Who is still using the forum regularly? Chime in!

[MaryAnne]

Well, if UKS is to continue into 2023 there will be a massive shake up.

Forums are being abandoned for Facebook, it isn't just UKS that it is happening to. Scrapdolly and MiniOwner have worked so hard on the challenges and yes, as mentioned in another post, the take up ON UKS is a lot less that it once was - but sadly the challenges created here are taken, re-posted elsewhere, and all the sharing and discussion happening outside of UKS.

I have been on the verge of closing the doors for years, basically ever since I got ill. But now that Graphtec has declined sponsorship, it seems inevitable.

And yet, I am loathe to shut the doors when there are people who say they depend on the connections they have within UKS and they still hope it remains open, even if it is quiet.

So what I would love to know is how many people still come here every day, every week, or only very occasionally?

I have some ideas but getting a baseline number would be helpful.

To the sponsors, those who have already said yes, THANK YOU. In the shake up, you will only come out the better for having been early responders

To those who reply they still want UKS, each and every one of you matter. So don't be shy, say so.

[yiayia]

Good morning MaryAnne. I still pop in at least a couple of times a day and also set the Card Challenge No 2 each month, although participation in this is becoming much less nowadays. I do appreciate that this in actually a scrapping site, so never expected a massive uptake anyway.
I would be sad to see UKS go but understand at least some of the challenges you are facing. I wish you and the team success in your efforts

[scrapdolly]

I’m still here and always will be as long as the doors remain open

And I’m still happy to coordinate challenges but would love them to be used here as part of our community

I think so many loved/love the community here and I reiterate what I always say… to HAVE a community you have to BE that community

[g61]

Hello all. I'm still here, just haven't posted as much recently, I think because I'm not scrapping so much. I've been focused on making other things, such as Christmas cards because I'm going away at the end of the month for a few days, and just didn't want the stress of coming back to nothing made. I have just had several hundred photos printed, so scrapping is very much going to feature in my future.

I still pop in and read along most days. We live quietly so I don't have much to post that's interesting. I do miss seeing other people's LOs, as I find them stimulating. I find the challenges stimulating too. Without them, I think I'd make some very boring, same-y pages. The challenges do need a lot of effort to keep them going. I've said before that perhaps we need rotas for more of the challenges, to spread the load and maintain/spread the engagement, and I'd be happy to join any rota. However, that requires a larger number of people willing to set them, and therein lies the problem.

As for the forums, which was the original question ... I join in on some threads but not others, but as the number of contributors has dwindled, so has my participation, so I am as guilty as anyone else of contributing to the decline.

I appreciate the challenges you are facing, MaryAnne, and I appreciate all that you, Karen, Sue and others have done over the years. Karen has hit the nail on the head though: to HAVE a community you have to BE that community, and if there aren't enough of us to BE a community - well, I think we all know how that will end.

Although UI have joined some FB scrapbooking sites, UKS is still my go-to scrapbooking community, and I await future developments with interest - and hope.

[tigerlady]

I posted earlier on my phone and it vanished so I will try again.

I come onto UKS probably five days in the week, more when there is something on our team thread but sadly even that has pretty well died.
I rarely scrap these days but when I do I look at the gallery for ideas or at the challenges to see what they involve. I have probably only done half a dozen this year. I do check what is new on Forum Spy but rarely post on threads in the main forum because I don't like to intrude! Crazy really as nobody would turn me away I am certain.
How would I feel if I started scrapping again next year and there was no gallery to inspire me and no challenges to make me think? I'd be sad, very sad. I'd find inspiration elsewhere I am sure, but not on such a huge scale as we have amassed here over many many years.

[Angie47]

I come on every day but have to admit I rarely post on threads and would miss uks if was no longer here.
I have recently hosed a swap to try and get them going again.
It seems if you look on the currently active users there are always about 95 guest and the odd member online, so people are on here but not members.

[alison 2]

I check in most days still, and I try to comment and participate when I can. It’s not easy with so little going on, wouldn’t it be great if those 95 guests joined in rather than watching from the sidelines .
Hilary, we’d love to have you join in more chat, we need more people to help keep things active

UKS is my go to for challenges, I just can’t keep up with Facebook
Another one who hasn’t scrapped a lot recently though for one reason or another, I do keep trying, and when I do it is usually inspired by a UKS challenge, I am such a slow scrapper too !
Margo, the idea of a rota is good, it has been nice to see a couple of new contributors to the challenges. I would be happy to part of that

Thankyou to you ladies who have put so much work keeping this going, it is very much appreciated. I’ve spent many happy years being inspired here.
I’d be sad to see UKS go but it does seem unrealistic to keep it going for just a handful of people.

[g61]

Hilary, please join in any chat that's happening! Even just to tell us about your weather, LOL.
Same goes for Angie and anyone else who is reading.
None of the chats are exclusive - anything but - and we were all new once. We need new blood, so pop over to the Community Chat and look for the latest thread. Everybody is welcome.

[tigerlady]

Thanks Margo, I know that is the case but it is still difficult to take that first jump!
Sadly I'm not sure we can rely on the "95 people online". I am sure I have been told those stats include Bots whatever they are. Similarly "Most users ever online was 24,953, 31-03-2022 at 02:06 AM." must be taken with a pinch of salt unless there was a late night party going on that I didn't hear about!
But I looked at how many members had visited he forum so far in November and as of 3pm today there were 82 named members. Maybe I should count up how many this year, that may be a more interesting figure.

[alison 2]

Well you’ve made the first jump here Hilary, it’s the same people in the daily chat

82 sounds quite a lot for November, shame they don’t come and join in.

[tigerlady]

37 since MaryAnne posted this yesterday morning. The totals may be slightly higher in fact but this is those who appear online in the Members List.

[Jacqie40]

Hi MaryAnne,

I have, by strange coincidence, just logged in to UKS after finding my log-in details in some paperwork whilst clearing my craft room for a house move in the coming months. I wondered if the site was still going and was pleasantly surprised to see after so long that was! As my last log-in was 2011 it seems I am one of the contributors to the dwindling numbers, for which I am very sorry!

When I joined in 2005 I was working full time and spent as much of my spare time at the weekends to scrapbook which I loved. Since attending a mixed media art course in 2018 I have been participation in a weekly online mixed media and art journaling course which I discovered in 2020. I retired last year and so now have a lot more time to spend on art , crafts and scrapbooking. I have other needlecraft interests as well so my scrapbooking has taken a bit of a back seat. I am hoping, once I have moved, to take up scrapbooking again and intend to combine the techniques I have learned in the mixed media & art journaling courses into my scrapbooking layouts.

I have discovered that many of the participants and even some of the teachers of the MM & AJ online courses were once scrapbookers and with the increase in social media, ie Facebook and Instagram, it may explain the dwindling numbers of UKS members using the site or forums.

I am going to go over to my profile and will update it. It's rather out of date now and my profile photo is very old! I have a few more grey hairs since that was taken! I do hope that you will get enough support to keep the site going and also I may get to join in a challenge or two once I find my way around the forums and content.

[MaryAnne]

Thanks Margo, I know that is the case but it is still difficult to take that first jump!
Sadly I'm not sure we can rely on the "95 people online". I am sure I have been told those stats include Bots whatever they are. Similarly "Most users ever online was 24,953, 31-03-2022 at 02:06 AM." must be taken with a pinch of salt unless there was a late night party going on that I didn't hear about!
But I looked at how many members had visited he forum so far in November and as of 3pm today there were 82 named members. Maybe I should count up how many this year, that may be a more interesting figure.

I think those two bits are unrelated The most online was during a Cyber Crop, and the date must have been the date you were looking at the site. If you looks again you would see the same Most On and the current date.

Also, yes, I can see there have been more people reading this thread than have posted, and who. I wish they would chime in, but in a couple of cases I am not surprised they haven't...

I have thoughts on the future. I am waiting for any and all who are visiting UKS to chime in here, and for some information to come back to me, then I'll post something.

What I will say is if you want to have UKS around just saying so might be all it takes.

[MaryAnne]

Hi MaryAnne,

I have, by strange coincidence, just logged in to UKS after finding my log-in details in some paperwork whilst clearing my craft room for a house move in the coming months. I wondered if the site was still going and was pleasantly surprised to see after so long that was! As my last log-in was 2011 it seems I am one of the contributors to the dwindling numbers, for which I am very sorry!

When I joined in 2005 I was working full time and spent as much of my spare time at the weekends to scrapbook which I loved. Since attending a mixed media art course in 2018 I have been participation in a weekly online mixed media and art journaling course which I discovered in 2020. I retired last year and so now have a lot more time to spend on art , crafts and scrapbooking. I have other needlecraft interests as well so my scrapbooking has taken a bit of a back seat. I am hoping, once I have moved, to take up scrapbooking again and intend to combine the techniques I have learned in the mixed media & art journaling courses into my scrapbooking layouts.

I have discovered that many of the participants and even some of the teachers of the MM & AJ online courses were once scrapbookers and with the increase in social media, ie Facebook and Instagram, it may explain the dwindling numbers of UKS members using the site or forums.

I am going to go over to my profile and will update it. It's rather out of date now and my profile photo is very old! I have a few more grey hairs since that was taken! I do hope that you will get enough support to keep the site going and also I may get to join in a challenge or two once I find my way around the forums and content.

This is one reason I love UKS - people DO break away for all sorts of reasons, but it is nice to see them pop back, even YEARS later, and find us still here, like an old friend

[tigerlady]

Exactly, and I hope it will still be here when I start scrapping regularly.

My figure of 82 this month was based on “last visit” in the members list so won’t include guests or invisible members so in reality it should be more , but who knows how many more. If I look at the names probably half of them are unfamiliar to me so we must have a large proportion of visitors who are not engaging on here anywhere. I wish they would just pop in here and say hello!