Green Laning in Surrey

Trouble is publishing here gives access to all and can lead to undesirable treatment of the lanes. Better to try a group or a knowledgable friend. Dont go on your own in case you get stuck and poor local farmer gets a call for a tow, better with a pair so as to help each other ( and swear more clearly ). ;-))

John H

Hi James

2 things

1) you far from Kent (i know that all relative, but some people wibble

2) Join the discovery owners club cos I think the kent section are planning on some laning on sunday

Si

Never joined. Found their decision to limit use of the forum to people paying them twenty-odd quid somewhat counterproductive to the idea of one-make clubs generally doing their best to get 'their' product in front of as many peeps as possible. Yeah, obviously all clubs need funding but there doesnt seem to be much accountability for the subs, and somehow or other the other clubs can provide forums without needing to pay. Call me a cynic, but I dont go in for extortion...

: >2) Join the discovery owners club

cos I think : >the kent section are planning on some laning on sunday : >

: Never joined. Found their decision to limit use of the forum to people : paying them twenty-odd quid somewhat counterproductive to the idea of : one-make clubs generally doing their best to get 'their' product in : front of as many peeps as possible. Yeah, obviously all clubs need : funding but there doesnt seem to be much accountability for the subs, : and somehow or other the other clubs can provide forums without : needing to pay. Call me a cynic, but I dont go in for extortion...

interesting views, and each to their own - you should try the horse world - its £10 a month for some of their forums - and that doesn't include insurance cover for indemnities at events.

And club off road europe is £40 a year to join, and they charge you £2 to go laning as a member

so like I said, all relative

but as I am only a humble member of the DOC who finds it quite useful, and the fact that I have saved over £300 in discounts in the last 12 months (not a bad return on a £27 family membership I feel), well its my view and i'm happy with it

Si

Well I would assume that the hoss world provides something _over and above_ membership for their fee, and No I dont mean "discounts" with suppliers - from my experience, these are _always_ provided by the supplier free in exchange for getting his name in front of the masses. From what I can see, access to information (which is, lets not forget, provided by the _members_ of the forum, so hardly something copyright to the domain owners) is the only genuine benefit of membership and the cost of providing that resource is equivalent to less than three annual members. So... cough.... where exactly is the _rest_ of the money?

Dont get me wrong, I am a member of several clubs which require subs and I pay them gladly, because (a) I get benefit from them, and (b) there is a cost in providing what the club give me and I dont see that they should pay those costs for me. But an online forum aint one of them, and as I said above, its hardly in keeping with the idea of expanding the vehicles popularity, is it?

Heh! And as if to prove the point, the post I made in the non-members section of that site, saying pretty much what I said here, lasted exactly seven MINUTES before the moderators deleted it! So much for open and transparent discussion, eh?

: >: >2) Join the discovery owners club

cos I : >think : >: >the kent section are planning on some laning on sunday : >: >

: >: Never joined. Found their decision to limit use of the forum to people : >: paying them twenty-odd quid somewhat counterproductive to the idea of : >: one-make clubs generally doing their best to get 'their' product in : >: front of as many peeps as possible. Yeah, obviously all clubs need : >: funding but there doesnt seem to be much accountability for the subs, : >: and somehow or other the other clubs can provide forums without : >: needing to pay. Call me a cynic, but I dont go in for extortion... : >

: >interesting views, and each to their own - you should try the horse world - : >its £10 a month for some of their forums - and that doesn't include : >insurance cover for indemnities at events. : >

: >And club off road europe is £40 a year to join, and they charge you £2 to go : >laning as a member : >

: >so like I said, all relative : >

: >but as I am only a humble member of the DOC who finds it quite useful, and : >the fact that I have saved over £300 in discounts in the last 12 months (not : >a bad return on a £27 family membership I feel), well its my view and i'm : >happy with it : >

: >Si : >

: Well I would assume that the hoss world provides something _over and : above_ membership for their fee, and No I dont mean "discounts" with : suppliers - from my experience, these are _always_ provided by the : supplier free in exchange for getting his name in front of the masses. : From what I can see, access to information (which is, lets not forget, : provided by the _members_ of the forum, so hardly something copyright : to the domain owners) is the only genuine benefit of membership and : the cost of providing that resource is equivalent to less than three : annual members. So... cough.... where exactly is the _rest_ of the : money?

I wish the horse world did - but its £10 a month just for the right to post to a forum! nothing else

like I say - each to their own

Si

I'm a DOC member and find it worth every penny. Notwithstanding your views on supplier discounts etc the DOC is not juts an on-line forum. They organise many events which require club insurance, and membership gains you associate access to the Wayfinder Green Lane Database which saves you money and would have provided the information you initially posted enquiring of.

Many of us are members of other forums and clubs such as GLASS, Mud-Club etc and I still find the combined knowledge on the DOC forum and the general helpfulness worth every penny.

I have no idea why your post was deleted but it's not a heavily moderated forum and many other non-members have posted queries and received responses so maybe this was a one off error?

Hello Darren (I'll come back to that in a minute)

As someone running a similar forum you'll be well aware that the supplier discounts are as I said - in fact its quite likely that suppliers offering discounted services to members via an ad on a forum will actually be _paying_ for that, rather than _charging_.

which are of course chargeable for participants. BTW, I'm not the OP!

Again, there would have been little or more likely no cost to the DOC to have that associate facility for members

As I said before, I too am a member of several on and off line clubs too and am happy to pay membership fees where applicable, including both those you mention and (gulp) the Pajero Owners Club (yep, okay, I know...). The point is, _all_ those organisations provide an online forum _without_ charges.

Who knows? Anyway, as I started... Hello Darren. What a bizarre coincidence that you should pop up in this discussion. I've been a member of pocketgpsworld forums for quite some time too, long before the (in)famous decision to charge for the download. That's not what this thread is about though, so we'll not go down that road save to say that I kept quiet about it but had a great deal of sympathy with the objectors to charging.

The coincidence to my way of thinking is that your position mirrors that in your own forums - the _useful_ part of the DOC site is the info given freely by the members, and the most useful part of pgpsw is the camera database, similarly provided by the members. Although the charge levied in your case is much smaller, the returns generated are substantially larger - not to put too fine a point on it you made a bit of a killing on the backs of site members and DOC _appear_ to be doing likewise. Now I paid my two quid and I'm happy to continue doing so as I think the benefit worthwhile, but if you're so sure that charging for forum access is acceptable, why are your forums free?

I cannot disagree with that point!

Apols, my mistake

Maybe so but the facility is only available to recognised clubs

I would hope that we (PPGPS) provide vastly more than the database!

I have no knowledge of the finances of DOC but as it is a club and not a business any profits would have to be spent for the good of the club, there are no employees or owners?

Perhaps there is merit in making the forums themselves free to all, members and non-members alike, my point was merely that I and many others think its worth the fee, it is of course a personal choice.

James uttered summat worrerz funny about:

join, enjoy, tis free!

Lee D

Surrey county council have a list of rights of way on their website & any relevant traffic orders. Their website seems very slow at the moment however.

Neil