Residents' Association Forum

Just a quick posting as I was talking about what was on at the Vera Fletcher to someone and they asked how I knew what was going on there and I mentioned this website.

They did not know about this website (and have lived in TD for about a year and a half I think). So much useful content on here and an active forum ! Hopefully they will logon to check it out sometime!

I stumbled on this before we actually moved into the area doing various searches but it was a bit hidden at the time... its now risen up to third in the google rankings on a search of Thames Ditton, though the redundant http://www.thamesditton.com/ still comes top.

I don't suppose there is anyway to raise the profile of this site? 

Perhaps putting a link on http://www.thamesditton.com/ to here? 


Do people think putting a poster up at the station / in any shops would work? (would people ever see a website on a poster and type it into their browser?)

The facts are that there's been plenty of info about this site and there are plenty of visitors.

If you google Thames Ditton it ranks third.  If you google Thames Ditton Residents, or Weston Green residents, it ranks first (after any paid-for ads)  If you Google Thames Ditton conservatives it ranks fourth, et.c etc.  Its url is given at least once in every issue of TD Today, delivered to all households.  We've run an article on it and perhaps we should run another.  For the past two Christmas fairs it has been a prominent exhibit at the Association Chair's house slap bang in the middle of the High St.  The local clubs and scosieties, churches and other community institutions know about it.

The stats are healthy.  With seven days of March left to go at the time of writing, the site has alreaady had 18263 separate visits this month.  If you take out seearch engines, a fair working estimate would be that around 2,500 - 3,000 people visit the site once a week on average.  The adult population of TD & WG is roughly 8,500 IIRC, so roughly one-third are assumed to be aware and regularly visit, maybe more.  This seems to me to correspond roughly with the proportion of households who actively subscribe as members of the Association, although as many members seem even now to be unaware of the site (some are not frequent internet users) the numbers do not mean that the samples coincide.

On average, a visitor hits on two and a half pages per visit.  The what's on page is popular, as is the front page, the news and this forum (only a small proportion of visitors - 166 - actually register and participate, but very many visit without logging in).

What it really needs is a load of weeding, and a complete recoding - I estimate roughly three months' solid work which I haven't time to do!  It has grown from the original six static pages to around 600, many of which you have to use site search to find now but remain of archival value.

The best thing is to spread by word of mouth - get people to google and they will find.  There's also the site for the Vera Fletcher hall which I maintain too - google for Vera Fletcher Hall and it is the top ranking hit.  (Sigh what more can a fellow do?!)

Doing a brilliant job ! And its much appreciated. Personally I logon to this site on an almost daily basis!

Just having this forum free of spam is an achievement in itself (the thamesditton village one had to shut down for that reason!).

I was just thinking if there was ways we can do to promote it this site even further... !

Well, maybe a poster at the station, and maybe another article in the mag, are good ideas.  But the best way is to spread the word by telling people how useful you find it.

I'll do that!

Hi, if it's of any interest, I am the person behind the http://www.thamesditton.com website. I used to live in the Village but have been away for a couple of years now. Prior to that, Work and Family commitments meant I was unable to keep the site updated.

The site still comes in at number 1 on a Google search for "Thames Ditton" despite having no new content since 2007! Traffic is still high (I can provide server stats to this effect).

If anyone would like to take over the domain name and running of the website I'd be pleased to discuss this and I'm open to sensible offers for this, by sensible I mean that I'm being sensible and realistic about the amount expected (!).

Please contact me via simfin@gmail.com if you would like to discuss taking this on. 

Best regards,

Simon Finch

PM sent - the Association is interested in this domain name.

I always wondered why that wasnt updated

It's a load of work each week to keep a website updated - and increasingly to protect the forum from spammers!  I reckon this one takes me at least an hour a day, on the average.  More when there's a photogallery or reporting to do.

yup i can imagine.

what are the spamemrs trying to achieve generally?

All kinds - attempted new registrations now around 30 plus a day, despite various ban filters.  E.g. porn, drugs/meds, spam adverts to get you to click on some site e.g. electronics in China (very common), attempts by 'search engine optimisers' to plant links around the web to their clients' sites, 'investment opportunities' - share ramping, scams.  You name it.  I report some of them to ISP abuse addresses.

You can do a certain amount of inbuilt filtering but visual inspection is also needed.  I've developed some system but I don't want to go into details for obvious reasons.  As I recall, difficulties with spammers on the Virtual Village forum were one of the factors in Simon closing it down twice.  It's a constant wrestle.

sounds a mare, good on you for keeping it tidy