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**1938 Observer** · 13 September 2016, 01:07

Re: Is it time to close this community?

Hi Alastair,

It would be sad to see the forum close down, it seems to be a sign of the times where people are jumping onto sites like 'Facebook" or wandering aroung with some strange electronic device nailed to their ears and staggering along with a glazed expression in their eyes or their fingers are tap,tap, tapping relentlessly at another strange device clutched in their hands. I can see the age when "Humans ????" have mutated to the stage where oral communication or the genuine written word becomes a thing of the past.

Gordon.

**Alastair** · 13 September 2016, 14:55

Re: Is it time to close this community?

Hi Gordon... we do get a couple of hundred folk that come in to read the newsletter but only a half dozen or so who actually post a message. I know a few come in to play the arcade games but again don't post a message.

I was looking to archive the messages in here and posting them to the site. There is no immediate need to make a decision but thought it was time to look at the possibility.

Alastair

**FriedaKateM** · 13 September 2016, 23:57

Re: Is it time to close this community?

HI, Alastair....I for one would be rather devastated to not be able to come on here. I certainly do enjoy "talking" with you & others I've known over the past few years. Please do think about it for a good while? Joan

**Glesgalass** · 15 September 2016, 20:13

Re: Is it time to close this community?

You're probably right Alastair. There are very few who come in here now. It's a shame but people do move on.

Elda

**Rick** · 18 September 2016, 11:57

Re: Is it time to close this community?

I would certainly miss commenting from time to time and reading posts from others in this respectful forum. At the same time, I don't participate as much as I could, and do rely more on the newsletter information posts without which I would be much the poorer. I think we also have to be sensitive to how much time Alastair puts into this site and look at lightening the load. Bottom line: I could live without the community if the past messages were accessible but do hope the newsletter continues as long as possible and also remains archived. Either way, thanks again to Alastair for the monumental efforts and all of the regulars who have provided such interesting views into other parts of the world!

**swiftest** · 19 September 2016, 22:50

Re: Is it time to close this community?

I am not a big contributor to any of the threads, may have posted a few things on other threads but can never find them. Must have missed all of the news in regards to Simon Fraser, don't know if they are taking over the site and wonder, if they do, will it be open to people like me ?
Always wondered if 1938 Observer was one of those who, in the second world war, wore the wing with the O, a man who become a good friend wore one as part of his RCAF uniform 1954 or so.
Many sites are closing, some hanging on with member donations.
As for communicating with each other it seems to be going the way of the DoDo.

**1938 Observer** · 21 September 2016, 02:10

Re: Is it time to close this community?

Originally posted by swiftest View Post

I am not a big contributor to any of the threads, may have posted a few things on other threads but can never find them. Must have missed all of the news in regards to Simon Fraser, don't know if they are taking over the site and wonder, if they do, will it be open to people like me ?
Always wondered if 1938 Observer was one of those who, in the second world war, wore the wing with the O, a man who become a good friend wore one as part of his RCAF uniform 1954 or so.
Many sites are closing, some hanging on with member donations.
As for communicating with each other it seems to be going the way of the DoDo.

Hi Swiftest,

I'm a little too young for WW2...............the "1938" in my forum title just refers to my year of birth.

Gordon.

**Alastair** · 22 September 2016, 12:48

Re: Is it time to close this community?

Just to clarify on the Simon Fraser front...

Due to all the content on the site and given how much unique information is on it I wanted to preserve it all for future generations.
That being the case I have arranged to leave my company Electric Scotland USA LLC to the Scottish Studies Dept. of Simon Fraser University which also means all our web sites.

Simon Fraser have agreed to host the site where I will continue to publish content most days. So in the short term nothing will change other than instead of me hosting my sites on our own servers SFU will take that over. This will save me around $250 a month in hosting fees.

The plan is to move the sites over duing October 2016 where we will then have to ensure I can still connect to our server to post content etc. I do forsee the odd problem during this move but hopefully any issues will be quickly resolved.

On my demise SFU will thus continue to host the sites which I envisage will be www.electricscotland.com and www.electriccanadian.com for as long as SFU continues which of course I hope will be forever as it is a major university.

SFU will be looking at helping us to modernise the site so it's more friendly for those using smart phones and tablets. That won't happen overnights of course but the plan is to also allow SFU staff to be able to post content directly onto the web site if they wish.

They will then benefit from the advertising income stream that the site generates and also any funds in the business accounts for the company. They can also do advertising deals both now and in the future where they will retain the revenue themselves. All of that should help to fund their Scottish Studies program.

I was at the University of Guelph at the weekend and they were discussing how important it is to digitise old books and so this fits in very well for a University.

I am also hoping that SFU will provide a dedicated search engine for the site as I'm not overally happy with our Google offering.

As to this community... I have asked them if they wish to retain it as is or do a major update to bring it up to current versions of the program. That would mean they could also use it for their own students and staff. They are currently looking at this but the thought was that it probably wouldn't be of interest to them and hence me looking at whether it should be closed and the content archived.

No final decision has been made on the community but of course we've added lots of great content over the years and some great videos so I certainly don't want to lose that.

Alastair

**Glesgalass** · 27 September 2016, 01:30

Re: Is it time to close this community?

Where is the Simon Fraser University?

Elda

**Hugh** · 27 September 2016, 08:18

Re: Is it time to close this community?

Vancouver, B.C.

Cheers,

Hugh

**swiftest** · 27 September 2016, 16:03

Re: Is it time to close this community?

As Hugh says, BC...Simon Fraser University...not the Fraser Insitute, think tank or whatever it is.

**Alastair** · 4 October 2016, 09:25

Re: Is it time to close this community?

It's on the West coast of Canada Elda. It's in British Columbia (BC).

Alastair

**Alastair** · 13 October 2016, 14:38

Re: Is it time to close this community?

It's in Vancouver in BC Elda.

Alastair

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