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Re: parts/information cd’s.
The idea of collating at the different CD’s into one is brilliant although it would more than likely have to be a DVD. I am not so sure about Mr P’s suggestion of putting it up only for subscribers though, this site has been built on the premise of free access to the trade, we are already moving into restricted areas with regards to forums and offers only for subscribers or those signing up for example to Project X.
IMO if we can get the rights to undertake this project it should be done as a compilation and sold to the trade at a reasonable price allowing for UKW to take some profit for its coffers in order to fund more projects.
If we start using restrictive practises we will be no better that the ones we are try to free ourselves from and I implore the admin to think very carefully before going down the road of anything for a price.
Keep UKW free and available to all in the trade
Richard Scanlon Snr
Re: parts/information cd’s.
RS wrote:Keep UKW free and available to all in the trade
Nothing is for free in this world Richard, even the air we breath comes at a price.
Running a business and giving out free information eventually means the business falters and dies. P45’s suggestion is somewhat different though to what your are assuming. The explanation however is rather complex and involves the major obstacle of the legal ‘copywrite’ issues and relaying information to ‘3rd parties’ within that copywrite.
I believe we can overcome the likes of a certain high profile manufacturers stance on this issue and that we can purchase a copywrite and freely relay that information to anyone who ‘subscribes’ or is deemed an associate part of a certain ‘organisation’ (as it were) 😉
That vital information will not come for free but will nonetheless be far far cheaper and contain far much more information within one collective source to anyone within the trade who subscribes to it.
I abhor the blatant, exorbitant overcharging some companies choose in order to impart information on their products. Furthermore it smacks of unfair and outrageous monopolisation practices and should be brought to account through the courts.
Meanwhile if you want all that for free? ……then its probably at the end of the rainbow!
Re: parts/information cd’s.
I think there are valid points from both Martin and Richard.
First of all it won’t be free and I don’t think Richard was impyling that it should be, more so that the information should not be restricted to subscribers and I tend to agree to be honest for a few reasons.
To make this work and keep the price to a minimum we need as many people as possible onboard and quite simply, the subscribers alone aren’t enough in my opinion. I also see no need to restrict this to anyone.
I also don’t see that anything we have done so far is restrictive, Project X information is in the general trade forums as well as the Project X one, it’s purely an interest thing, if you’re interested in this then we allow access if you’re not then we don’t, why would anyone want access to a forum to discuss or read about something they aren’t interested in ?
On the point of offers only for subscribers then, yes there have been a few and why not ? We have to offer something in return to those that wish to participate by paying a small annual sum…. take the very point(s) you have yourself made Richard regarding DASA 😉 “What’s in it for me ?” type of question.
Dave.
Also remember that the subscribers money isn’t used for anything until the subscribers tell us what they want doing with it. The money is, in effect, held in trust by UKW for use by the subs and there’s a few quid in there now. 😉
K.
Re: parts/information cd’s.
Ok so as usual I need someone to explain what I am really saying, I meant nothing with regards to the Project X forum nor the subscribers special offers, but I was hoping that people subscribed because they believed in the site and what it was doing for them; not for what was on offer extra as a subscriber and the special offers that are in there are a bonus to those who chose to take them up.
I never meant that the CD/DVD that could be produced should be given away freely; everything has a cost and costs have to be met from somewhere, but to restrict these things to subscribers only will IMO also restrict the growth of the site and possibly put it into a decline,
Sell the CD/DVD to all that wish to buy it, most will want them for the parts breakdown and numbers anyway but the way things are being bandied about, it wont be long until the trade technical enquiries and trade work vacancies are relegated to the paying members only.
If I was still active in the trade I would have signed up for everything going and for every job I got out of repairs@ I would have made a voluntary contribution to UKW, imagine if everyone who has signed up for repairs@ gave say 10{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the job profit into an account for UKW it would add up very quickly. And there are (as is being proved at the moment) other ways to raise money without forcing people to subscribe in order to get anything useful from the site.
My concern is that this site has made its name on being the only real place for repairers to gather and exchange information on many different parts of the trade whether it be technical or parts or even warnings of dodgy companies it was here and it was free and at the moment it still is.
I do not believe anyone has subscribed to the site for what they can get out of it; I think they have joined because of what they are getting out of it, showing support for the site and helping it to grow.
Martin we still do have things for free one of them is choice another is friendship and yet another is camaraderie, this site has promoted them all and I hope it will continue to do so
And that gentlemen is all I will say on this matter
Richard Scanlon Snr
Re: parts/information cd’s.
Gentlemen,
I will ask for us to contact all the manufacturers and see if we (I use the term for Wolseley 😳 😆 )to see if we can organise using their discs on our website http://www.partscenter.co.uk , as all our customers have accounts, and if they dont they cannot access all the technical info.
Wayne
Re: parts/information cd’s.
How often and in how many ways do I have to say this…
UK Whitegoods is a free resource!
It always has been and, so long as I draw breath, it will continue to be so.
The “extras” like the tools thing, clothing deals and all that are the premise of the subscribers as they often organised or helped to organise it. Sometimes those deals are offered to everyone, sometimes not and that’s fair enough in my book. Those that don’t contribute still get in on a lot of it in time, subscribers get first bite at a lot of things.
Spares, with the correct support, we will look at to bring a benefit to all, not just a select few.
For the record, I was never 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} sure of the subscribers thing, I never wanted to charge a subscription and it’s been the cause of many a heated debate with some people, eh Sean? 😉 But I think it can have it’s place and is beginning to find its feet. However, as with most things in life, it may take a while to mature, but while it does that it is growing and it is amassing funding. That funding is bolstered from outside revenue streams as I originally promised.
But even with the subscribers, my idea was to ask that people pay for the services that they want, or projects that they want to be a part of. This is the modus operandi for the advert that is taking place now and was for Project X as well, if you don’t want to take part then don’t, it’s your call. If you lose out you’ve no-one to blame bar you, not me or UKW for bringing it to you. If some things don’t work, well at least we tried. I don’t think anyone can criticise us for that or for doing the best we can for the repairers, which we do daily.
I have sat in meetings, explained what UKW is and what it does and watched the incredulous looks of disbelief on people’s faces that we do what we do for free. I don’t care. It’s not about the money, never was, never will be. And that’s the difference between what I or we do and others, we are not out to make money from you guys and we will never, ever be about that.
We have businesses in this industry as well, we know how tough it is, we know the crap you face day in, day out and we simply want to make it easier. I know that may seem like taking the high moral ground, but so be it, I’d rather be able to hold my head up in front of all of you at a meeting and tell you I’d done my best than have to hide behind a contract or something stupid like that. I think we’ve all had enough of that now.
So for the “at the moment” comment, yes and it will remain at the moment ad infinitum if I have anything to do with it.
The support for the subscribers is support for yourselves, not me or anyone else employed by UKW, end of story. Sean, Kevin Dave and myself totally agree on this, we may not agree all the time on the method the money is used, but we all agree it’s YOUR money, not ours. Likewise the benefits are for you, we benefit in our own businesses through it just fine thanks, just as you do.
A level playing field, another refreshing change brought to you by the (alledged) fools that run UKW.
K.
Re: parts/information cd’s.
It all seemed such a good idea…… I’ve been a member for 18 months and the site has changed the whole way I run my business, not mention my attitude towards it and my competitors/colleagues. That it happened very quickly impressed me and the option of contributing towards what was then a shoestring operation was very attractive. Quite a few of us did and do. As far as I know, we haven’t actually succeeded in spending a single penny of the Subscibers fund – democracy for you I suppose, but it did coincide with the upturn in UKW’s fortunes, so hey, we’ve got a bit of cash in the bank.
Now the original info idea was that we should establish a properly licensed library of as many tech discs as we could lay our hands on and make it available to the subscribers. Why them? Well, at the time the site was permanently skint, so it made sense to make it available to the subscribers who were effectively paying for it.
With the passage of a remarkabley small amount of time, the situation is now rather different. If the site, rather than the subscribers, can afford to collate this information and make it available as an annual disc for a nominal sum, that would be fantastic.
The point is that if UKW no longer needs the potential monies from the Subscribers even better.
The remaining problem is what to do with the accumulating fund from the Subscribers. A rainy day fund perhaps? A batch of free van stickers?
Maybe the immediate need of the “Subscribers Fund has passed and isn’t really a necessary backstop, but I am comfortable with the idea of contributing towards our club. That’s what it is when you get down to it. Maybe it’s a club with attitude, that’s changing our little world, but it’s still a club. It’s not a formal club like That Lot, or a business like the Other Lot, but by God we’re doing ourselves some good.
My post earlier was not meant to be devisive in any way. It was a recollection from a year ago – being a good old fashioned socialist with distinctly anarchistict tendencies, I’m all in favour of everything being freely (not necessarily free) available as required – at the time my idea was one way to do it.
Hope that makes things a little clearer, and perhaps something to ponder.
Regards,
Chris.Re: parts/information cd’s.
Bloody brilliant!, my Partfinder disc went belly-up today 👿
£82.25 for another one (including my laptop access)! 😯
Bad news indeed right now perhaps, but I may have good news to impart for the future regarding ‘copywrite’ 😀
(Ken, do you remember my contact in NY on the problem he had? Well I have maintained contact with him, as it happens 😉 )
Re: parts/information cd’s.
Martin wrote:Bloody brilliant!, my Partfinder disc went belly-up today
Mine too now I’ve shut it down and tried to restart it 🙁
Dave.
Re: parts/information cd’s.
am still running old copies of partfinder and fastrak but my computer thinks it is 2001
have just bought lux disk to replace discovery that will only run on my old system
have asked about whirlpool and been quoted £45 is this right or is it cheaper elsewhere
have a set of bosch disks but it is asking for a licience no how do i obtain this ?
setup new system using a cd rom emulator that way i have all cd,s as images on the hard drive so no changing disks all the time and faster accessDigi
I am embarrased to say that I run my fastrack merloni and other cds like tds, masterpart, freefind etc on a pc with the date set at 1989, so I dont tend to suffer from expiry dates although it involves regular changing of cds, since they aren’t installed on the harddrive and I tend to rely on hand me downs from a friendly rep that I know, however, my data is generally months out of date, so I would be interested in paying a subscription for blanket parts coverage of manufacturers data, diagrams etc, but presently I use electrues, connections software more than any other, since I order most of my parts from them, but if the likes of electrue do not find it financially viable to purchase a license to publicly display the likes of hotpoint/merloni info, then what chance would UKW have using a subscription basis.
For a one man band like me, I am astounded and impressed at the amount of time and effort that some of you guys put in here at UKW, since I struggle sometimes just to find the time to get through my calls, let alone order parts and do all the other bits and bobs involved in running a business.
for me, (when I can get online) its nice to read the posts from likeminded people who are in the same boat as me, so its all about the kinship.
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