First Great Western Weekend
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2008-03-30 21:20:38 - Graham EllisIt has been a long - a VERY long - weekend and I've still got a huge pile of things I want to do. But it has been productive too.
When I set up the First Great Western Coffee Shop - a forum site for First Great Western Passengers - I wondered whether or not it would take off. Well - thanks (it must be admitted) to FGW themselves, who have managed to generate an incredible degree of dis-satisfaction in their customers and wannabe customers from whom they have withdrawn trains, our forum has flourished. People love talking when they have issues, but go quite quiet when they don't.
In fact - it flourished so much that I couldn't keep up with all the moderation that was needed - a very low proportion of posts need attention, but where the post level creeps up to 50 a day it's still a lot to look after. So I approached the steadier pairs of hands and appointed them as moderators. And still it grew, and the moderation and admin team grew with it.
We have excellent communications set up between the "mods" and they work well ... but there were some who had not met others, and this Friday evening and Saturday daytime, we had our first moderator's meeting. Truly excellent - and thanks to our guest speaker (I know she will read this) - and a lot of issues discussed and - today - tweaks made to the board. Onwards, upwards - whatever next? I don't know, but I sure know I've made a lot of very good friends, and learnt a very great deal too - through my "train experiences".