Uks changes for july 2022

[g61]

MaryAnne, if you mean we could post LOs into a challenge thread instead of the Gallery, that sounds absolutely fine. I misunderstood - I thought you were suggesting linking to LOs hosted on an external site site such as FB or Instagram or Flickr or something, which I wasn't keen on. Thanks for clarifying. Great idea to trial it in July.

[Susie.A]

Thank You Hilary for sorting that for me.

[Jolene]

Hello, I have read this thread with interest over the weekend.

I am not the most active member of UKS, generally only chatting within my team and only uploading layouts I have done for a challenge, not just because. I have been a member for a long time and I'm the past joined in with swaps and circle journals etc. I only found my niche in UKS when I joined a team as back then it was an extremely fast moving forum and I felt overwhelmed at the speed with some threads could move, not to mention the time I have. Also historically UKS has always been centred around the team / points ethos.

I use one other forum a bit like for online classes,which used to move very quickly to but has slowed a lot and much like UKS has slowed and there is more chat than uploading of layouts due to size constraints. The person who runs it keeps for costs, again like UKS.

There have been suggestions of all if us posting topics in the general chat, if we all post at once this could get overwhelming. Perhaps we could approach it like the weekly/ fortnightly challenge and build a list of volunteers who would be prepared to post a new topic say every other week, them we might get used to checking for them like we do for challenges? And it wouldn't fall on one person to have to think of something.

There could also be long standing topics like what's on your desk and perhaps tips and tricks for UKS ( I didn't know about forum spy). There could also be a show case for layouts either for a technique or some that have the eye. I struggle to use UKS for inspiration due the difficulty and time needed to sift through the gallery where as with Facebook I can easily save to my phone or save the post using the 3 little dots in the top right corner of the post (you can given set up folders/ collections to save different things to)

If teams or points collecting is disbanded, I would like the team forums to remain so we can still chat almost our team, where many of us feel safe to share. There are a number of long standing teams, who may not scrap as much but I am sure they still chat. I don't think UKS would have much to draw me back if the teams were disbanded all together.

A number of people have said they like UKS because they can't meet people IRL, perhaps the UKS Facebook group could be used to host an online 'zoom' type get together as I think you can create a room in Facebook and people could join as and when they wished as the date and time could be posted on UKS and it would be open to all.

I remember back in the day that if we wanted to upload extra photos, close ups of our layouts these had to be uploaded to another site foist and the url linked, it meant that you could have an album there that wouldn't be affected if there was a cull on UKS. But it could resolve the not being able to read journaling as you could upload a loose up.

I hope all this is constructive and helpful. I think with a forum it is the remembering to check all areas that isn't quite as easy as the feed on Facebook. I also hope this makes sense.

[thriftycrafter]

Jo, you can save to favourites here, which you access through your gallery, I use that quite a bit- find something I like for inspiration, then go off and do something completely different LOL

[Jolene]

Thanks Karelyn- another thing I wasn't aware of

[scrapdolly]

Jolene some utterly fabulous ideas.

I totally agree re too many so teams were 'safe' It was one of the reasons we started the team system. At one point there were over 40 teams - all active

I think as long as UKS is here the teams will remain - they are 'safe spaces' for chatter and many many people have made good friends due to them. There is no question of that going.

I love the idea of people taking turns at starting chat threads in general scrapping and in fact, as a result of today's post Margo has already taken the torch and is running with it which is awesome.

The whole point of the proposed changes - and boy it did its job and got people talking - was to try and make the point that if we want this community we have to be a community, a whole community. There are so few of us now that the team system for points etc is really pretty outdated but the team system is still valid for chatter. But it's now so small that hopefully we can also chatter, about scrapping too, all together as well as in teams. THAT is what builds community.

[Crafty Barbie]

Having been a member on here for years I feel it is time that I made my feelings known.

I come on here mainly for the challenges and the inspiration of looking at other LOs. I don’t care about whether or not I get points but I have joined a group as I felt that if I was doing the challenges I could collect points too. I do occasionally use my group for chatting but it is not why I come on here. If I go to a crop I don’t chat much there either - that’s just me! I don’t find it difficult to upload to the gallery and don’t even resize my photos to do it. I put my LO on the floor, stand above it and take a photo and then when I have cropped out all that is unnecessary, it is the required size for here.

I am on Facebook but find I use it less and less as the months go by.

I can understand and appreciate all the points made so far but would miss UKS were it to cease. I would also dearly miss the Christmas stocking swap which I have done for so many years now!

[MaryAnne]

I agree. lots of good ideas. I have to say I use FB very minimally so not a clue about meetings. Any FB gurus out there want to chime in on that?

LOVE the tips and tricks idea. I've started a thread in Testing and Help. Feel free to add any helpful things you've learned.

[Maria in France]

sorry to be late to the party, am a bit tied up at the moment. Have read the thread all though and I am afraid I dont really agree about this being 'a perfectly good forum' . It is SOOO clunky and so many anomalies and things that dont work right, and it is difficult to navigate and do things in. Whenver this subject is raised noone wants to change anything or delete anything and not losing the old gallery photos and cybercrops stuff etc is always cited, but frankly does anyone look at stuff this old? or those old threads that havent been posted on for years. Everytime we are asked about what direction to take, none of the suggestions are taken up anyway because it seems the persons organising it dont really want to change it (Im not aiming at anyone personally here, am grateful for what you all do to help and inspire us but it does seem as if noone wants to change anything)

Chatting and posting photos are both massively easier on facebook and other sites. I have trouble even logging in or posting from my phone, which these days is what i mostly use, and uploading anything means resizing and saving elsewhere etc first. so many rules and regulations about sizes, not more than 3 a day and punctuations etc. I could go on for eons but one only has to try to explain to a new person how to do anything on here to realise it. Plus its much easier to put a like on a layout when youve looked at it than go to the gallery, click on the link, type a comment and then click again to post it, then click back to go to the next one etc. I, like most people lately am looking to have less time spent on screens and doing anything just takes eons on here.

I think when this site was young, the other platforms werent around so people did chat and have a community feeling on here, like in other forums but I just dont think it has moved with the times and people will go where its easiest to chat etc. For that matter why does UKS want us to chat anyway on here, surely that is just clogging it up even more? I do scrap and upload but only so that my team can get the points - frankly it is a bit of a pain and if i could help the team without uploading here then i would.

I am sorry if this sounds like moaning, it isnt meant to, I am just being honest about how I feel about it, but well, if it wasnt for the friends I have made through here being on here (in this team and my previous one and the daily chat thread etc) then I wouldnt come on at all. I rather feel that it has had its day, which was brilliant, but it is time to move with the times. You shouldnt have to be urging people to post and chat and stuff, they surely will if they want to and its easy to do. If they are not then well, doesnt that prove the point that people either dont want to do that, or want to do it elsewhere in an easier format.

I know there is UKS scrappers on facebook site, and why on earth isnt that used properly (ie not just to signpost) , surely that would keep the community feel that you seem to be looking to continue and would be less costly, less work for admin and more user friendly.

I dont want to upset anyone, I am grateful for the effort you all make and have made over the years, and hope to stay in contact with my friends and teammates (if they are still talking to me after this post) but I think you are flogging a dead horse here really. sorry.

[Maggie B]

Well said, that woman!

[Fizzydrink]

I have to say I agree with Maria to a large extent

I've been so grateful to UKS over the years and in its heyday it was such a wonderful community. But technology has moved on, and the Community has moved to social media where it is easy to chat and share on your phone. I rarely go on the computer now, and do struggle to navigate UKS on my phone. The Facebook groups usually have albums so you can review layouts, and I have found the search function quite good for finding specific things.
I do come here still for the challenges, which I find are often more prescriptive than some of the Facebook ones, and I like that! I still like collecting points, as I find it motivating, and it doesn't make me churn out layouts, as I am a slow and steady scrapper. But I don't spend enough time here for chatting. In the 'old days' you could have a conversation in a chat thread because hundreds of people were online at the same time. But with current numbers there's no real time interaction, so no impetus to really chat unfortunately.
I will miss UKS very much, but I think I probably already miss what it used to be.
Thank you so much for all your efforts over the years.

[MaryAnne]

After reading and absorbing I have a few comments.

Firstly, thank you very much for taking the time to comment on the plans (not proposals) for July 2022 and the ways we might move forward. Your comments are always read and appreciated. BUT there are a few questions some comments raise.

Clearly there are people who feel that UKS isn't meeting their needs and isn't fit for purpose and we are sorry they feel that way.

It seems to be the members of the most active team that are all commenting that UKS is clunky and unusable, and yet.... I would be very interested in knowing what keeps you coming back to UKS every month to do the challenges, if using a forum is so ... challenging. Identifying what makes you want to overcome all the issues you mention and yet participate in the Teams so fully would be very helpful as we consider the way forward.

I should mention that will never be Facebook. There are other scrapbooking sites on Facebook for those who prefer that platform. Why add another one? We (Sue, Karen and I) have all received many private messages voicing their support of UKS as a forum and the dislike of Facebook as a platform, urging us to keep things as they are. The fact that these members feel unable to speak up publicly against a very vocal minority is sad and reinforces the feeling that Teams and points might have outlived their usefulness. We have been struggling with this. In the past Teams were great when UKS was massive, with 30 or more teams , but nowadays it feels like it is more divisive rather than a way to break up a huge community into smaller more manageable groups!

There are others who still enjoy the contact here and there has been a lot of scrapbook related chatter over the last few days from some great stalwarts who are on board with trying to reinvigorate the community feel. That has been lovely to see and we hope that, certainly for the rest of the year, we are able to keep that going.

We will continue to review whether or not we keep the points system going, but some of that will hinge on whether or not there are volunteers to collate the points and sort that side of things out. As Scrapdolly mentioned, she has been doing it for 15 years and deserves a break!

I wonder if keeping points but scrapping Teams for the purposes of point gathering is not a better plan? That is not to say that people can't be in a team for chatting, only that the point collecting would be on a personal level rather than a team one. Just a thought...

And going further down the "individual" route, I am ALWAYS happy for people to suggest or even run any sort of challenge. Even if the points system goes, participating in challenges still serves the important purpose of getting layouts in albums. That was always the goal (or should be) rather than collecting points. So happy to maybe add a Set A Challenge sub-forum where anyone can set a challenge and anyone can take part in it. Might also be an interesting experiment in July.

So that is where we are. I think the bottom line is that UKS will never be what it was. People have been abandoning forums for FB and Insta and the like for a fair few years, but that doesn't mean UKS wants to abandon those who are not lovers of that sort of social media.

As it has been possibly close to a decade since UKS made an excess over expenses from sponsorship. Currently, the small amount of sponsorship we still get only helps serves to minimize my out of pocket expenses. I can choose to keep UKS open for pretty minimal cost and without worrying about it's status as a go-to site. If you still love it here, stay.

And yes, on behalf of Sue, Karen, and me, thanks for all the PMs of support.

[Maria in France]

well er, maybe we seem like the vocal majority (our team) because we are pretty much the only ones still coming in here?

but yes, if the hardcore doesnt want to modernise or change the formats or anything, then probably best then to carry on as you are and the people that dont like it can just avoid. We were only replying because you were looking for more activity it seemed. I think, at least from my point of view, I was just saying why that might be.

Good luck anyway for the future and I am and will always be grateful to UKS for the friends I have met and made, I hope to keep those, but I think I am done here.

[Maggie B]

Way to go Mary Anne, as a member of the “most vocal”, “most active” team thank you for finally killing off my interest in UKS.
Your comments have completely demotivated and disincentivised the members of Scrap That.
If you had wanted to lose more members from UKS you could not have done a better job.
I hope that once your quieter members, the ones who didn’t feel that they could comment on this thread but had to resort to sending attagirl private messages to you and others, will now feel able to step forward and build the Community just the way you want it be.
I for one won’t be holding my breath

[MaryAnne]

Way to go Mary Anne, as a member of the “most vocal”, “most active” team thank you for finally killing off my interest in UKS.
Your comments have completely demotivated and disincentivised the members of Scrap That.

Not sure why you felt you needed to add the " " around most active and most vocal - I can't help but think you view those as negatives, when for most people they would be cause to cheer.

If that is the way you choose to read my attempt to figure out why, in spite of all the negative comments about UKS and the labeling of it a "clunky" and unusable, and the suggestions we all just move over to Facebook because it is easier to use on a phone, you and your team still come back every month, do the challenges, claim the points and post your layouts!

It's great that you do, but why? In all the comments there was very little positive about UKS put forth. It left me wondering what the draw is. I honestly wondered why. I asked, and I am not sure what led you to feel so slighted that your interest in UKS has been killed.

And the reality is that a lot of people are pretty wary of popping their heads up in a very public way, especially when what they have to say goes against long comments from a unified group. So yeah, maybe they felt more comfortable PMing me or Sue or Dolly to offer their thoughts. If the reaction to any question or comment is going to be met with such an aggressive tone, can you blame them for not wanting to risk that??

Maybe now *I* am misreading what you are saying - maybe it is the loss of the points or the suggestion that points be collected individually that has upset you? Or my comment that Teams might be divisive now, instead of how they were originally intended? You are maybe assuming (again incorrectly) that I was pointing a finger at YOUR team in some way, but I have read and re-read my comments and I am feeling like at every turn you are reading them in the most negative way possible. Ah, the internet! so hard to know what is in someone's head or heart from just their words

Feel free to PM me if you want to be removed. While I don't like losing members, I know when I am fighting a losing battle. You have made up your mind so there isn't much else for me to do.