Yes, It was on july the 6th.

I see the dreaded adverts are back. Is it because I am trying out a Google CromeBook or are they universal?

The fact that so many committee members are absent from this platform has been bemoaned before and I feel that lack has coloured the views expressed at the AGM by Michael Driver. I quote:

" I am not sure how long the interest in Dinky Toys outside the DTCA will continue as collecting habits and what is collected has changed over the last few years.

Perhaps there will be a new interest in the later Dinky Toys with their features and of course there are the space models given the current interest in space exploration. Only time will tell."

Now, I know that many of the subscribers here are also active on the Facebook 'Dinky Toy Collectors Group' which has grown very rapidly to a 16,000 membership. If ten percent of those were also members of the DTCA then it would be a healthy, thriving organisation but it proves the point that there IS a wide interest in Dinky Toys from both sexes in the less rarefied atmosphere of Facebook.

Let's have some action from the officers to try and encourage DTCA membership among the wider audience.

I have just tried to post a photo but it still does not work.
If the forum does not work by the end of this year, I will not renew my membership. Why spend some money for only the Journal. The AGMs are not what they used to be, no more conferences or special events, very few attendants, nothing planed for the 90th anniversary etc...
For me this club is dead and I regret it.

Jacques, I completely agree with you. I sent a message to Al Keeling the day before yesterday asking him to keep us informed about the status of the improvement of the website. I have not received a message back yet. I am afraid that the board is just letting things slide and not doing anything about it, otherwise we should have noticed something by now. There is no movement at all. This irritates me and many other members who are fed up with this weak approach. We have been waiting patiently for improvement for 2 years, but my patience is also running out. This is no fun anymore. If there is no improvement to be expected or if the board does not want to do anything about it, please let them know, so that everyone can make a good decision about whether or not to renew their membership. And the improvement really has to be in effect before the end of the year. I am letting my membership slide and waiting to see if anything really happens, otherwise it is over.

Gentlemen, you have put into words what I have been thinking. Even the Journal relies heavily on the forum and since Jan O., Jan W., Terry H., and numerous others are also on the Facebook Dinky Toy Collectors Group it has largely supplanted this forum.
I have enjoyed being a fellow member here but it is wearing a little thin.
I'll take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope for a better New Year.

Whilst I share the frustration of other DTCA members over the problems with the Forum, I have decided that I WILL be renewing my membership shortly. I must also admit that I have not contributed a great deal to the forum, even less to the Journal, but I have managed to attend most of the AGMs since joining several years ago, as well as participating in several displays at Gaydon, Stoneleigh and Newark along with other members, and represented DTCA at many other hobby shows and venues around the country individually. I look forward to the arrival of each Journal, and would miss it if the association were to fold. Hopefully, enough of us will remain to see the survival of what has become a "friend".

Hello Jan, I'm sorry but I didn't receive your email, so hopefully it will be okay if I pick up your comments here.
While I'm still working on a replacement website, unfortunately I haven't been able to prioritise because of my urgent real work commitments. Hopefully I can get the project over the line before we step into the new year.

Last year there was some technical ultimatum requiring a replacement - an ultimatum that has since been wound back.

However, this current website is working as well as it ever did (it was always a bit ragged), barring that I've had to ask members to use other image hosts if they want to post pictures, and the comment notification has been damaged. I see some members appear to be struggling with using picture hosts - basic services that pervade the internet - and I'm not sure what to say about that except to suggest try again Jacques.

Comments that the site is "unusable", "broken", "not working" I feel are considerable overstatements. And as for drawing comparisons to Facebook, JP .... honestly, this forum will never be Facebook, nor will Facebook ever be a forum.

Dear Al,
I wouldn't dream of making a comparison with Facebook. What I did was state that there is a Facebook alternative, which happens to be very widely used.

What Facebook doesn't have, of course, is the considerable reference material that we have here.

That notwithstanding, Facebook offers simple photo uploading, easier interaction and free membership.

Best wishes
John

I completely agree with Jonathan. Uploading photos should simply be in the program itself, as it used to be. Absolutely not with external programs. Then new members will not know how it works. Al talks about that too easily and the board thinks it can be done that way. That does not help us at all. That idea must absolutely be discarded. It is now absolutely nothing more than a regular text program. And the notification is still annoyingly broken. In that respect, the website is indeed broken. Someone who would now become a member of the DTCA will be in for a very unpleasant surprise regarding the possibility of communicating with photos. With all due respect for Al's work, but if Al cannot solve this himself due to his own workload, he should get help if possible or transfer the work to someone who does have time for it. The delay has lasted long enough. We need to get down to business with regard to the approach to matters and setting deadlines. We as members have shown enough patience for that. Improvements must now be noticeable to save the website and with it the continued existence of the dtca. Impossible promises are of no use to us. And mind you, DTCA without a properly functioning forum is dead.