Great Western Coffee Shop

This is a big "Thank you" to Chris from Nailsea, helping so much with the admin ... and a "Thank You" to the whole moderator team, for everything you've done for the forum all year.

Every so often, I do a sanity check - "are we really providing a useful service".  And I come up with a resounding "Yes, we are". Saturday's usually the quietest day of the week, but looking at yesterday's stats I see that we had over 1000 visits, and a total of over 6000 pages viewed.  Many of those views are from members, but we shouldn't forget the significant proportion of views by guests - people who will come here just occasionally with a question, and perhaps find the answer in our resources without the need to sign up and ask.   It never ceases to amaze me, though, six years on that there are still questions to be asked and new discussions to be had.

Moderators and administrators sometimes have to step in during the white heat of a strong discussion, and that requires a safe pair of hands and an ability to make s good decision in the particular circumstance as it unfolds.  The moderator rarely has the luxury of time, or the benefit of hindsight, and I'm proud of just how appropriately everyone acts.  And moderation also involves user support - helping members by ensuring posts are correctly quoted and on an approppriate board, "seeding" questions that no-one's asked, and posting up links and references to wider sources of material.   The Coffee Shop is not an island - incoming and outgoing on-topic links are very welcome here.

As the one who looks after code, databases, HTML formatting, etc, as well as doing new member admin, you probably don't see me around as much as you might expect.  I'm third in the published table of post counts, but most members might scratch their heads and wonder how that can be.  In fact, some 6% of posts on the forum are made to moderator and admin boards - making sure that we acknowledge and agree on reported posts, discussing dubious signup requests, and planning our strategy for the future, considering new ideas, etc. And that's where you'll find my highest post count. I am here, available by p.m., if necessary, but I can usually make so much more of a contribution by sorting out issues for our thousands of visitors rather than manually processing everyone.   Which leaves me with a great deal of sympathy for the senior managers at First Great Western when they get critisized for not appearing on the platforms at times of disruption;  they're probably much more effective working behind the scenes to back up their operation staff, control team and others through which they can sort out things for thousands of people, and not just a fortunate handfull.

This forum wouldn't be the useful resource that it is without contributions - ALL the contributions, and so I also want to say "Thank you" to everyone who posts. Some of the posts from indusrty professionals are fantastic in their content and detail, and I know just how long it can take to write out and explain things.  It does not go unnoticed.  And we're very much a customer forum - the customer posts make the discussions - they sow a seed, they ask a question or express a view that the rest of us feel, or they help to educate us on what's needed (and what frustrates too!).  Keep them coming in 2013

Thank you to guests who read our posts.   This forum is for everyone, and it's a founding stratagy that we keep as much of our material as possible public.  That's so that guests can read it, can learn, and perhaps we can improve something for them.  But I will finish these thanks with a requests to guests to take courage, sign up, introduce yourself and contribute.  It's free; only the admins need to know your email address, and that's to let us get in touch should we need to - there's been much in the press about what you can and can't write on Facebook and Twitter, and much the same applies here - but this is a complex field and we need to be able to alert you if you post up something which could be a problem.

Finally, thank you to everyone who helps provide our railway service, the information about it, and the infrastructure on which it runs.   There are many unsung heroes out there that we should not forget.

Personally, I'll be around (and online) most days over the Christmas holiday - "quietly with family".  However you're spending Christmas, I hope you find in enjoyable and fulfilling.   If you have few minutes in the tail end of this year, why not complete bignosemac's prize quiz ... [here] (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=11647).

Have a great Christmas, everyone.  Many thanks for your support during 2012.   I've enjoyed being with everyone here, and I look forward to more of the same enjoyment in 2013 ... and adding in during 2013, perhaps, a restart of an appropriate TransWilts service, better transport co-ordination, and progress on electricfication, redoubling, crossrail, Reading and, of course, the arrangements for the next franchise period.

Nothing really to add to that except to join grahame in wishing all members and guests alike a very merry Christmas and all the best for 2013.

After Christmas I shall be looking through the year on the forum to compile a sort of highlights topic of all that has happened in and around FGW land and the wider railway world in the past year. What were the hot topics, what were the big stories, what were some of the lighter moments and so on.

I would like to add my thanks to the admin team and moderators.  Without you the forum would not exist. A merry Christmas to all.

Seconded !

In addition to those Grahame has expressed thanks to, I think the biggest thanks goes to Grahame, for keeping the forum running so brilliantly.

Indeed.. Thanks to Grahame and Chris for all their admin work (plus the other moderators of course).. And Happy Christmas and New Year to everyone on here... Hope 2013 is good for you all  ;D

Not at all: it really is a pleasure for me to be able to contribute thus to the obvious success of the Coffee Shop forum.  :-[

.....and from me as well.....

and from me as well.

Thought I would add my own thanks to everyone who has put in so much work to  keeping this forum up for teh enjoyment of all of us.

I personally have found it very useful when I have been looking for any information and there is always someone on here who is happy to answer any questions we may have.

So Happy christmas everyone and lets hope we all have a great 2013.

A thank you and a Merry Christmas from me too.

Particular thanks to everyone who was on the forum back in March and who provided a great deal of support to me on my charity adventure round the FGW network.

My thanks to all the team as well.

Thankyou for the forum moderators and a very merry Christmas to each & every member.

I don't post often but read regularly and I would like to say a big thank you to everyone involved.

A very merry Christmas and a  happy,healthy and peacceful 2013 to you all. ;D

Anne

A very Merry Christmas to all. Hope it's good :)

Merry Belated Christmas to everyone from thetrout too ;D

It's been a pleasure to be a member of the forum and I look forward to further discussions with you all in 2013!

(http://image.wetpaint.com/image/2/syqXm--P2z67McdyvGnjSA24112)

Put me out of my 'misery'.  Why the four grins on the end of every post?

Happy Belated Christmas to everyone.  Wishing you all the best in 2013.

I was little (rather a lot) under the weather over Christmas so wasn't up to posting here (or doing much, even drinking wine) on Christmas day.

And, better late than never, happy Christmas and thanks to all from me as well. The new job means that my posting has become somewhat less frequent, and I have to be fairly careful what I say these days, but I'm still a frequent visitor and hoping that I'll be able to get back to contributing somewhat more as things settle down?

Season's greetings all!

I have been in an internet 'black hole' during the Christmas hols (now rectified by getting my 84yo mum on line as a present!) so have not been able to send greetings.  I only joined in the autumn and have found my regular visits since then a real pleasure. So, hoping you had a good Christmas let me be early to wish Happy New Year to one and all and I echo the gratitude of others to everyone who makes the forum work and I look forward to thought provoking reading amongst the hard info my fellow board members are able to provide.