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Rum Ration morphs into an RNA forum...

geoffrey

geoffrey

MIA
Now I know that I'm going to get a lot of stick for this, and please don't anyone take this personally, but .... is it just me or does it seem that there is hardly anybody on this site actually serving in the Royal Navy?

So many of the posts, irrespective of the original subjects, just turn into dits about GANGES and ST VINCENT, or how much better it was in Type 12s in the 1960s. The majority of the active membership appear to be ex-RN and although I love you all dearly, this leads to a huge problem which is tied into the difficulty in getting this site to grow. Whenever I speak to my mates in the RN, they all dismiss this entire site as "old farts reminiscing about the 'Good Old Days'" and then never come back. I have put posters up, lobbied colleagues and told a lot of people about Rum Ration, but quite frankly whatever the reality about the intentions of this site, all anyone sees (and I've asked a LOT of people) is the reality - a non-stop virtual equivalent of the bar at the local RNA/British Legion.

My suggestion to get round this - let's have a special board for you lovely aged types, whom I (honestly) greatly admire for your service and loyalty to the Crown. But if every single thread on Rum Ration ends up being "GANGES" that, and "HMS TIGER" this, then this thing will never get off the ground.

All IMHO, of course. And please don't think I disrespect you ex-regular types, as you have a lot to offer this site and all of us in general. But what do you think about having an "Old and Bold" Board for that sort of discussion? It would be a huge board, and so be it, but Rum Ration will die unless serving members of the RN and RM use the entire website in the same way as the Army use ARRSE.

Whatever your age, background and experience let's try and make RR the site of choice for the Royal Navy of today. Not the RN of the 1970s.
 
Let's call the new forum "Bitter and Twisted" or "Dying But Not Yet Dead". Or simply "In My Day..."

I don't think we have the same appeal as ARRSE at the moment, but this will grow over time, we just need to keep chipping away at the potential membership base and persuading them to join.

If you don't want a site full of Uncle Alberts, then the site has to offer them something apart from a bollard to pull up to spin dits. There have to be some subject matter experts on here (don't look at me, I join the ranks of the "been there, done that" in less than a year, so I will be in with the Ganges lot...!) who can give inside views on what is happening. ARRSE holds a wealth of information, and some very informed people who are able to act as a point of contact when people don't want to go into an Admin Office or the SNCOs Office. They also have a lot of racist, sexist, ill-informed idiots, but generally they form a community with shared intelligence. At the moment, we aren't at that stage, but I am sure it will come with time.
 
Ah, there are members who are serving on this foumr. However, the thing stopping them posting is due to working or being deployed.

The site is still a baby, give it time.

I was thinking of having the Qtr deck changed to the 'RNA', as in the Royal Naval Arms, the pub out side Drake's main gate.

What do you think?
 
Jenny_Dabber said:
Ah, there are members who are serving on this foumr. However, the thing stopping them posting is due to working or being deployed.

The site is still a baby, give it time.

I was thinking of having the Qtr deck changed to the 'RNA', as in the Royal Naval Arms, the pub out side Drake's main gate.

What do you think?
Click to expand...

I am still serving and view this board every day. I have put the word around down here in DRAKE (Fostie) about the board, so there are possibly members on it who just 'lurk'

Jenny, as for them not being able to post whilst deployed etc. That is not strictly true as the majority of ships have an IGS account (Internet Gateway Service) which enables them to browse the web, with the obvious firewalls in place to deny them access to stuff they should not be looking at (porn etc)

Personally, it does not worry me too much with the old boys being the main contributors of the site, although I must admit I am not exactly young myself having joined up in the 1970's :oops: However, it would be good to see some more feedback from those currently serving and their added input into life in the RN and Geoffrey does have a valid point.

As long as the dits are funny and the banter continues, I think the site will continue to have people logging into it. IMHO, the last thing we want are cliques forming.
 
Good input there brigham!

I am not worried about the name of this forum and I know that the 'old and bold' are the main posters on rum. However, this is not just for the serving and I have enjoyed a good few reads on this site.

However, if any one does feel things could do with a change, please PM me so that I may take this to the CO's. We don't need to waste space by b1tching about shoulda, woulda, coulda.

I do know, however, that there are certain members who feel they can not post due to not having joined up yet or feel they are not justified. PLEASE DO NOT FEEL THIS WAY!!!!!!

As one of the MODs to rum, I will and am trying to brighten the place up. Any other ideas, please feel free to PM me, I don't bite.

Jenny
xxxx
 
PompeySailor said:
I don't think we have the same appeal as ARRSE at the moment, but this will grow over time, we just need to keep chipping away at the potential membership base and persuading them to join.
Click to expand...

That's my point, PompeySailor. I'm serving (joined mid-1990s) and now shoreside at MWS. Amazingly, at any one time something like 25% of the RN are at MWS or one of its satellites and I've spoken to dozens of people about Rum Ration. Their reaction is pretty unanimous - too many Uncle Alberts, not enough serving matelots. So they go and never come back.

Before long, unless there is a shakeup in the Boards and posting policy, a huge chunk of the RN would have visited Rum Ration, seen too many GANGES dits and disappeared. Forever. IMHO we need a "Top Level" message asking for "In My Day" dits to be kept in a separate (yet to be set up) board. Of course, the ex-Navy amongst the members have loads to contribute to lots of threads on this board. But whenever someone asks about joining up, on goes a comment about "I went to ST VINCENT in 1955". Similarly, if someone asks about current uniform, we get a dozen posts about black caps in WW2. It is killing Rum Ration and if this is a baby, it is in danger of being stillborn!

On a separate note, Jenny_Dabber, please don't change the name to the RNA. For most people, that TLA means Royal Naval Association, not the grubby sun-dodgers haunt outside DRAKE main gate! And although I'm not 100% sure why we have a Quarterdeck board as well as Diamond Lils, it seems to be popular as it is!
 
Guys,
This is obviously a major concern to us. We do want both the 'old and bold' and those currently serving. Any suggestions about how we can achieve this will be gratefully accepted.
 
On a separate note, Jenny_Dabber, please don't change the name to the RNA. For most people, that TLA means Royal Naval Association, not the grubby sun-dodgers haunt outside DRAKE main gate! And although I'm not 100% sure why we have a Quarterdeck board as well as Diamond Lils, it seems to be popular as it is!
Click to expand...

The QTR deck was one of the first boards, however members wanted some where they could relax a bit more, mainly banter with out rules and others wanted the same but with out the chance of being laid into.

As far as I know we are keeping this name, it was just a thought.

However, Rum works on two levels, please do not leave it up to the MODs to promote this site, there is only so far we can go. If you would like to help promote this site then please look here or you can add these to emails or use as signature blocks on other forums. Also we have our tell some one page.

I know people are helping with promotions and we are very thankful to this. We are taking onboard ALL suggestions, past and present and if you have any others then please PM any MODs, we are all ears!
 
Arrse has its fair share of ex-serving contributors and is none the worse for it. I don't believe that serving personnel are put off by the lantern-swinging, but there is more than a grain of truth in the youngsters-looking-for-advice comment.

This site really needs to hit the middle ground somewhere and catch the imagination of the mid career people.

I am sure that it will be patrolled by gophers in MOD on behalf of the most senior policy makers, just as Arrse is, but the contributions have to be more relevant and perhaps a little less bigoted in the general fora. The oxygen thieves will always try for a bite outside Diamond Lil's, but that will disappear if there are no biters!
 
I must say, the thought that anybody in the corridors of power at Whitehall actually takes note of this board - or of anything else that comes from 'below' them - suggests that the RN and RM have changed a LOT since I left. I await evidence.

Anyway.... serving RN personnel - let's hear more from them, but you don't seriously expect much (readable) from PTIs, Chefs (bless 'em), Plate Layers, Reggies, or the Chief Stoker's brigade, do you?
 
How about a brief period where the mods bang out any post that starts to go off thread? There is already ample room on this site for regurgitating endless Ganges dits, without putting off new members.
 
Some time ago, can't be bothered to check back through, I dropped a gentle hint re every thread ending with Ganges, no matter what the starting subject, I hoped that some notice might be taken and the practice stopped. It wasn't, now comes the role of the moderators, they must get a grip and move posts into the correct threads, or delete them, Its a new site and will take a while to settle down, I'm sure that there is room for everyone, if not I'll feck off back to my own site...
I'm not overly blaming anyone for this (apart from the Ganges crowd :lol: ) but to allow it to drift on in the same vein is not an option that will get the site to grow/

One of the old and bold
 
Really when you think about it - all people talk about is what they have done and not what they are going to do, which in a way makes everyone the same (serving or not) IMHO. For the serving personnel a lot of their life is surrounded by security and they cannot discuss it openly on any forum.

I think it would be great to have serving personnel to participate but you could only take a topic/thread so far!
 
I have to agree with g there is us old uns and not enough young uns,but the question i have to ask is why dont they post something in their interest,then maybe other young uns will join in,they must know by now that they can post anything they want,so why dont they?If they dont want to post anything,then it just leaves us old ones and eventually the site will die,or maybe theres no friendly banter in the andrew any more.From the amount of members shown,there arent an awful lot posting,but i bet theres a lot reading.
 

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