Posted by Adam Quinan on October 13, 2008 at 13:27:33 user Adam.
In Reply to: Re: TARBOARD - RIP ? posted by Ian E-N on October 13, 2008 at 11:42:02:
Ian,
I am most saddened and deeply regret your decision to close Tarboard, I am afraid that TARS will not run such a free and easy on-line society as you have managed to keep afloat for so many years. Thank you very much for all the pleasure you have enabled me to get from meeting other Ransome lovers.
Given the TARS forum's short life on line to date I would have hoped that you would have given that venue a little more time to see what the TARS forum develops into before pulling the plug and flushing the-stable.
Although I am a member of TARS and enjoy much about it, I do think that a vital part of the Tarboard environment are those many international posters who are not TARS members and don't ever intend to be come members. TARS really offers comparatively little for its international members at a not inconsiderable cost of subscriptions. I don't really blame TARS, the real problem is that there is not a sufficient density of members in many places to allow for the personal encounters and meetings that being a UK member grants.
I see the TARS only forum as a having similar problem. There won't be that significant number of international Ransome lovers, I fear that it will turn into another version of Signals which is probably the most frustrating publication of TARS for me. Every time I read it I feel like Roger at the start of Secret Water watching the pudding faces and feeling envy.
Another issue that may have changed has been what I have perceived as a hostility of TARS powers towards the internet and the Ransome community on-line up to now been. TARS has been slow to use the internet to attract people to Ransome and I have sometimes detected a significant hostility towards the internet among some. Those TARS officers who have participated in Tarboard are notable and welcome exceptions and are to be heartily thanked for recognising the importance of the internet to Ransome lovers worldwide.
I just wanted to testify that the internet and Tarboard has been a major part of my connection to Ransome and TARS. "Arthur Ransome" was one of my first on-line searches and I was pleased to find Signalling from Mars and the other early on-line ventures.
If the TARS forum can develop into a substitute for Tarboard, no one will be more pleased and grateful than me. If it doesn't I will have an enormous hole in my life. Thank you for everything.