Great Western Coffee Shop

Someone has posted on a Wikipedia page that "a rail user group thinks ..." and that leads to the question "are we a rail user group?" And make no mistake about it, we are a user group, and probably quite a large one compared to others, although we pale into insignificance when compared to the number of passengers using trains.

In the first 19 days of this month, over 8,500 different people visited our web site, and between them they posted 1,150 messages - that's at the average rate of 450 different visitors per day, and 60 messages per day.  The average visitor has been here twice in that period (around 17,000 visits) and looks at 5 or 6 pages on each visit.  It scarcely seems credible that just a month ago we had to move the server, and everyone had to re-authenticate.

The re-authentication has gone very well - most users have reset their accounts / passwords without any help, and I've been able to help out everyone who has asked ... with one exception.  One particular member is writing to me, and now to other members of the team too, in tones of increased frustration.   Here's the latest:


Frankly, I'm getting frustrated as well.   I have replied - on 18th June, 23rd June, 4th July and 19th July. And I'm sure that the system / server has sent you password reminders too, as everyone else has received them and come back.  I suspect that you've got very strong email filters set, and you or your system are throwing away all the reminders, and what I write, without reading them.

It's rather like asking me a question, then putting your hands over your ears so that you don't hear my reply!

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/handsonears.jpg)

From your latest email, I do now have a way to contact you (at my expense - cheeky, seeing as this is a free forum with volunteer support).   Please be re-assured we're trying to help, but I am not going to set a precedent by spending more of my own money making individual support callbacks.   Please check your spam box / filters, and if that doesn't sort you out please you phone me  ;) ) - my number is around in enough places!   If you do so with a computer / browser at hand, I should be able to get you logged in while you're on the phone.



Edit note: One of grahame's classic typos corrected, in the interests of clarity - and my full support for the guidance he has offered in this post.  Chris from Nailsea.  :-X

I should add a reminder of this from the forum agreement:


I can understand the correspondent who's email I quoted above looking to register another account in his frustration, but doing so is a serious breach of the user agreement ...

Well done, grahame - you've taken far more trouble than I would've gone to, and set an example to us all. Sincerely hope it all proves worthwhile in the end.

Meanwhile I fully intend to take you up on your suggestion and "ale into insignificance" myself this evening ';)

They probably need to check their "junk". All the emails from this site go to my junk, but I go through my junk box twice a week, and also if I am expecting an email that hasn't turned up.

To reset the password isn't there a secret question and answer set up in place? Everyone knows their mother's maiden name (except my wife, who responds umm- umm, when asked for mother's maiden name), where they were born etc

Yes, that was the specific typo that I corrected - if only lest it set a bad example to our members!  ;D