Karen

I hope this website keeps going and would be happy to donate financially to keeping this site going and also contribute by helping other members to research for other members and transcribe records within the forest of dean enabling future members find their ancestors and family information so enabling them to expand their families history.

I would also support and donate to this site to keep it going. As I have found it invaluable for finding my family's information and my ancestors in the Forest of Dean. Also if I hadn't have looked on here I wouldn't have found my family I hope this site continues and I would be more than happy to help fellow researchers to help find records etc to expand their family records, so to enable to keep this website going and the forum.

So please keep this site going and its forum I would happily help in any way I can for the continuity of this site

This website has been invaluable to me when researching my Forest of Dean family tree, and I would be very sad to see it shut down.
Being housebound and too unwell to get to the Gloucester records offices, I am dependent on online research the majority of the time. This website was the only way I could look up the Gloucestershire parish records for a long time, and I would have been stuck without it.

I would be very happy to try and help out in some way or to donate to the running of the site...

Could someone from admin please post what help is needed and how to volunteer please? Hopefully something can be done to save this wonderful site.

I wondered having just joined the Facebook group on old industry and history in the FOD whether there is a similar Facebook group for this site?
And if not maybe this would be something to look into? Linking the website and Facebook group may increase the footfall of younger researchers to the website and possibly get more help with the running of the site?

Izzy :)

FreeReg About

Regards,

Carl.

I work in IT, albeit in networking and infrastructure, so maybe able to at least assist in bouncing some ides around.

Is the database hosted on a physical device? If yes, then are they guys that host the site also able to host a database? If they aren't then it is perfectly possible, even recommended to host it in the cloud and let the host worry about up-time, power consumption of hardware etc... I'd imagine there would even be companies in the Forest/Gloucestershire that will do this.

Obviously the above will come with a fee, then you'd still need someone, or a bunch of people who can login and manage all the data.

Have you thought about posting a message in the local paper to see if anyone can help out?

I hope you can find someone with the skills and interest to keep it going.

Sue

Tina Kelly

It would be good to have a list of jobs/roles that need to be filled. And to understand whether all trustees wish to stand down this year or whether that could be phased if new trustees come on board. (I quite understand that personal circumstances may make that impossible.)

I am very happy to help to look proactively for people with the right skills, interest and commitment to volunteer, if that would be helpful. I'll update my email address next: please do feel free to get in touch.

Jayne

I really hope an answer can be found for this very difficult situation.

Thanks for the response.

I do believe sending out an email to all users would be an acceptable thing to do and, under the circumstances, should be done. If there is a chance the site will close down then I think all users should be made aware of that. Another forum I frequent uses My Little Forum and does send out emails to all users sometimes so I guess there is a way of doing it. Also, generally speaking, emails can be configured so bounced emails don't come back to you but genuine replies will. Of course, it depends on what the software allows you to do.

I did write more but have deleted it. I suspect the last thing you require at the moment is people throwing ideas at you. But, as we seem to be on a sinking ship, I think all possibilities need to be considered, even splitting the site up if that enables the data to be saved and made available in the future. That, surely, has to be the priority, rather than whether the site remains in its present form.

Thanks for your posts in this thread, and thanks to all the other contributors.

Just like others I am too long in the tooth to offer any support other than moral support.

I think Jefff's idea of sending e-mails to all forum members is good. It may well be that there are people who may have the expertise and time to help who may not be aware of the current situation.

I understand that there will be rejections as people have changed e-mail providers etc. As for upsetting family of those who have died, I think perhaps a suitably worded message would help to prevent any misunderstanding or offence.

I am sorry that I have been unable to contribute to the forum in recent times, I also have been restricted by health issues since 2018.

This site is an extremely valuable resource to many future researchers who have yet to find out about it. Long may it continue.

Paul Andrews.

Mike

Thanks for the further information and thanks too to Graham for his information.

I have no immediate suggestions for a solution but I do think you might follow Jeff's suggestion of emailing all the users, explaining the situation and asking for volunteers or ideas, because I see only 227 people (at the time I write this) have read your original post out of 10606 registered users. That leaves a lot of people who are currently unaware of the situation. Hopefully, one or two of those will have the right experience to be able to help.

I do have a question. As far as I know, 'my little forum' software does not need Joomla. Could the forum be split away from the site and run separately and still maintain all the current posts? I'm just thinking about if the site could be distributed to spread the workload.