A welcome to lurkers, guests and newly registering members on the Coffee Shop forum (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[grahame]

You are very very VERY welcome to sign up and join the forum if you want to read and talk about transport and travel issues across the wider "South West" or associated topics.

But, sadly, for each person who wants to sign up to talk about the subjects this forum covers, there are many others who wish to use our platform for other purposes.

Our (manually checked) filtration system has, and continues, to serve us well - however, a recent increase in what I'll describe as "spam signups" leaves me fearful of overlooking a genuine request to join as I delete those spam signups.

Please sign up and join if you're interested in travel in the Thames Valley, South West, or South Wales - even if you'll only be posting very occasionally and are mostly a reader, or even if you just have one specific question at the moment. This will help us keep you up to date as we plan forward.  If you don't get a confirmation of your account within 24 hours, please email me ( graham - at - wellho - dot - net )to let me know so that I can pick out your application and make sure it goes through.

[grahame]

Quite a few members have been logged in for a significant time, and been here already this year, but have never posted - known in the business as "lurkers". That's in addition to around many more posting members who have been here too, and goodness only knows how many guests who are not logged in, but can still read 90% of content

Are you a lurker? ... if so you are welcome to lurk, but you are also very welcome to introduce yourself and post on the Coffee shop.  We (moderator team) do appreciate that first posts are  significant step, but we can assure you of a friendly welcome.   In the words of a former TV^▸ (Thames Valley, or TeleVision, depending on context) show, in a Liverpool accent, please follow up with "What's your (forum) name and where ja come from?" 

Are you a guest? ... If so, you are very welcome to join ( sign up here ) ... it brings a bevvy of benefits such as the ability to like, mark posts as read,  comment, vote in polls, send messages to other members.  Membership is free (this group is run by volunteers, unpaid, on web space that's donated) and we would love to hear from you

[caliwag]

How do I post a new question? There is no 'obvious' way.

[grahame]

How do I post a new question? There is no 'obvious' way.

Go to the board - e.g. http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?board=3.0 - and click on "New Topic" just to the top right of all the existing topics - simply ask a question there. I think there may be a way to switch the icon beside to post to a "?" ...  EDIT - just found it - "Message icon" just below where you enter the subject.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Hi! 

In my 'administrator' role, I've been looking at our membership on the Coffee Shop forum.

One thing I noticed is that we have many new registered members here who have logged in - and haven't posted yet.

I'm starting this topic, simply to encourage any of our new members to make your first post here, in as brief an introduction as you like.

For example: "Hi! I'm Chris, I live in Nailsea, North Somerset, and I travel by train from here sometimes."

Please do take that first step to becoming a contributing member of this Coffee Shop forum.