Forum Comes Home

News related to Christopher Ward Watches
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village
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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by village »

:problem: Firstly,thanks to Hans for getting this forum and up running in the first place,and good luck for the future.

Secondly...hmmmm.....can a forum owned by a company really remain 'independent' even with the best of intentions?
Personally I think not. It will be interesting to see how things develop. A potentially good result of this,is that Chris will be able to post what he likes.
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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by JAG »

village wrote::problem: Firstly,thanks to Hans for getting this forum and up running in the first place,and good luck for the future.

Secondly...hmmmm.....can a forum owned by a company really remain 'independent' even with the best of intentions?
Personally I think not. It will be interesting to see how things develop. A potentially good result of this,is that Chris will be able to post what he likes.
Or members who speak there minds about the brand get silenced ?


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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by scooter »

Kip says it will remain impartial and so I believe him.

If things did change I would walk away long before I was banned anyway.

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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by highway62 »

Indeed
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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by mabotham »

In the interests of transparency, what did Hans sell it for ? Price I mean?


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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by Bahnstormer_vRS »

mabotham wrote:In the interests of transparency, what did Hans sell it for ? Price I mean?


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Kip wrote in his 1st post;-

"Over the next week or so a formal announcement will be made as to how and why this has come about. I should be able to answer any questions at that time."

Maybe we'll learn then.

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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by mabotham »

Understood, more of an open question as and when the answers filter through. Did to expect an immediate reply
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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by Viognier »

With Kip still at the helm I am completely confident that our voices and messages with not be filtered. Perhaps they might even be listened to earlier if someone from CWL is assigned to listen to the forum trends and comments?
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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by akirk »

I think it is unlikely that the price will ever be known (nor should it - not important) it is relatively easy to understand commercial value of a forum like this - and factor in that CWL will have been paying advertising fees for the banner at the top, so they will save that cost... it makes sense for CWL.

It is a shame when a forum loses independence - but it happens in lots of ways - plenty of successful forums have been bought up by big companies and lose the way they feel / act as comercial owners do have to keep an eye on advertisers and few have the courage to stand up against them... So the purchase by CWL is not necessarily going to be any different to the purchase by a commercial forum operator.

Factor in the approach Chris takes to running his business - commercial, yet customer focused and I suspect we will see the same here - this forum for years has been one of his biggest selling tools / advocates - I can't see any incentive for him to change anything at a content level - however there is plenty he could do to change things at a technical level and that would be good - Hans hasn't had a chance to do anything for a while - there is a huge list of potential technical improvements!

Will be interested to see what happens

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Helix Von Smelix
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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by Helix Von Smelix »

I hope Chris lets us have Christmas lights. :thumbup:
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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by welshlad »

The point I was making earlier is how do you ensure that it will remain independent beyond the short term.

Consider an example. Let's fast forward, say, 5 years. In that time CWL has been bought by someone else and Chris, Peter, Mike, Wera etc are no longer involved in the business. Also, Kip is no longer the moderator (for whatever reason). How will the independence of the forum be assured then? What if the new owners want to have some editorial control? How will that be prevented?

To me, to avoid this problem in the future you have to get the structures right NOW. For example, the forum could be set up in trust, separate from CWL, so that the trustees have a duty to maintain the forum's independence. Some of the trustees could be CWL directors, but the majority would not be.

That's just one idea off the top of my head. But it's important this is addressed now, in the moment, rather than leave it to the future.
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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by sproughton »

It seems that a lot of posters on here enjoy the relatively open and honest opinions that are shared. Were the forum to become a PR tool for the company and negative / constructive criticism censored I think you'd see a lot of people stop contributing which can only be bad for CW.

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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by mabotham »

Yeah good point. I think it can be best summarised that if the forum doesn't suit you then leave. I don't mean this is a turse sort of way, but if people are genuinely unhappy then the best way to reflect that would be to vote with your feet.

Kip, any more news in ReWard?
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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by rcherryuk »

Helix Von Smelix wrote:I hope Chris lets us have Christmas lights. :thumbup:
You want a FLC (Forum Lights-Chrstmas) Committee then eh? :problem:
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Re: Forum Comes Home

Post by Jammy Devil »

Looking forward to Wera's first post in the Numbers in Pictures Game thread
:D
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