better year for you. Thank you for your hard work, I have made some wonderful friends in real life that I first met through UKS.
I mostly use UKS for the challenges rather than inspiration. I thought the cybercrops that ran in the past were great fun, although I imagine it takes lots of co-ordination. Maybe each house could host a quarterly challenge that runs over a weekend??
As I have to resize and upload photos from my PC I only do so for challenges. If it was possible to upload photos from my phone I would probably share more pages - I don't know if that's the case for others. With people sharing more pages then the opportunity for finding inspiration would be greater and I would probably visit the gallery more. The kit club I belong to does a 'meet me on Monday' feature where subscribers share their favourite pages etc - could you do a member spotlight??
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I very rarely post on forums, but do read most of them and love reading them
It would be a shame if UKS closed as i love looking at peoples pictures and ideas, I also like learning new techniques
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Sadly, I am sorry to say, I rarely pop in as I am not a team member, or house member. I have a lot of things that are on my time, so scrapping is difficult to find the time. I have loved the site for the cybercrops and the camaraderie that was a part of that, but I know that suffered in it's later years. In my early years on the site when I started out, I was on here a lot and learnt a lot .. but I found it becoming harder to chat to people on here. I am very grateful to the time given by all in everything for the site, but sadly I have found it easier to find inspiration like many from Pinterest and Facebook more of late. I have popped in when I heard others talking about inspiration, or classes etc they have found/enjoyed on here .. and that has come via social media. I am part of an unoffical UKS group on Facebook, and people can post snippets from the site on there to signpost people there (hence knowing about this thread) .... I am sorry I cannot be more positive, but I am sure you would rather it be and honest post? To be honest, I know there has been summer stash bashes .... but I learnt about them too late, plus also summer holidays can be a nightmare for time on my own to scrapbook. It would be sad to see the site go in saying all of this, as there is a lot of inspiration to be found on here from tutes to layouts etc ... but as said before, time is my enemy :(
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I come on here every day, I do lots of reading but rarely post, its become very quite, the social groups haven't helped with that I am sad to say.
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Hi MaryAnne- thanks for managing to keep this place running with all the RL stuff going on and your own health problems. I Love this place and would hate to see it go. I adored this place when it was first set up and watched every thread and joined in with loads. I can remember singing along to a "live chat" one years eve as well- those were the days :) I join in with the odd swap and the general scrapping thread mostly now and of course the sponsors links are great. I probably pop in at least twice a day to check stuff out. Having said that I do believe that family must come first as should your health. I am more than happy to help out in any way to keep things running , if thats what you would like.
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I really love UKS and am saddened at the thought of moving to purely a Facebook group. Whilst I do use FB occasionally I find that my news feed tends to be very clogged up with things I'm not really interested in. I also worry about privacy with FB.
I take part in Scrap-a-sketch and find the discipline of doing a monthly LO brilliant. I upload photos from my phone and I found an easy to use app that will resize pictures first, so they are the right size for the site. I would like to help but am unsure what I could usefully do.
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I love it on here it is family to me my Scrapping family, I've tried fb and really can't get on with it at all, things jump all over the place and I can never find anything where as here the threads stay in order of entry which for me makes far more sense.
I love the challenges and try to do them all each month.
I am a widow living on my own and without this site I would be bereft feel far more isolated especially from like minded folk.
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I do hope UKS remains as I really really really can't abide fb I can never keep up with it can't find posts until days later if I'm lucky and as for people having trouble with the gallery here there is nothing easier and if you put in a thumbnail picture and the larger one into the description you can get far more in your gallery. I do have to delete pages and at the moment I am deleting 2012 pages but as I probably put more into my gallery than most I don't see what the trouble is. Please don't go over to fb I won't be able to cope. I've already come out of one of the teams I was in as I found it too difficult when they changed from here to there.
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Sorry to hear you've been unwell MA I hope you're feeling better now. I too would be sad to see UKS go having been a member since 2007 but whatever you decide I'm sure a lot of thought will have gone into it. I've added a link to your post in he cutting machine section, hopefully you will get some feed back from those members too
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A lot of folk I have spoken to admit that their scrapping has fallen to the wayside (myself included) but quite a few have also said that this new year 2016 they wanted to get back into it again! Me too! I would love for UKS and all the invaluable info and support that comes with it was still there but also recognise that I have to be involved in it for that to happen. Hopefully it will continue and we can get it to be the fun informative place it used to be.....
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Sorry to hear you have been unwell Mary-Anne. I hope this year is a better year for you. I hope UKS stays as it is. I think it is far too big and nice for FB. I have had a stressful few years and had 0% mojo, but this year all is going to change :D
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It's obviously been a while for me as my kids are 3 years older now :o
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firstly maryanne i didnt know you had had a heart attack, im so sorry to hear that it must have been terrifying for you. im very happy to hear that you are on the mend despite family issues.
not sure i really have the right to comment because ive been AWOL for so long, but UKS will always have a place in my heart as the first online community i joined. before facebook came along this was my home page and the place i met some of my closest friends. Ive been separated from my stash for a couple of years now and have tried to struggle on and scrap but knowing i have fourteen green holographic wheelbarrows buried somewhere in there i dont want to buy one more just for a page. I have been scrapping more recently but havent been on UKs for a fair while.
that all said, id donate any day of the week, and timezones notwithstanding id happily help out in any way i can. have to learn my way round first :)
sometimes things come into our lives and they are super important at the time and then they move on or you move on and its over, this is not that. id be gutted if UKS wasnt there - even if we dont talk as much as we used to.
i made so many friends here, and i miss that.
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Happy New Year to you, and again I want to thank you for providing this great platform.
I must admit that I don't use it as often as I used to, but I would hate to see it go has it has always provided a great source of craft inspiration.
The donate button sound like a good idea.
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Hi MaryAnne, I am sorry to hear about your heart attack. I often forget to sign in because I think I was confused about all this house members and teams stuff and I just wanted to chat and have inspiration on the main boards. I came here in 2011 shortly before moving to the UK and I loved getting info from local people. I like the rest use fb more than forums although having said that if there was more discussion and challenges (who doesn't love a good challenge) I would come back -that takes time. i don't mind hosting challenges and such. Although I must confess I don't understand the points thing either. I just want to do a challenge and post it.
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First I'd like to thank you Mary Anne for all the hard work you've put into keeping UKS going for all these years. So sorry to hear that you've been ill and hope you're well on the way to recovery.
I'm disappointed to read that so many people prefer to chat on Facebook. Our group decided against it as our allegiance is with UKS. We're a very chatty supportive group of friends, not just ladies who scrap and I'd be very sorry to lose them from my life.
My vote is a big NO to Facebook.
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I am not primarily a scrapper but I come on here at least once a day and try to join in any crafty chat. I am not on FB or Twitter because I spend enough time on the 'net as it is:lol:! A forum is only as good as the people who use it and whilst this used to be a very busy place it has become a lot quieter. I find the same thing has happened on another forum I use as well so it isn't just a UK Scrappers problem. I don't know what the answer is but I know it would be a shame if this forum fell by the wayside.
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Hugs to you MaryAnne, it's been a while since I was an active member but have many fond memories of the cyber crops and such that we had and as a result have quite a few members as my FB friends.
I have every intention of getting back into crafting and scrapping this year come spring when, in our new home, our utility room will house my craft nook ^_^
I'm not 100% sure how much I would use the forums to be honest though, I do come here as a reference and to see what sponsors are selling what and if they have what I'm looking for - I purchased a planner over a year ago and have been into that lately.
It would be sad to see it go but as I have not been active much it would be partly my fault for not participating more. But thank you MaryAnne for your work and for bringing me some long time friends into my life :) it's actually so nice to see some of the names I remember too :D
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So sorry that you've had such a bad time Mary Anne, hope 2016 brings better things for you.
I LOVE UKS and would hate to see it move to Facebook. Here I can find what I want, and look back on old challenges, etc. I would have no idea how to find things on Facebook, it's ok for updates but as someone said , I only look at recent posts on there, and very rarely contribute
we have had some fabulous challenges and inspiration on here, and thank you to all those who have contributed. I do think we all need to try chatting more in the threads, more than just 'here's my LO' . I think it is a case of Use it or Lose it and I for one don't want to lose it.
Green buttons have had weekend mini cyber crops in the past, maybe each house could organise one every few months for everyone, they always seem to encourage activity.
I find the challenges and points system a great incentive to get on and do something, but I'm sure it doesn't suit everyone. People are also very welcome to join in the challenges without being in a team, it's not compulsory
Mary Anne, I am happy to help any way I can. I am not technical so couldn't help on that side but I am happy to help with challenges etc.
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Yay, it's great to see so many people chatting again on here, not just on this thread. I do hope it continues x
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I don't post much.. In fact hardly at all since the introduction of the social groups, especially as I asked to join one and was refused... However I do visit several times a day and I like to see what's new and would miss it if it was to disappear. I have actually done 3 layouts in the past 2 weeks!
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Hi Mary Anne,
So glad to hear things are improving for you, I hope they continue to do so.
I would hate it if UKS were to go, I come on usually a couple of times a day to have a nose around. And I am most definitely wanting to sponsor again (was wondering when the email would come LOL!)
:)
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Couldn't agree more Alison. So good to see more people chatting!
I can only echo the sentiments of many that say they don't want UKS to disappear or change. I love it here and contribute every day..both on my team thread and the house thread as well as challenges, swaps, cjs etc..you get out of it what you put in. If no one bothers to come on it is inevitable that it will dwindle. I am on FB and enjoy that too..I think that if Challenges were shared each week to FB we would get lots more interest..the same as this thread has had. If people prefer FB there is no reason they cannot follow the link to contribute to to UKS by following the link. It just needs someone to post the links when it is relevant onto the UKS thread on FB...maybe the person that starts the thread can share it on FB too?
I should just say that if everyone wants to move everything to FB..there will soon be no forums, no blogs etc..just FB? Is that REALLY what you all want?
I am, also, bemused by some comments saying that people don't want others reading their posts..does this mean they have something to hide? If they don't want some people to read what they put, maybe they should consider whether they should be posting things they wouldn't want others to read?
I really appreciate the efforts that you put in MA and all the others that contribute. Please keep up the good work and continue whilst also embracing the social media side of things too to aid with the 'moving of the times' that some have referred to. I hope your health continues to improve.
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Hi MaryAnne. Sorry to hear of your health issues...... I am another who has been AWOL.... Haven't scrapped in forever but decided I would start again this year and only reappeared on the site today. I too hope that UKS stays as it is (well when I have reaquainted myself with how it all works now) I don't think it would be the same on facebook.
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Mary Anne so sorry to hear that you have been having a bad time I hope 2016 will be better for you and your family. Thank you so much for all that you do on here.
I too would miss UK scrappers I have made such good team friends here and there is always advice and help on any of the forums when needed and there is always plenty of inspiration.